| (3) Feminine Marker *-a:l |
In Abujhmaria and in other Central Dravidain languages as well a few kinship terms indicating a female contain the derivative suffix *a: ‘woman’ (Which may be compared with the SDr. suffix of the feminine category *-a: in demonstrative pronouns and finite verbs). This feature may be considered as the CDr. characteristic feature. The following examples may be noted.
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(a) Maria. miya: daughter; Ta. maka:l; Ma.
mo:; Ko . mo:; Ka. maga; Tu. magau id; Te. mayuva woman; Go. miya:, miya:i daughter (DED. 3768).
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(b) Maria. ko:ia: daughter-in-law; Te. ko:alu id; Kol. koal younger brother’s wife; Nk. koal daughter-in-law; Pa. kool bride; Ga (Oll). koal son’s wife, younger brother’s wife; Go. ko:ya: daughter-in-law (DED.1787).
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(c) Maria. he:la: younger sister; Te. cel(l)iyalu, cellelu younger sister; Pa. ca:lal sister; Ga (Oll). se:lal (S). cellal id; Go. se:la: younger sister (DED. 2288).
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| (4) Demonstrative Pronoun: |
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Maria demonstrative pronouns ad and id, denoting remote and proximate respectively, are related to Ta. adu and idu; Te. adi and adi respectively. The oblique bases ta:n and te:n may be compared with Te. da:nik and di:ni respectively which are the reflexes of PDr. *at-an and *it-an respectively. The Maria forms may have to be treated as the resultant forms, formed by the process of metathesis by vowel contraction.
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The third demonstrative pronouns wo:r that man,he and we:r this man, he are also the reflexes of PDr. *avan and *ivan respectively. In Gondi of Betul we have corresponding forms vo:l and ve:l. At present we could not give any explanation for the final e:r ~ e:l or -o:r ~ -o:l in those pronouns.
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| (5) Personal Prnouns: |
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Personal pronouns in Maria and in other languages of CDr. sub-group are given in Tables (i) and (ii).
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Comparison of the oblique forms of the first group with that of second group makes it clear that the forms or former group resulted through metathesis from PDr. forms (*an- for I Sg., *am- for I Pl., *in- for II Sg. and *im- of II Pl.) which are identical with those forms found in the latter group.
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Subrahmanyam (1968 : 179) suggested that this change must have taken place at a period in which all the CDr. languages were undivided. On the analogy of the blique bases which begin with n- or m- because of metathesis, later Telugu, Kon a, Kuvi and some dialects of Gondi added independently, of course, this n- or m- to the nominative forms of these pronouns which were originally had vowels initially.
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Because of this reason, it seems, in various Gondi dialects these pronouns occur with and without initial n- or m-. See the following examples:
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| I Per. Sg. |
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nana (Go. of Adilabad, Durg, Maria, Dandami), nan (Yeotmal, Maria), ana, anna (Betul, Chanda),
nanna (Mandla) CVGD. 1923). |
| I Per. Pl. |
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Mamok, amok (Yeotmal), namo (Adilabad), amma (Betul), mamma:, mamma:, amma:,
ammo: (Mandla), ma: (Chanda, Maria), mamma, mammo (Muria), mamma (Dandami)
mommo(u) (Raj Gond) CVGD.2707. |
| II Per. Sg. |
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Imma (Betul, Mandla), ima (Chanda), nime (Adilabad), nim(m)a (Chanda, Muria), nima (Muria,
Dandami) CVGD.177. |
| II Per. Pl. |
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imma (Betul), ime (Yeotmal), nime (Adilabad), mime (Raj Gond), mi: (Muria, Maria),
nima (Muria, CVGD 177 and 178. |
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