A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages c8.9

c8.9

It was shown in the section on “Sounds” that the Dravidian languages delight to euphonise certain consonants by prefixing nasals to them. If the r of oru is found to have been converted in this manner into nṟ, the point under discussion will be settled. What analogy, then, is there for this conversion? mûru, Can. three, has through this very process become in Tamil mûṉṟu (pronounced mûṉḍru, mûṉḍu, or mûṉu); in Malayâlam, mûṉṉ’. Again, kiru, the verbal suffix denoting present time in Tamil, has become in the poetical dialect *kinru*, pronounced *kindru*; and this, in the Malayâlam present tense is found to be still further softened into *kunnu*, and even *unnu*. In these instances we perceive that very euphonic alteration by which *oru* has become progressively *onru*, *ondru*, *ondu*, *onnu*, and *onn’*; and thus the derivation of *onn’* from *oru* is found to be strictly in accordance with analogy.