The present work Phonological Reconstruction of South Dravidian Languages is my Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the University of Kerala three decades ago for which the degree has been awarded in 1980. An earnest attempt is made here to reconstruct the phonological structure of South Dravidian languages by a comparative study of eight languages viz. Tamil, Malayalam, Kota, Toda, Kannada, Kodagu, Tulu and Telugu. The data is primarily based on A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary by T. Burrow and M.B. Emeneau. Further supplementary material is taken from other sources also especially in the case of Malayalam dialects.
Regarding the inclusion of Telugu under SDr naturally one may ask whether it does not violate the principles of comparative linguistics in subgrouping the member languages as it is usually held that though geographically Telugu is a SDr language, genetically it belongs to CDr group. It is stated in the introduction why Telugu is included under SDr in the present study. Besides, the differences of opinion of subgrouping of Dravidian based on the traditional tripartite hypothesis and the later fourfold division proposed by Krishnamurti (1975) have been delineated under subgrouping. Also the views of other scholars. This would justify the inclusion of Tulu and Telugu under PSDr in a wider sense.
The past three decades have shown considerable progress in Dravidian comparative studies, for instance the number of languages included in the family has found risen from 21 to 26, besides problems pertaining to certain aspects of phonological, morphological reconstructions and subgroupings have been re-examined and more dependable solutions arrived at, especially in the framing and presentation of precise phonological rules through the works of Krishnamurti, Subrahmanyam, Zvelebil and others. These references have been included in the bibliography and it is updated for the benefit of the users of this book. However, no attempt has been made either to modify the views and rules already depicted in the present work or to adopt a different mode of presentation of the material.
Phonological Reconstruction of South Dravidian Languages is Professor Gopinathan Nair's Ph.D. Thesis. It was submitted three decades ago to the University of Kerala and the degree has been awarded. Sometime ago I asked him to place a copy of it on my table, which he did. Somehow it escaped my notice and lay idle there for quite a long time and he also did not remind me. His thesis is worthy of publication, which ought to have been done early. The correspondences of South Dravidian vowels, consonants, consonant clusters, roots and suffixes have been exhaustively dealt with suitable illustrations. His presentation of comparative linguistic material on the whole is good. I noticed his ability and power of observation in handling large data of cognate words and dialect survey materials. Therefore I encouraged him to work on Comparative Dravidian linguistics. He has got an analytical mind. His observation and synthesis of earlier works and treatment of certain aspects of reconstruction are methodologically sound and reasonably good. This book will be useful to researchers and a welcome addition to comparative Dravidian studies.
1.0 The present work 'Phonological Reconstruction of South Dravidian Languages' deals with the reconstruction of the comparative phonology of South Dravidian languages in detail based on the assumptions of comparative method and the principles of comparative reconstruction. The languages subsumed hereunder South Dravidian are Tamil, Malayalam, Kota, Toda, Kannada, Kodagu, Tulu and Telugu. It may be noted that there are differences of opinion among some scholars regarding the position of Tulu and Telugu in the Dravidian family as to whether they belong to the South Dravidian or the Central Dravidian sub-group. These languages are included in the present study primarily because of their geographical contiguity and nearness in phonological commonness besides the existing differences of opinion as to their sub-grouping. However, the assignment of them to either group will not affect the reconstruction of the Proto South Dravidian Phonology. On the contrary, it would not only bring out the commonness and deviation in Tulu and Telugu phonology both from the point of view of the individual languages of South Dravidian but also from that of the Proto South Dravidian system.
1.1 For the purpose of this study the materials in "A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary" 1961 (DED) and its supplement 1968 (DEDS) have primarily been utilized. Supplementary materials especially from Malayalam dialects both caste and communal viz. Tiiya/Ezhava, Nair, Harijan, Muslim and Tribal dialects such as Kani, Vettuvar etc., Tamil, Malayalam inscriptions and the available descriptive, historical and comparative grammars both published and unpublished were also utilized. Details of such studies consulted are provided wherever necessary.
1.2 Development of Comparative Dravidian Studies
The Dravidian group of languages which is the fifth largest linguistic family in the world was recognized as forming a closely related group as early as 1816 by Emeneau (1967) "The South Dravidian Languages" JAOS 87:365-412, Subrahmanyam (1968) "The Position of Tulu in Dravidian" IL 29:47-66
Krishnamurti (1961) Telugu Verbal Bases, p. 272 .
2 Zvelebil, K. (1956) "One Hundred years of Dravidian Comparative Philology", Archiv Orientalni, 24. F.W. Ellis. He had noticed the relationship between some of the Dravidian languages viz. Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Kodagu, Tulu, Telugu and Rajmahal i.e. the present Malto which he called as the dialects of South India and indicated that they form a distinct family supported by lexical and few grammatical items from Telugu, Kannada and Tamil. Even before this, some of the Dravidian languages had been studied by western scholars but they were not recognized as belonging to the members of one family. But it was only after Robert Caldwell's work that even the name of the family as Dravidian was fully established. The field of comparative-historical linguistic studies was in its incipient stage where no rigorous methods and techniques have evolved when Robert Caldwell's monumental work "A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian family of Languages" first appeared in 1856. This publication was a real break-through and a corner stone which paved the way for rigorous and methodological studies later in comparative Dravidian both in India and abroad.
1.3 Post Caldwell Development in Comparative Dravidian
The growth and development of comparative Dravidian studies since Caldwell can conveniently be divided into three periods viz. (1) from 1856 to 1900, (ii) 1900 to 1950 and (iii) 1950 to the present day on the basis of the main trends and significant contributions made in this field by both native and foreign scholars.
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