Sten Konow

“ Dravidian nouns are divided into two classes, which Tamil grammarians called high-caste and casteless respectively. The former includes those nouns which denote beings endowed with reason, the latter all others. Gender is only distinguished in the former class, while all casteless nouns are neuter. The gender of animals (which are irrational) must accordingly be distinguished by using different words for the male and the female, or else by adding words meaning male, female, respectively, to the name of the animal—processes which do not, strictly speaking, fall under the head of grammar. ”

“ By adding pronouns, or the terminations of pronouns, to such forms, nouns are derived which denote the person who performs the action. Thus from Telugu koṭṭē and vāḍu, “he,” is formed koṭṭē-vāḍu, “one who usually strikes.” Such forms are used as ordinary verbs, and the usual verbal forms of Dravidian languages can broadly be described as such nouns of agency. ”

“ Kūrkū, Khariā, Juāng, Savara and Gadabā are more closely related to that family than is Kherwārī, the principal Mundā form of speech.
We do not know if the Mundās entered India from without. If so, they can only have immigrated from the east. At all events they must have been settled in India from a very early period. The Sabaras, the ancestors of the Savaras, are already mentioned in old Vedic literature. The Mundā languages seem to have been influenced by Dravidian and Aryan forms of speech. ”

“ All these features of Tibeto-Burman speech tend to make the difference between the dialects considerable, and the changes within one and the same dialect bewildering. Instances are said to be on record where one small tribe has changed its language in the course of a couple of generations so as to be unrecognizable. This fact, if fact it be, can however be accounted for by assuming that the male individuals in question have robbed their wives from some other tribe. ”

“ On the east and west of the peninsular area the domain of the Dravidian is conterminous with the Ghats, while farther north it reaches on one side to the Aravallis and on the other to the Rajmahal hills.”
This territory is the proper home of the race. A strong Dravidian element can, however, also be traced in the population of northern India. In Kashmir and Punjab, where the Aryans had already settled in those prehistoric times when the Vedic hymns were composed, the prevailing type is the Aryan one. ”

“ MUNDĀS. The Mundā (Muṇḍā) family is the least numerous of the linguistic families of India. It comprises several dialects spoken in the two Chota Nagpur plateaux, the adjoining districts of Madras and the Central Provinces, and in the Mahadeo hills. ”

“ It is impossible to bring the relationship existing between all these various groups under one single formula. The dialects spoken in the Himalayas and in Assam can be described as a double chain connecting Tibetan with Burmese, which are the two principal languages of the family. ”

“ Some followed the course of the Brahmaputra and settled in the hills to the south and east of the great bend of the river. Others entered the Nāgā hills, while numerous tribes must have followed the Chindwin into Manipur and the hills to the south. The inhabitants of Burma have probably come down along the Chindwin and the Irrawaddy, and the latest immigrants, the Kachins, have only in modern times begun their wanderings southwards through the hills. The tribes settled in the hills north of the Assam valley appear to possess a mixed character. ”

“ Thus a sentence such as “the father struck the boy” would be translated “father agent son striking completion.” This state of affairs, which is the prevailing condition in Chinese, is not, however, the original one. While the bases of the words are monosyllabic, i.e. each word consists of one syllable, comparative philology shows that these bases were often preceded by prefixes, short additions, the meaning of which cannot always be ascertained, but which modified the meaning of the base in the same way as the terminations of other languages. ”

“ There are several such participles in use. Thus from the Telugu verb koṭṭa, “to strike,” are formed koṭṭ-ut-unna, “that strikes,” koṭṭ-i-na, “that struck,” koṭṭē, “that would strike,” “that usually strikes.” ”

“ The Dravidian languages have for ages been restricted to the territory they occupy at the present day. Moreover, they are gradually losing ground in the north, where they meet with Aryan forms of speech. ”

“ In a sentence such as har kōrā-e dal-ked-e-a, man boy-he struck him, the man struck the boy, the Santals first put together the ideas man, boy, and a striking in the past. Then the e tells us that the striking affects the boy, and finally the -a indicates that the whole action really takes place. ”