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MAY, 1910.) A COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR OF DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES,
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(d) Augmentation (at, af, an):
12. At, ar and an are the augments that some of the Dravidian languages add only to neuter nouns ; at is used only in the singular number by Tamil, Malayalam, Canarese, Tuļu, Telagu and Gondi; an is used only in the singalar by Canarese alone; ar is used both in the singular and the plural by Canarese, and in the plural by Tamil and Malayalam.
13. The augment-at.
At becomes attu in Tamil and Malayalam and is added to all nouns ending in am whether Sanskrit or purely Dravidian. These nouns are all neuter. They reject am and take attu instead, in the oblique case in the singular, the finalu dropping before case-signs beginning with & vowel. For example : grāmam & village. (Tam.-mal): grāmattil (locative). "This role admits of no exception in the ordinary dialect of Tamil; but in the poetical dialect, which represents more or less distinctly an older condition of the language, attu is sometimes left unused, and the case-sign is added directly to the base : 6. 9., instead of kay-attu-kku to the depth (from kayam, depth ), kay-a-kku is used in the Chintāmami. When the increment attu is not followed by any sign of case, but by another noun, it has ordinarily the force of genitive or locative in Tamil." In this respect Tamil differs from Canarese, Telugu and Gondi, which never suffix this augment without the case-sign and never give it the signification of the genitive.
In Tuļu, at becomes t or d: e. g., maram tree, marata (gen.), kuri a sheep, keurita (gen.), mēji a table, mējída (gen). In Tuļu this augment is found only in the genitive case, singular.
In Canarese, at becomes d ; and is used only for the singular of the genitive, instrumental ablative and locative cases, of neuter nouns: e. g., maram a tree, has marada (gen.), maradim (int. and abl.) marado! (loc.), but maranam (acc.), and marake (dat.).
In Gondi, there are two declensions of nouns. Nouns denoting rational beings, add n to the base ; and those denoting irrational beings add t. This t is a contraction of the augment at. As in the case of Tamil and Malayalam, this t is used for the singular of all cases in Gondi. Dr. Grierson says "The second declension in Gondi now comprises several nouns denoting rational beings, and is, broadly speaking, the regular one. The final consonant is often combined with the following t, into one sound. Thus rõt is the oblique case of ron, a house ; Dongut of - Döngur, jungle. Final plus t sometimes becomes -- !, and I plus t also gives d, and so on. Thus när, village, oblique nāt, nél, field, oblique ned."
In Telugu, there are only a few neuter nouns that take t as augment. These are called irregular' nouns by Native Grammarians. These end in one of the letters :-du, -r--lu, (11), 110,- anu and y. And when t is added to these, the final euphonic (or :) of all the first five, and y the last letter disappear before t, and produce - in the case of the first three and -t in the case of the next two; or more clearly, -(3); or -, or - plus t gives - (T); - Il or-nn plus t gives - (T); y plast gives 1, y disappearing. The same is the case in Gondi. (See above para.) As the genitive is the declinable base in Telaga, i is added to these ; so that --du ()-ru, — lu give -ţi (fa) the vowel preceding -ți being always long. I-lu, nnu — give - nti (Pre), y gives ti. For example, peradu a yard, perasi (gen.); yēru river, yēti (gen.); pagalu day, pagati (gen); kaugili an embrace, kaugiți (gen.); mullu & thorn, munti (gen.); kannu eye, kanti (gen.). Nay & well, nuti (gen.). Some nouns ending in - lu or li add the genitive suffix i without the augment t, that is kālu a leg, käli (gen.), nemali peacock, nemali (gen.). In the second example, the final i disappears before the suffixal $. The nouns kāvidi A yoke, and chavidi & porch, take also the augment 1 before which, as usual, -d is unvoiced. Thus kāviți and chāriți are genitives, proddu
