| Adectival Concord |
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It is generally accepted that adjectives in Dravidian do not agree with gender or number of the following noun which they modify. But in Abujhmaria and in other Gondi dialects (excepting Adilabad, Koya) as well, adjectives show a concord with the gender and number of the following nouns. as the adjectival concord is not found in any of the CDr., languages (at least in the present state of our knowledge) it should be considered as a recent development which arose out of the influence of the INdo-Aryan languages. Any how, it should be noticed that though adjectival concord is a non-Dravidian feature, it is found in many dialects of Gondi such as in Betul, Balaghat, Mandla, Muria and Maria dialects. Even in Kurux, a North-Dravidian language, the borrowed adjectives are inflected according to the gender and number of the noun modified (Natarajan, 1977 : 156-160).
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| Lexical |
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Subrahmanyam (1969 : 119) gives ten interesting DED entries where most of the Central Dravidian languages agree with each other in showing a common meaning for some word groups in contrast to the languages of the other groups. He further adds that in most of such cases it is possible to consider the meaning in the Central Dravidian languages to be the result of shift from the original meaning that the concerned word had in PDr. Among them the following may be noted.
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| (1) |
Go. Pe. pe:n; Kui-Kuvi pe:nu; Pa. ve:did,
Ga. (Oll). ve:ndi God; Ga. (S) ve:ndi spirit;
Kui. ve:nu spirit; Ta. pe:y; Ma. pe:yi;
Ko. pe:y; Ka. pe:tu; Tu. pe:yi demon (DED.
3655 and 4550). Also in Maria pe:n God. |
| (2) |
Kol. Nk. Go. karu hunger; Ta. karuppu;
Te. karuvu famine (DED. 1081). Also Maria
kar hunger. |
| (3) |
Go. mari; Kui. mri:enju; Kuvi. mri:esi;
Kon a. marin; Pe. mazi (also Br. ma:r) son.
Ta. Ma. mari young of animals; Tu. mari a
young of animal (DED. 3901). Also Maria
mari.son. |
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Subrahmanyam (Ibid. : 120) also pointed out that some of the etymoloigical groups in which CDr. languages contain identical derivative suffixes that are not found in the corresponding forms of the SDr. or NDr. languages and cited 17 examples. Among them, a few examples are given below.
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| (1) |
Pa. tacc-; Ga (Oll). tas-; Kui ta:j to wipe,
Ta. tai-va to shampoo, rub, wipe of (DED. 2448). |
| (2) |
Pa. Go. ac-; Kui a:sk-; (F) ac-; Kona a:s- to
choose; Ta. Ma. Ka. a:y to search, select
(DED.306); also Maria a-:c- id. |
| (3) |
Go. na:le:nj. (Adil) nelenj, lelenj; Kona
le:nju moon; Kui da:nju; Kuvi lenju; Pe.
Man. lenj moon, month; Ta. nilavu,
nila: moonlight, moon; Te. nela moon,
month. |
| (4) |
Te. tra:cu; Go. tara:s; Kona saras; Pe. ra:c;
Man·. trac; Kui sra:su; Kuvi ra:cu (PCDr
*car-ac); Ta. aravu, aravam, ara:, ara
serpant (DED. 1949); also Maria tara:s,
tra:s snake. |
| (5) |
Go. pir; Konda pir; Mana piy; Kui piju;
Kuvi piyu rain; Ta. Ma. pey to rain (DED.
3610). |
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