Northern Dravidian languages
North Dravidian is a branch (Zvelebil 1990:56) of the Dravidian languages that includes Brahui, Kurux and Malto. (There have been slight differences in the way the Dravidian languages are grouped by various Dravidian linguists: See Subrahmanyam 1983, Zvelebil 1990, Krishnamurthi 2003). It is further divided into Kurux-Malto and Brahui.
| Northern Dravidian | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Balochistan and Eastern India |
| Linguistic classification | Dravidian
|
Phonological features
Northern Dravidian is characterized by the retraction of Proto Dravidian *k to /q/ before vowels other than /i(:)/ and later spirantizing in Brahui and Kurux, in return the *c also retracted to /k/ in the same environment.[1]
Initial *w's became b likely due to influence from eastern Indo Aryan languages. Brahui also has a voiceless lateral which formed after the merge of *ḷ to *l as there are words from both of them but the conditions of the split are not clear.[1]
References
Bibliography
- Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys (1 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77111-5.
- Kobayashi, Masato (2017). The Kurux Language: Grammar, Texts and Lexicon. BRILL. ISBN 9789004347663.