words convey together a definite common meaning there the laws of Sandhi can also operate.
The laws of Sandhi in Malayalam are various, and different in many respects from those of Sanskrit. A discussion of these laws is beyond the scope of this sketch.
Dynamic Stress.
The existence in all Dravidian of innumerable contracted forms is clear proof for the fact that dynamic stress of some character does exist in all Dravidian languages, including Malayalam. It may also be affirmed that the dynamic accent falls primarily on all root-syllables of words. Word-stress in Malayalam differs from that in North Indian languages, and in Standard Southern English, in three important respects:
1. Word-stress is not initial as in Bengali, German or English, but it invariably falls on the root-syllables of words. Secondary stress also exists in polysyllabic words, but is often denoted by pitch-variations.
2. Stress is always accompanied in Malayalam by a high pitch, and it is a moot point if dynamic stress exists in Malayalam independently of musical accent or intonation. Musical intonation in the colloquial is often strong enough to give a "timbre" to the speech as in the French language.
3. Word-stress in Malayalam is not so strong as in English, and, moreover, the existence of stress, in the literary languages, does not usually involve the slurring over of the other syllables, though very unstable consonants may change their character and long vowels may be reduced in length. In the common colloquial of the masses, elisions and contractions are more frequent than in the language of the literate classes.
Emphasis or Sentence Stress in Malayalam may be denoted either with the dynamic accent or the musical accent. It follows all the rules of the "logische Betonung" (logical stress) enunciated by Prof. Otto Behagel in his "Geschichte der deutschen Sprache". "Mechanische Betonung" is also possible in certain cases.
When a prose passage in the literary language is read out, there are distinct sense-groups forming breath-groups, but in the rapid use of the colloquial, the pauses disappear, and the sounds flow one into another, through not so swiftly as to produce what is called the French "liaison".
