The Dravidian language family consists of about 80 varieties (Hammarström H. 2016 Glottolog 2.7) spoken by 220 million people across southern and central India and surrounding countries. Dravidian is a language family spoken mainly in southern and central India, as well as in a handful of locations in northern India, Nepal and Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The Dravidian languages have been written for over 2,000 years. The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are Tulu and Kodava. Neither the geographical origin of the Dravidian language homeland nor its exact dispersal through time are known. Results indicate that the Dravidian language family is approximately 4500 years old, a finding that corresponds well with earlier linguistic and archaeological studies. Tamil is the oldest living language in India. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto- Dravidian were the culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India.
This book is a continuation of my previous monographs viz., Dravidian Comparative Grammar-I & II (Central Institute of Indian languages (CIIL) & Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT), 2008 and 2021). It is designed as a textbook for students and is written with full coverage of each of the topics along with enough examples and with as much clarity as possible. All new data available on the individual languages and recent advancements in the comparative study are incorporated in it.
My thanks are due to Mr. P. Sreekumar (Dravidian University, Kuppam) for the Malayalam sentences, to Dr. B. S. Shivakumar (Dravidian University, Kuppam) for the Tuļu sentences, to Mrs. Nanjamma Chinnappa (Bangalore) for the Kodagu sentences and to Mrs. P. N. Lalitha (Banga- lore) for the Kannada sentences. My interest in Dravidian comparative grammar was aroused when I was doing B. A. (Hons) in Telugu language and literature at Andhra University, Waltair (1956-59), Professor G. J. Somayaji introduced me to the rudiments of the subject and to the special linguistic features of early Telugu inscriptions. Professor Bh. Krishnamurti, who had worked under the guidance of Professor M. B. Emeneau and just returned with a Ph. D., from the University of California, gave an advanced course on the subject with much sophistication. In 1959 1 joined the same University for doing Ph.D. on the subject 'A comparative study of verb forms in the Dravidian languages' under the guidance of Professor Krishnamurti. He gave me helpful suggestions regarding the organization of the chapters of my proposed thesis and suggested the books to be consulted for collecting the material on the various languages; it was his suggestion to divide each chapter into descriptive and comparative sections which proved to be very useful. At his suggestion, I attended the Summer School of Linguistics held at Coimbatore (1959) and the next one at Poona (1960) in which I took courses offered by various American and Indian scholars. However, Professor Krishnamurti left the University after a year and as a consequence I had to take Professor Somayaji as my new guide.
It gives me immense pleasure to publish Prof. P. S. Subrahmanyam's work titled Dravidian Comparative Grammar-III. This volume is the part of Dravidian Comparative Grammar-/ published in 2008 and Dravidian Comparative Grammar-II (Morphosyntax of the Verb) published in October 2021. Friedrich von Schlegel's expression thus says: "Comparative Grammar will give us entirely new information on the genealogy of languages, in the same way in which comparative anatomy has thrown light upon natural history."
The Dravidian language family consists of about 80 varieties (Hammar- ström H. 2016 Glottolog 2.7) spoken by 220 million peoples across southern and central India and surrounding countries. Dravidian is a language family spoken mainly in southern and central India, as well as in a handful of locations in northern India, Nepal and Pakistan and Afghanistan. Dravidian languages have been in existence for over 2,000 years. The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, all of which have had long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are Tulu and Kodava. Neither the geographical origin of the Dravidian language homeland nor its exact dispersal through time is known for sure. Results indicate that the Dravidian language family is approximately 4500 years old, a finding that corresponds well with earlier linguistic and archaeological studies. Tamil is the oldest living language in India. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were the culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India. Prof. P. S. Subrahmanyam is a dedicated scholar on the field of comparative Dravidian linguistics and his long experience of teaching the subject for more than thirty years at Annamalai University is reflected on each page of this work.
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist