Corrections by the Rev. B. SCHMID, in the "Malabar" words of the Ceylonese Vocabularies. CORRECTION. Agayam. Agaam: the y merely intercalary. Irattam. Rattam: the i servile = Sanscrit rak tam. Pású. Both syllables short: accent not = long vowel or syllable. It often falls on a short syllable. Kágam. Kakei. Kakkei, which is the English mode of lengthening the a by making the accent coincide with it, could not be understood. Nál. Naul would be pronounced Nowl on the continent of Europe, and would mislead. (T=d, and aspiration neutral, are characteristically Turánian, and so also a hard nasal Tandei. Tatei. sound followed by t rather than by d.] Pú. [These are merely the Gilchristian and Jonesian representations of vowels.-B. H. H.] Dáása = Canarese Diasa and Latin Dies. [Query. W, like y, is an intercalary consonant, used normally to separate vowels.-B. H. H.] Irátir. Min. Natchétiram Sanscrit Nakshatra. The native word is ván mín = fishes of the sky, for stars. [In Newári Kerámam Better Krámam. The separation of the coalescing consonants being a mere trick of Tamil. Avargal. [Gal kal, plural sign. But gal is better after a liquid.-B. H. H.] Avar. [Misprint merely.-B. H. H.] Ennudéyadu. Enadu. And so also read Avanudéyadu and eraso Avarudeyadu, which is the plural. Avarudéyadu, just cited. In the neuter, avattin. Ummudéyadu. Umadu. [I never use the diphthong ei so common in European writing of Dravidian tongues. With me é makes ai, and á, au, and 6, ou. I never confound these two latter. The sliding French u I present in the form of en, or in combination with a precedent consonant in the form of yú, thus English puling and tune I write pyúling and tyún. The French j and u as seen in jeu d'esprit are among the commonest and most characteristic cf Turánian sounds. I write them separately, z and eu, united zyú.-B. H. H.] Küló. Long German dotted ü, or French ú. Metta. Edukkigu. This. That. Moustachio. These are slips of the pen in the English column. The latter is inferred from the Malabar terins. The Hindi and Urdu relative and correlative are wholly unknown in Tamil. Whatever is put down, therefore, must be incorrect. Túngu. Alu. = Nittirei and Alukei (rather Alugei) are substantival forms the sleeping and the weeping. Ulukkáru. Iru means literally be, but is often used for sit. But ulukkáru is the proper word for sit down. These are compounds from the verbs come and go, and mean taking come and taking go. Nada. Odu. That means the doing; maduthal in Canarese = to do. Nada and odu are quite enough for walk and run. REMARKS.-I give the above as they reached me without entirely assenting to the value set on such precision by the venerable author of these corrections, or always even approving the corrections, for the more ample and careful becomes our survey of the Turánian tongues, the more deep is the conviction that the largest commutability of consonants and vowels is normal in this family of tongues, that local varieties of utterance are not to be reduced to a quasi-exotic standard, and that Akayam and Keramam, for instance, reflecting as they do the well-known preference of Támil for surds and its aversion to heaped consonants, may very reasonably be preferred to Agayam and Kramam. Mr. Schmid's conjecture that the English th is known only to the Tódas is incorrect, for the Burmese and Kúkis, as well as some Himalayan and Sifanese tongues, have the sound; and likewise the Todava proneness to blend the sounds of s, z, and the English th, and the latter also with d, like the Támulians of the Eastern Coast. My Ceylonese papers were prepared for me by a gentleman who used the ordinary English way of representing Oriental words. I myself always use the Continental, but the other does not mislead me. The Nilgirian vocabularies are framed on the latter model. The cerebral letters are indicated by an italic letter, thus, t, d, 1; ch is to be pronounced as in English much; ch with the mark above, as in Gaelic loch; and in Toda th is always to be sounded the English way.-B. H. H. ON THE ABORIGINES OF SOUTHERN INDIA To the Secretaries of the Asiatic Society. GENTLEMEN,-In prosecution of the steps already taken by me, and recorded in our Journal, for obtaining ready and effective means of comparing the affinities of all the various aboriginal races tenanting the whole continent of India, I have now the honour to submit a comparative vocabulary of seven of the Southern tongues. Five of them belong to the cultivated class of these tongues, viz., Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Carnataka, Tulava; and two to the uncultivated class, viz., .Curgi and Todava. The former are given both in the ancient and modern. form, and care has been taken to procure the genuine vocables instead of those words of Sanscrit origin which are now so apt to be substituted for them, especially in intercourse with Europeans. I am indebted for these vocabularies to Mr. Walter Elliot of Madras, whose name is a sufficient warrant for their perfect accuracy. In regard to these cultivated tongues of the south, Mr. Elliot observes that the aptitude of the people at present to substitute prákritic words for aboriginal ones is such a stumbling-block in the search for affinities as it requires pains and knowledge to avoid; and he instances (among others) the common use of the borrowed word rakta, for blood, in lieu of the native term néthar, by which latter alone we are enabled to trace the unquestionable ethnic relationship of the Gónds (even those north of the Vindhia) with the remote southerns speaking Telugu, Cannadi, and Tulava. On the subject of the local limits and mutual influence at the present day of the cultivated languages of the south upon each other, Mr. Elliot has the following remarks:-"All the Southern dialects become considerably intermixed as they approach each other's limits. Thus the three words for egg used indifferently by the people speaking Canarese (matté, tetti, gadda), are evidently obtained, the first from the Tamulian, matta; the last, from the Telugu, gadda. This intermixture, which is of ordinary occurrence in all cognate tongues, is here promoted specially by extensive colonisation of different races, as of the Telugus into Southern India under the Bijaynagar dynasty, where they still exist as distinct communities-and of the followers of Rámánuja A'chárj into Mysore, where they still are to be seen as a separate class speaking Tamil in their families, and Carnataka in public. The Reddies also, an enterprising race of agriculturists, have migrated from their original seats near Rajahmandry over the whole of Southern India, and even into the Maháráshtra country, where they are considered the most thriving ryots, and are met with as far north as Poona." Of the uncultivated tongues of Southern India, Mr. Elliot has been able to procure me on the present occasion only incomplete vocabularies of two, viz., the Curgi and Todava. But further assistance may be looked for from him in regard to this class of tongues, as to which he observes that "the dialects of the Kurumbers and Irulers and other mountain races of the south are well worth exploring." I have likewise myself made fresh application to Colonel Low, to our residents at Baroda and Sattara, and to other parties residing at Gúmsar, the Nilgiris, and Ceylon, with a view to completing the comparative vocabulary of all the Continental and Insular aboriginal languages; and to our authorities in Assam and in various parts of the chain of mountains dividing our provinces from those of Ava, in order to obtain the Indo-Chinese series of border languagesall upon one uniform plan. These shall be hereafter forwarded as received, with such remarks as the study of the whole may suggest. For the ordinary and proper locale of the several cultivated tongues of Southern India, see Ellis' Dissertation and Wilson's Mackenzie Manuscripts. Mr. Elliot speaks in illustration of the general and well-known facts of the case. Air Ant Arrow Bird Blood Boat Bone Buffalo Cat Cow Crow Day Dog Ear Fire Fish Zh is employed, according to Mr. Ellis' plan, to represent the Támil which has the sound of the French j in jamb, Jacques, &c., but is often pronounced like a hard 1 by Europeans, Mohammedans, and other foreigners, and also by the Pariahs. Thus azhal would be alal. † So written, but pronounced chápa. |