A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages c8.69

Language: English

c8.69.1

In the Tamil *onbadu*, *on* is the auxiliary prefix by which *padu* is specialised, and we have the same prefix in the poetical form, *onbân*. *on* is in Malayâlam and Canarese *om*, in Coorg *oyim*. This *on* has been supposed to be identical with the first portion of the Tamil *ondru*, one (in Canarese and Coorg *ondu*, in Telugu *oṇḍu*, in Malayâlam *onn’*, in Tuḷu *oñji*); and Dr Gundert (in his private communication to me) expresses himself in favour of this supposition. In Tuḷu, nine is *ormba*, in the Kota dialect *ormpatu*, in each of which forms we cannot but recognise a development of the ordinary Dravidian *or*, one, from which the compound word for nine will take the very appropriate meaning of one from ten. The supposition that the *on* and *om* of the Tam.-Can. words for nine has the same origin as the Tuḷu, &c., and is used to express the same meaning, has certainly much to recommend it. As *padin-ondru*, Tam. eleven, means one added to ten, so *on-badu*, nine, might naturally be taken to mean one from ten, or one before ten. There are some difficulties, however, in the way of this supposition. I can find no distinct trace of the syllable *on*, standing alone, having ever stood for one. The form we always find, or to which we are always obliged to come back, is *or* or *or*. But another and greater difficulty comes to view when we compare the Tamil *on’-badu* with the Telugu *tom-midi*.

c8.69.2

We have here a prefix beginning with *t*, which points to the possibility of the Tamil *on* having originally been *ton*, and the Canarese *om* having been *tom*. What is still more worthy of notice is, that in the higher numbers, even in Tamil, into which nine enters, *on* is represented by *ton* (or its equivalent *toḷ*)—e.g., *toṇṇûru*, ninety, *toḷḷâyiram*, nine hundred. In Telugu we find *tom* not only in *tom-midi*, nine, but in *tom-bhei* or *tom-badi*, ninety, and *tomma-nnûru*, nine hundred. In Canarese we find the same prefix in *tom-bhattu*, ninety, though nine is *ombhattu*, and nine hundred is *ombhaiyi-nûru*. In Coorg, nine is *oyim-badu*, whilst ninety, *ttonûru*, follows the Tamil, and nine hundred, *ombei-nûru*, the Canarese. The Tuḷu word for ninety is *soṇpa*, in which *soṇ* evidently stands for the *tom* or *toḷ* of the other dialects: nine hundred is *ormba nûdu*. The Tuda word is *ênpath*. Even in Tamil a poetical form for nine has an initial *t*. This is *toṇḍu*, of which we cannot doubt that the first portion, *toṇ*, is allied to the *tom* of the other dialects. The original shape of this prefix must have been *toḷ*. The final *ḷ* is changed into a nasal, according to a well-recognised Dravidian law of sounds, not only when followed by a nasal, but even when followed by certain hard consonants. *eḷ + ney*, sesame oil, becomes *eṇṇey*; *kal + malei*, stony hill, *kaṇmalei*. So also *sel + du*, having gone, becomes *śendru*;

c8.69.3

and *koḷ + du*, having taken, *koṇḍu* (the latter becomes more completely nasalised in the Tuḷu equivalent *koṇ* and the Telugu *konu*). Hence from *tol*, old, before, with the neuter formative *du*, comes *tondru*, antiquity; and from *toḷ*, an alternative form of the same root, comes *toṇḍu*, the word under consideration, meaning also antiquity, priority, but containing amongst its many meanings that of nine. The Telugu *tom* appears to have been derived from *tol*, not *toḷ*, though both forms were doubtless identical originally; and in Telugu the meaning, first, before, is more distinctly developed than in Tamil—e.g., *toli-vâramu*, the first day of the week; *tol-nâḍu*, the day before. This gives us a satisfactory explanation of the prefix by which in Telugu nine, in Tamil and Malayâḷam ninety and nine hundred, in Canarese ninety, are formed. It properly means the number standing next in order before the number to which it is prefixed. Thus in Telugu nine means the number before ten; in Malayâḷam, Tamil, and Coorg, ninety means the number before a hundred; and in Malayâḷam and Tamil nine hundred means the number before a thousand. The word for nine sometimes found (as has been mentioned) in poetical Tamil, *toṇḍu*, means properly before; but, as used, it signifies, like the Telugu word for nine, the number before ten.

c8.69.4

When the Telugu, Tuḷu, and Canarese numbers for ninety are compared with the Tamil, Malayâḷam, and Coorg, we are struck with the greater regularity of the latter compounds. The Telugu *tom-bhei* and the Canarese *tom-bhattu* are meant to denote nine tens; but *tom*, the prefix used to denote nine, does not properly mean nine at all, but is only the first part of the numeral nine, which is itself a compound. The Telugu and Canarese compounds for nine hundred, *tommannûru* and *ombhayi-nûru*, are formed on the same plan, but with a fuller representation of both parts of the number nine, which they adopt as their first member. The Tuḷu word for ninety, *śonpa*, is very curiously constructed. Comparing it with *elpa*, seventy, and *enpa*, eighty, it seems evident that *pa* means ten; but *śon*, the first part of the word, finds no place, as the corresponding Telugu and Canarese particles do, in the Tuḷu word for nine. It appears to be the equivalent of the *tol*, *ton*, and *tom* of the other dialects, the meaning of which is, before; but in order to bring out the meaning of ninety, this particle should have been prefixed to a hundred, like the Tam.-Mal., not to ten.

c8.69.5

In Tamil and Malayâḷam, on the other hand, the composite numeral nine is altogether lost sight of in the construction of the compounds ninety and nine hundred, and these compounds are formed in perfect accordance with rule by prefixing *tol*, before, to the word a hundred, to form ninety, and the same *toḷ* to a thousand, in order to form nine hundred. In these instances *toḷ* is used in its proper original signification of before, without any reference to the use of the same prefix (if indeed it be the same that is used in Tamil, as it certainly is in Telugu), to form nine. We should naturally expect to find the Tamil-Canarese word for nine formed in the same manner, and by means of the same prefix, as the Tamil and Malayâḷam words for ninety and nine hundred; and if we could suppose the oldest form of the Tamil nine to have been *ton-badu*, and that of the Canarese *tom-bhattu*, corresponding to the Telugu *tom-midi*, this would have been the case. As it is, we must consider it possible that the prefix of the Tamil-Canarese word for nine may be a representative of the word for one; though the reasons why we should prefer to derive the Tamil *on* and the Canarese *om*, like the Telugu *tom*, from *tol* or *toḷ*, before, with the initial *t* softened away, seem to me still weightier.