Alternations i/e and u/o in South Dravidian

Abstract

1 Languages: PDr. Proto-Dravidian; PSDr. Proto-South-Dravidian; SDr. South Dravidian; Ta. Tamil; Ma. Malayalam; Ka. Kannada; Tu. Tulu; Te. Telugu; Klm. Kolami; Nk. Naiki; Pj. Parji; Go. Gondi (by Trench); GoA. Adilabad dialect of Gondi described by Burrow and Bhattacharya (quoted in Emeneau's Kolami, a Dravidian language); Kur. Kurukh; Mit. Malto; Brah. Brahui; Kui and Kuvi are not abbreviated. For bibliography, see Emeneau, Dravidian kinship terms, Lg. 29.339, fn. 1 (1953); also Lg. 21.184, fn. 1 (1945). The following recent publications should be added to the list: T. Burrow and S. Bhattacharya, The Parji language, a Dravidian language of Bastar (London, 1953); M. B. Emeneau, Kolami, a Dravidian. language (UCPL 12; Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1955). The following works cited in the article belong to various schools of Sangam literature in Old Tamil, which have not been definitely dated but can be placed roughly between the 3rd century B.C. and the 4th century A.D.: Aink. = Aiijkurunuru; Kalit. = Kalittokai; Krl. = Tirukkural; Tirikatu. = Tirikatukam; Tolk. = Tolkappiyam; Patir. = Patirruppattu; PN = Purananuru; Parip. = Paripatal. [-r-] in all the South Dravidian languages is a reflex of PDr. *t in intervocalic position. A voiced alveolar trill originally, it subsequently fell together with the alveolar flap r in all the South Dravidian languages except Toda, where r and r still contrast (information from Emeneau). z is a voiced retroflex spirant in Old Tamil (also in some dialects of Modern Tamil), Old Malayalam, Old Kannada, and also probably in Old Telugu (inscriptional). A tilde in Telugu is the symbol used here for the traditional ardhanusvara, which, in classical Telugu, was phonemically zero after long vowels, and after short vowels a nasal phone homorganic with the following stop and freely alternating with zero. This paper represents a small part of the research done during the year 1955-56 at the University of California, Berkeley, under a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. The paper was originally presented at a Seminar in Historical Linguistics in the fall of 1955, and has since been improved. I am indebted to M. B. Emeneau for his suggestions and comments, and for his kindness in placing his personal library on Dravidian at my disposal. I am also grateful to William Jacobsen for a number of useful comments during the preparation of this paper in its original form. la The diphthongs ax and ayt are not treated as unit phonemes here, since they can be