Phonological features of Dravidian languages
The Dravidian languages belong to a single family—including the distant relative Brahui. Examples that are prefixed with asterisks have been reconstructed following the time-tested procedures of comparative linguistics. Proto-Dravidian reconstructions can be explained in terms of the systematic changes that have occurred in the different Dravidian subgroups and languages.
Proto-Dravidian Phonology
The Proto-Dravidian sound system has five short vowels (*/i/, */e/, */a/, */o/, */u/) and their five long counterparts (*/ī/, */ē/, */ā/, */ō/, */ū/). The language has 16 consonants. Vowels that are variable are denoted as V and variable consonants as C. In English, for instance, the combination bVnd, represents band, bend, bind, and bond, while baC represents bad, bag, ban, bat, and so forth. In Dravidian, a hypothetical 17th consonant—a variable laryngeal that is denoted as *H—is needed to explain quantitative changes in vowels and consonants in some cases.
Linguists describe sounds by referring to their means of production, which typically combine the flow of air (e.g., constant or interrupted) with the positioning of the tongue and lips. The Proto-Dravidian sound system has six obstruents, or stops (/p/, /t/, /d/, /ṭ/, /c/, /k/), an uncommon number. Obstruent sounds are produced by checking and releasing the airstream with the tip or blade of the tongue at different parts of the oral tract. They can be “voiced” (simultaneously accompanied by vibration of the vocal cords) as in /b/, /d/, and /g/, or “voiceless” (with no vibration of the vocal cords), as in /p/, /t/, and /k/. Sounds other than obstruents are always voiced.
| labial | dental | alveolar | retroflex | palatal | velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| obstruents | p | t | ṯ | ṭ | c | k |
| nasals | m | n | ṇ | ñ | ||
| laterals | l | ḷ | ||||
| resonants | r | ẓ | ||||
| semi-vowels | w | y |
Nasal sounds result when part of the air is released through the nose (/m/, /n/). The nasal phoneme /n/ has two articulations: it is pronounced as a dental nasal (/n/, produced by the tongue pressed against the back of the upper teeth with simultaneous release of air through the nose) at the beginning of a word and before the dental stop /t/ and as an alveolar nasal /ṉ/ elsewhere.
In the production of laterals (/l/ sounds), the air is released from either side of the tongue. The sound represented as /r/ is produced by a single tap of the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge, as signified by the spelling dd in the English word ladder. The sound /ẓ/ is peculiar to the Dravidian languages. It is used in some modern Tamil dialects, where it sounds somewhat like the American Midwestern r in girl.
The alveolar and retroflex sounds are produced with the tip or apex of the tongue; they are also called apical sounds. Sounds produced at the point of lips are referred to as labial; thus, /p/ is a labial stop, while /m/ is a labial nasal. Those pronounced behind the upper teeth are known as dental (/t/, /n/); at the ridge behind the teeth, alveolar (/l/, /r/); at the hard palate with curled-up tongue, retroflex (/ḷ/, /ṛ/, /ṭ/); against the hard palate with raised tongue blade, palatal (/c/, /y/); and at the soft palate with tongue back, velar (/k/). Notably, fricatives (such as /f/, /s/, and /sh/) are not found in Proto-Dravidian.
Proto-Dravidian word formation
A root comprises the basic set of sounds that denote a general concept; prefixes, suffixes, and infixes may be attached to roots to provide them with specific meaning. For instance, the English root r-n(n) ‘the basic idea of running’ (optional components are enclosed in parentheses) may become the specific words run, ran, and running through the affixation of -u-, -a-, and -u-ing, respectively.
The roots of Proto-Dravidian are monosyllabic. A vowel is essential and can stand alone or be preceded or followed by a consonant, as with *ā ‘to become,’ *kā ‘to guard,’ *kaṇ ‘eye,’ and *koy ‘to cut.’ The vowel may be long or short. There are thus eight types of roots in Proto-Dravidian that can be described in terms of V (vowel) and C (consonant) combinations: V1, C1V1, V1C2, C1V1C2, V:1, C1V:1, V:1C2, C1V:1C2 (subscript numbers indicate the position in a root; V represents a short vowel, while V: is a long vowel).
As there are no prefixes or infixes in Proto-Dravidian, its words always begin with a root. Alveolars and retroflexes do not begin a word in Proto-Dravidian. Almost all consonants can occur in the ending (also called root final) position—that is, as C2—except perhaps *ñ. Except for *r and *ẓ, which can occur only singly, all consonants can occur in single or doubled form.
Grammatical relations at the word level are expressed by suffixation. Roots can be extended by the addition of one or two suffixes, though the meanings of such suffixes is not always clear. The first possible extension is a vowel (V2), always a, i, or u; it is added to roots that end in consonants. The second suffix type can be added to roots that end in vowels or to roots with a base that is already extended by the addition of a V2; it can take one of three possible forms: -C(V), -CC(V), or -CCC(V). Examples of these forms of suffixation include the series *kā-y ‘to burn,’ *kā-nk-u (intransitive verb) ‘to boil,’ and *kā-nkk-u (transitive verb) ‘to boil’ and the series *tir-i ‘to turn,’ *tir-u-ku ‘to roam,’ *tir-a-y ‘to roll,’ *tir-u-nt-u ‘to be changed,’ and *tir-u-ntt-u ‘to change.’
The Proto-Dravidian method for the writing of obstruents deserves particular attention. When the letters transliterated as p, t, ṯ, ṭ, c, and k occur singly between vowels, they take on lenis (lighter) articulation—they would be pronounced as /w/, /ḏ/ or /ṟ/, /ḍ/, /s/, and /g/, respectively. When following a nasal sound, however, they become voiced: /ng/, /nḏ/ or /nṟ/, /ṇḍ/, /ñj/, /ng/. At the beginning of a word (p-, t-, ṯ-, ṭ-, c-, k-) and when doubled (pp, tt, ṯṯ, ṭṭ, cc, kk), they remain voiceless, as in *cupp-u ‘salt’ and *eṇ-ṭṭ-u ‘eight.’ A stop that occurs as a C2 is followed by the vowel *-u, a feature both automatic and predictable.
Proto-Dravidian words do not begin with consonant clusters (e.g., kr-, tr-, pr-). However, these developed later in South-Central Dravidian through certain sound changes. A differentiation between voiceless and voiced stops (e.g., /p/-/b/, /t/-/d/, /k/-/g/) became distinctive in most of the languages except Tamil and Malayalam through a series of internal changes and also through borrowing from the Indo-Aryan languages (especially Sanskrit and its genetically related languages). Most of the Dravidian languages also developed the voicing of stops at the beginning of words.
Proto-Dravidian sound changes
Several sound changes are found in all Dravidian languages in all subgroups. To be so widely distributed, these changes must have been prevalent in the parent language itself.
One such change is a secondary development of certain alveolar and retroflex stops, namely */ṯ/ and */ṭ/, and the nasals */ṉ/ and */ṇ/. These occur in sandhi (combinations of sounds in morphemes [the smallest meaningful units of sound]) from older sequences, as when /l/ (alveolar) combined with /t/ (dental) to produce /ṯ/ (alveolar); likewise, /ḷ/ (retroflex) + /t/ (dental) → /ṭ/ (retroflex), /l/ + /n/ (dental) → /ṉ/ (alveolar); and /ḷ/ + /n/ → /ṇ/ (retroflex). Comparison of cognates from different Dravidian languages sometimes necessitates the reconstruction of multiple roots in the parent language, as with the Proto-Dravidian *kal, *kat ‘to learn’; *nil, *nit, *nint ‘to stand’; *el, *ent ‘sunshine’; *uḷ, *uṇṭ ‘to be’; and so on. These can be explained only in terms of certain sandhi processes within Proto-Dravidian.
Another change attributed to Proto-Dravidian derives from a rule by which a heavy syllable of the type (C)VC- or (C)VCC- becomes a light syllable (C)VC- when followed by a formative suffix that begins with a vowel. In other words, the syllable is altered when affixed with a V2 suffix of the value -a, -i, or -u. For example, Proto-Dravidian *īr ‘two’ (noun) becomes *ir-u- ‘dual, double’ (adjective). A more complex example, *cupp- ‘salt’ and *cuw-ar ‘salty,’ illustrates the syllable change as well as an additional rule in which -p(p)- between vowels becomes -w-.
Historical development of Dravidian phonology
Although a number of sound changes occurred after Proto-Dravidian diverged into its subsidiary components, many were shared among the different branches and subgroups. The three most important changes are illustrated here, although a myriad of lesser changes also took place.
The first major change is an instance of vowel harmony or umlaut. It comprises a shift in the Proto-Dravidian high vowels *i and *u: when either was present in a root syllable and followed by the low vowel -a in the next syllable, *i and *u became the mid-vowels *e and *o: (C1)i/uC2-a- became (C1)e/oC2-a-. For example, Proto-Dravidian *wil-ay ‘price’ (* wil- ‘to sell’) and *tur-a ‘to push’ became *wel-ay and *tor-a in Proto-South and Proto-South-Central Dravidian. The words were retained in this form in some South Dravidian and South-Central Dravidian languages, but in Tamil and Malayalam the vowel form was initially shifted back to *i and *u—and then shifted again, back to mid-vowels. The vacillation in form has caused the vowel pairs i/e and u/o to lose their audible distinction (contrast) in Tamil and Malayalam. (A similar loss of contrast has occurred in the variety of English spoken in the Midwestern United States, where, for instance, hill and he’ll have become homophones.)
The second major change involves the loss or nullification of certain leading consonants: Proto-Dravidian words that began with *c shifted their initial consonant first to *s, then to *h, and finally lost the initial consonant altogether (the resulting “null consonant” can be denoted by the symbol Ø). This change is attested by many of the South-Central Dravidian languages, including Gondi, Kui, Kuvi, Pengo and Manda. In South Dravidian languages, such as Tamil and Malayalam, the intermediate stages were lost, and the change was initially posited as if Proto-Dravidian *c simply became Ø. However, scholars noted that Sanskrit and Prakrit loanwords beginning with s lost their leading consonant (e.g., it became Ø) but that those beginning with c did not: e.g., Sanskrit samaya- ‘time’ became Tamil amaya; Sanskrit śrēṇi ‘ladder’ > Prakrit sēṇi > Tamil ēṇi; Sanskrit sahasra- ‘1000’ > Prakrit sahasira- > *sāsira- > Tamil *āyiram. This evidence demonstrates that a similar chain shift must have taken place at the undivided stage of South Dravidian. Telugu has followed the literary languages in this respect; unlike the other South-Central Dravidian languages, it has not preserved the s and h stages.
The third important sound change occurred in the South-Central Dravidian languages. In this group the apical consonants (comprising the alveolar and retroflex consonants) that were in the middle of a word were pushed to the initial (first) position. When the word began with a vowel and was followed by an apical consonant and a vowel, V1CapicalV2, it became a word-initial apical consonant followed by a vowel, CapicalV. Where a word began with an optional word-initial consonant followed by a vowel, an apical consonant, and a vowel, (C1)V1CapicalV2, it became a word-initial consonant followed by an apical consonant and a vowel, C1CapicalV. For instance, Proto-Dravidian *ir-a-ṇṭu ‘two’ became Telugu reṇḍu and Kui rīnḍe; Proto-Dravidian *mar-an ‘tree’ became Telugu mrān and Kui mrānu. Tulu presents evidence of this, and Irula has more than a dozen instances illustrating this ongoing change.
These three phonological developments are accompanied by a considerable amount of grammatical sharing. For instance, all South Dravidian and South-Central Dravidian languages have two first person singular pronouns, one derived from Proto-Dravidian *yān and another from *ñān, that must have been innovated before these two subgroups diverged. In contrast, Central Dravidian and North Dravidian do not have such doublets. Together with the three major sound changes, this evidence supports the view that South Dravidian and South-Central Dravidian were sister branches of Proto-South Dravidian. In other words, South-Central Dravidian does not go with Central Dravidian, as several scholars (including the author of the present article) once thought.
South Dravidian phonological development
A number of historical changes in phonology occurred within the South Dravidian subgroup. Tamil palatalized Proto-Dravidian *k to *c when followed by a palatal vowel (i, ī, e, ē) sometime between the 3rd and 1st century bce. Malayalam, then a dialect of Tamil, also shared this change. When the palatal vowel was followed by a retroflex consonant, the change did not occur (e.g., in cases where the word took the shape k/cVpalatalCretroflex), because the vowels in this position were probably retracted and raised, as demonstrated by the lack of change in Proto-Dravidian *keṭ-u ‘to perish’ and Tamil-Malayalam keṭ-u.
Malayalam also changed nasal + stop combinations to nasal + nasal; e.g., *nk (pronounced /ŋg/) became ṅṅ (/ṅ/ is a nasal sound produced at the same point as the velar stops /k/ and /g/). This type of change is illustrated by the transition from Tamil ponku ‘to boil’ to Malayalam poṅṅu.
A myriad of other changes also took place. Middle Kannada changed South Dravidian *p to h at the beginning of a word; e.g., Old Kannada *pāl changed to hāl(u) in Middle and Modern Kannada. In Kota, Toda, Kodagu, and Irula, several sound changes in the vowels of the root syllable occurred when followed by alveolar and retroflex consonants, as did the quality of vowels in the subsequent syllables: Proto-South Dravidian *kiḷ-i/*kiṇ-i ‘parrot’ became Kodagu gïṇ-i; Proto-South Dravidian *eṇ-ṭṭ- ‘eight’ developed to Toda öṭ; and South Dravidian kēḷ ‘to hear, ask’ is the source of Irula kë:kka (infinitive, compare Tamil kēṭ-ka). A more complex series of changes is demonstrated by South Dravidian *koṭ-ay ‘umbrella,’ which became pre-Kota (prehistoric Kota) *koḍ-e, then through vowel harmony became *keḍ-e, and eventually the final vowel was lost and ḍ became ṛ, producing the attested Kota form keṛ.
In Tulu and Kodagu a preceding labial consonant tended to change unrounded (that is, produced without rounding the lips) vowels i and e to rounded vowels u and o. An example is South Dravidian *piṭ-i ‘to hold, grasp,’ which developed to Tulu-Kodagu puḍ-i. In most cases the factors that conditioned such changes were later lost in the nonliterary languages. They are recovered by applying the comparative method.
