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SEPTEMBER, 1911.] A COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR OF DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES 243
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Of these ar and a are also used as verbal suffixes: e. g., periyar and periyar, big men"; vandanar and vandár, they came'; ar as a verbal suffix is preceded always by the consonant n, while as a nominal suffix, it takes v or y, the homo-organic Sandhi consonant: e. g., vandanar they came'; but vandavar, those who came'; also periyar, big men'. (For explanation see verbs.) Már and or are used only as nominal suffixes: tay már, mothers'; tagappan-már, 'fathers'; and periyor, big men'. Már is used as a plural suffix of honour of words signifying 'parents', priests, kings, etc.; cf. peruman, 'respected person'.
Ir is found only in a few words as pendir, women', magalir, 'men,' etc., also niyir and nîvir, you'.
Or is directly added to ni. Hence nir, 'you'.
In the Korava dialect of Tamil, már and aru are the plural suffixes :-top-mar, 'fathers'; manasaru, men' (vide L. S., p. 319).
Malayalam.
The epicene plural suffixes of Malayalam are már, ár, ar (vide Article 86 in Sheshagiri Prabhu's Grammar). Examples are:-nárimár, 'women'; tambiyar, younger brothers'; nayanar, 'chief men'.
The demonstratives avar, ivar and the interrogative evar have, as in Tamil, plural suffix ar. But the second person plural is ninnal and not nir as in Tamil.
Canarese.
Sutram 98 of Sabdamaṇidarpana gives ar as the epicene plural suffix, e. g., arasar, 'kings'; déviyar, goddesses'.
Dr. Kittel, as explained already, gives the following suffixes in Article 119, of his Kannada Grammar under Ancient Dialect :-ar, aru, or, bar, mbar, var, ir, arir, ndir: e. g., ivar, 'these men'; arasar, 'kings', nûrpadimbór (in a sasana of 1123 A.D.); anibar, many men'; irvar, two men '; pendir, women'; akkaygalir, sisters'; ivandir, these men'. In the medieval and the modern dialect, too, these suffixes are given; only they take uniformly the final enunciative u.
The forms palambar, kelambar have already been explained.
Tulu.
Tulu uses ru (Brigel 28) as the epicene plural suffix., e. g., naramáni, 'man,' and naramanyeru, men'; kartave, lord'; kartáveru, 'lords.'
Nouns like kudike, 'fox', have a double plural suffix, rlu, e. g., kudikerlu, 'foxes.'
The Demonstratives meru, they (proximate) and áru, they (remote); as also the second person plural iru, you, contain the r suffix.
Telugu.
That ar or r was the epicene plural suffix in Prehistorie Telugu is proved by the existence of a few nouns in New Telugu which taker as the plural suffix. Chinnayya Sûri refers to the follow ing words in rules 5, 6, and 7 atftfika paritStSédamu Chapter.
1. Rule 5.
Singular. pagatuḍu, a foe; alludu, son-in-law; neyyudu, a friend; martuḍu, a foe;
2. Rule 6.
ganda (n)du, a brave man ; minda(n)du, a paramour;
3. Rule 7.
Plural.
pagaturu, foes.
alluru.
neyyuru.
márturu.
gandandru.
mindandru
Words ending in ka(n)du become in plura karru; e. g., viluka()du, archer; vélakaḍu, hunter; etc.
vilukarru. itakárru.
