Download Abujhmaria Book --Select Grammar Book-- ABJUHMARIA Grammar ANGAMI Grammar AO Grammar APATANI Grammar BHUMIJ Grammar BROKSKAT GOJRI Grammar HMAR Grammar KARBI Grammar KOKBOROK Grammar KUVI Grammar LOTHA Grammar MAO NAGA Grammar MISH Grammar MISING Grammar MUNDARI Grammar NAGA PIDGIN Grammar PURKI Grammar SEMA Grammar Theory of Binding Grammar URALI Grammar A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF YERAVA ABUJHMARIA GRAMMAR G.V.Natarajan Nouns (1) Gender-Number:        All the Central Dravidian languages, including Abujhmaria and with the exception of Telugu are unified in the matter of gender-number distinction.        Kona. Goni, Maria, Koya, Kui, Kuvi, Kolami, Naiki (Ch), Parji and Gadba have the gender-number distinction of masculine and non-masculine (i.e., feminine and neuter) in singular and plural. Telugu on the other hand agrees with Kurux and Malto of the North Dravidian group in having the distinction - masculine versus non-mansculine in the singular. In all these languages in the plural the feminine is grouped with the masculine as in the South Dravidian languages. This system must be attributed to Proto-Dravidian as Telugu is not geographically contiguous to Kurux-Malto and also it does not share any other innovation with latter languages. The Central Dravidian languages separated the feminine category from the masculine and attached it with the non-human in the plural on the analogy of the distinction of masculine versus non-masculine that was already existing in singular. Therefore, the alignment of the feminine category with the neuter in the plural in the Central Dravidian languages provides us with an isogloss of shared innovation in them. (2) Non-human Plural:        In all the Central Dravidian languages the plural marker is obligatory, while in many of the South Dravidian languages it is an optional category. Ta. irau maram two trees Ka. erau mara two trees Tu. rai maro two trees Te. reu ceu-lu two trees Go (Abujhmaria). ran mara-k two trees Koya. reu e-ku two trees Kol. ren ma:k-u two trees Kona. runi nel-e two months Gadba. ini ko:nd-el two buffaloes Parji. iruk ole-kul two houses        In NDr. we find that Kurux-Malto do not have any plural suffix at all for neuter nouns and that in Brahui, the plural suffix k - a:k though present is always used if there would otherwise be any chance of ambiguity. dah bandagh/dah bandagh a:k ten men ira:ma:r/ira:ma:-k two sons        The absence of rare usage of the neuter plural marker is a common feature to the South Dravidain and North Dravidain sub-groups and therefore must be attributed to Proto-Dravidain. Previous Next Top

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