A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages c8.40

c8.40

The numeral adjective five is in most of the Dravidian dialects *ei*, in Telugu and Tuda *ê*. In Tamil, and also occasionally in Canarese, *ei* is in combination converted into *ein* or *eim* (in Coorg *im*) by the addition of an euphonic nasal. Thus fifty (five tens) is in Canarese eivatt-u, in Tamil eimbad-u (eim-pad-u), in Telugu êbhei (ê-bhei), in Tuḷu eiva. Five hundred is in Canarese ein-nûr-u, in Tamil eiñ-ñûru, in Telugu ê-nûr-u, in Tuḷu einûdu. We see the numeral adjective five, and the noun of number five, in juxtaposition in the Tamil ei-(y)-eind-u, five times five. ei remains also in its pure, un-nasalised form in the Tamil eivar (ei-(v)-ar), five persons. The nasal n or m, which follows ei in the compounds eimbad-u, fifty, and eiññûr-u, five hundred, is, I believe, to be confounded with the n of the Tamil eind-u, or the Telugu ên-u, but proceeds from a different source. It is an adjectival increment; and is added by rule, not only to this numeral adjective ei, five, but to many similar words which consist of a single syllable, of which the final is a long open vowel, when such words are used adjectively. Thus we find in Tamil not only such compounds as eindinei (ei-n-tinei), the five conditions, and eimbulan (ei-m-pulan), the five senses; but also keinnoḍi (kei-n-noḍi), a snap of the finger, and keimbeṇ (kei-m-peṇ), a widow. This adjectival euphonic addition seems to be an abbreviation of am or an, and is probably identical with the inflexional increment. See the section on “Nouns: Inflexion.” What appears to me to prove that eim is not the root of eindu, but only an euphonic form of ei, is the circumstance that it is found only before words beginning with hard consonants and nasals. Before vowels and semi-vowels it is invariably ei. It may be doubted whether the Tamil-Canarese ei or the Telugu ê is the better representative of the original numeral; but the evidence of the various dialects preponderates in favour of ei.