Tamil-Kannada languages

Tamil-Kannada is a hypothetical inner branch (Zvelebil 1990:56) of the South Dravidian I (SDr I) subfamily of the Southern Dravidian languages that include Tamil and Kannada. (There have been slight differences in the way Dravidian languages are grouped by various Dravidian linguists: See Subrahmanyam 1983, Zvelebil 1990, Krishnamurthi 2003)). Tamil-Kannada itself is designated as a branch of the Tamil-Tulu branch of the South Dravidian I subfamily (Tulu by itself forming the other branch of SDr I) and in turn branches off into Tamil-Kodagu and Kannada-Badaga whereby we eventually have Tamil, Malayalam, Irula, Toda, Kota and Kodagu, Badaga, and Kannada as the members of the Tamil-Kannada branch (Zvelebil 1990:56).

The separation of Tamil-Kannada occurred with the separation of Tulu and before the separation of Kodagu branch from South-Proto-Dravidian language, somewhere around 2000-1500 BC.

Kannada and Tamil are also considered to have sprung out of a language called 'Kandamil'. It is mentioned in 'Avadhoota Gita' (by Dattātreya, Shri Purohit, Purohit, Shankar Mokashi-Punekar Published by Munshiram Manoharlal, 1979 Original from the University of California) that Kandamil is more ancient than Vedic tradition. However, more research is needed on this topic.

Kannada and Tamil are recognized among the official languages of India and are spoken mainly in South India.

Phonological Features

Tamil at present has both retroflex lateral (L) and retroflex fricative (zh) sounds, while Kannada has retained only the retroflex lateral. Evidences show that both retroflex fricative and the retroflex laterals were once (before the 10th century) present in Kannada also. However all the retroflex fricatives changed in to retroflex laterals in Kannada later.In Kannada, the bilabial voiceless plosive ('p-') at the beginning of many words have disappeared to produce a velar fricative (h) or have disappeared completely. This change is unique to Kannada in the Dravidian family. Tamil doesn't show this change.

Tamil and Telugu, shows the conversion of velar plosives ('k-') in to palatal plosives at the beginning of the words (refer to comparative methods for details). Kannada however, is totally inert to this change and hence the velar plosives are retained as such or with minimum changes in the corresponding words.

References

• Krishnamurti, B., The Dravidian Languages, Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-77111-0
• Subrahmanyam, P.S., Dravidian Comparative Phonology, Annamalai University, 1983.
• Zvelebil, Kamil., Dravidian Linguistics: An Introduction", PILC (Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture), 1990