A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian LanguagesDue to their crucial role one of the major tasks in modern South Asia linguistics is the research of the historical view of the Dravidian Languages. A knowledge of the Dravidian language structure in all its development stages, from their earliest beginnings to today, is necessary for understanding numerous fundamental aspects with the emergence of the indoarian, Munda and other languages of south Asia and of course for the history of the Dravidian language family itself. The Comparative Grammar forms an important part of the historical linguistics. Yet Richard Caldwell's Comparative Grammar of Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages (London, 1856, 2/1875, 3/1913) is outdated. An up to date comparative grammar of the Dravidian languages therefore was long overdue. With the work of the renowned Russian Dravidian scientist Mikhail S. Andronov, in which the over 80 known, investigated and described languages and dialects of the Dravidian language family are taken in consideration, this gap has been closed. |
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Common terms and phrases
1st person 2nd person 3rd person Adb.Go allophone alternation attested Bar.Ka base Bet.Go Brahui Cl.Ka Cl.Ma Cl.Ta Cl.Te Classical Tamil Coll consonant dative derived developed dialects Dravidian languages e.g. Cl etymology excl finite forms future tense Gadaba gender genitive Gondi Gondwana Gondwana group Gul.Ka Hal.Ka historically incl increment intervocalic Je.Ka K.Go Kannada Kasaba Kodagu Kolami Konda Koraga Kota Kurru Kuruba Kurukh Kuvi Lit.Te locative Malayalam Malto Mar.Go meaning Mod.Ta modern language mood morphemes Naiki Nan.Ka negative forms negative relative participle negative suffix neuter nominative non-past origin Parji participial nouns Pengo personal nouns personal suffixes phoneme plural suffix positive present tense present-future tense preterite tense pronouns Proto-Dravidian reconstructed retroflex retroflex consonants secondary stem singular sonant Southern group suff suffix Telugu tense forms tense suffix thou traced Tulu verbal noun vowel words zero suffix