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186
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
IJULY, 1911.
An is the common masculine sufis of the Dravidian languages, but it ondergoes many phonetie changes in the various languages. , Tamil, Malayalam, Canarese and Tulu have all an and an. New Canarese and Tuln have any and anu. Here we have the softening or dentalisation of the cerebral and the shortening of the vowel & which is common in the case of in Hexional syllables. (Vide my Phonology, Part II.).
In Telugu wo have an excresent a developed and an appears as :du which further becomes adu.
In old Gôndi, primitive Dravidian an developed into an as in Tamil, Malayalam, Cannrese and Tala. But New Gôndi, confounding the plural with the singular, uses r in the place of n. But Kui, the Gôndi dialect of Godavary District, has andu which, with the demonstrative particle a, becomes ondu as in old Gôndi a + án ôn (he). The nasal n of old Gôndt, 3rd person singular, is found even now in the oblique cases of the declension of the 3rd persona) singular of new Gondi (vide L. S., page 481 ).
In Kui, primitive Dravidian an diju through an. Dr. Grierson says in his Linguistic Survey, p. 459; "The substitution of ñg for n in connected languages is especially common in Kalahandi, where we find forms such as banji, standard édni his'.” Here we have an example of the corebral becoming a dental first and then becoming further palatalised.
In Naiki primitive Dravidian anan; but a of an has become close and high. Hence we have aun, he', in Naiki. Then is found uniformly a3 a suffix of the 3rd person singular verb. In Naiki vatten is he went.' (L. S., pp. 570 and 572.)
In Kolami we have and 2 án. The m seems to be peculiar, d may be the dental intruder.. But in verbs, the 3rd person singular suffix is always n. And påndklén is be sent.' (Vide L. S., pp. 562-564). But the Kolâmi dialect of Basim Districts, which is called Bhêlê, has an and not amd. He' in this dialect is avan as in Tamil,
In Kurukh we have a peculiar development. It has as, 'he, corresponding to the aran of Tamil and Malayalam and vadu of Telugu. Dr. Grierson Rays in L. S., p. 414, that as and vádu and avan are closely connected. In Malto we have ah, be'. The s of Kurukh and h of Malto seem to me to be difficult to explain. But it might be said that is the continuant dental form of in an, and h the aspirated form of a in an with the loss of the nasal n. Compare áth, the feminine and neuter suffix. Perhaps the Korvi and the Kaikådi forms of he' might throw some light on the development of h in Malto. In Korvi we have dua and in Kaikadi du corresponding to avan of Tamil. Here we have the nasal completely lost, and the vowel alone in its shortened form left. In Malto it is likely that this a has got aspirated.
The various developments of the primitive Dravidian. 3rd person, masculine suflix an will be clear from the following table :To express 'He goes' we have :Tamil :
aran
pôgiran. Malayalam :
aran
pôgunnu. Canarese :
aranu
lôg tâe, Tulu :
dye
pôve Telugu:
vddu
pôtddu. Korvi :
ava
högdru. Kaikadi :
au
hôg . Kurukh :
kadas, Malto :
dh
Ekih. Kui :
Bbálju
sánéjiju. Gondi:
handdtór. Brahui :
kitek. (vide L. S., pp. 674,675, 678, 677.)
