A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages c8.28

c8.28

It was shown in the section on "Sounds," that the Tamil *r* is often changed into *d* in Telugu: hence *mûr-u* and *mûd-u* are identical; and it is more probable that *mûd-u* has been altered from *mûr-u*, than that *mûr-u* was altered from *mûd-u*. *s* and *r* evince in many languages a tendency to interchange, generally by the hardening of *s* into *r*; consequently the Brahui *mus* (*mus-it*), three, seems closely allied to the Canarese *mûr*, and still more closely to the Tuḷu *mûji*.