1837.]
Khoonds of the Goomsoor Mountains.
25
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twenty (
Telugu characters) codacauttoo
hundred (Indic characters) soyakah
two hundred (Indic characters) Reeso
thouaand (Indic characters) Azarakah
two thousand (Indic characters) ree azarah
small (Indic characters) cogaury
The first word is Sanscrit, with a dialectic termination. It means great chief, prince, or lord, from mahat great and prab′hu a lord, &c. and is so used in, I believe, all the dialects of Southern India. The second word is Tamil simply for a woman or female, in ordinary acceptation. The word for earth, is one designating place or locality; and, derived from Sanscrit (if not adopted by it), runs through most of the Hindu languages, with dialectic variations. The word for fire, corresponds nearly with the Tamil (Tamil characters) tanal, great heat. The word for tree at first embarrassed me; but it is evidently only a dialectic variation of the Tamil (Tamil characters) maram, a tree. The word for village is the Tamil (Tamil characters) nádu, properly country as distinguished from town, sometimes denoting a district, and in use nearly synonimous with village: the difference of du and zu, is merely dialectic. The plural form kah, besides differing little from the Tamil plural, kal, is further a close resemblance to the mode in which the plural is enunciated in the extreme south. The word for house varies very little from the Tamil (Tamil characters) védu, denoting the same thing. The word for cow has in it the Sanscrit root go, or gau. The term for goat is like the Telugu (Tamil characters) venta, a sheep or goat: it must I think be the same word. The word for birds, cutting off the plural termination, is the Telugu (Indic characters) petta a bird. The next word for animal, is Sanscrit, Telugu, and Tamil, common I believe throughout India. For fowl the word is the Tamil, (Tamil characters) corzi, the Telugu letters expressing an imitation of the Tamil sound: the retaining this Tamil peculiarity is favourable to an inference as to the Tamil origin of the Khoonds. Mendah[1] for sheep is an intermediate sound between the Telugu (Indic characters) venta, and the Tamil (Tamil characters) mantai, the former signifying a sheep, the latter more properly a flock. The word for mountain, is, setting aside the kah, apparently the Tamil (Tamil characters) surumpu, or
- ↑ The h in this, or in the other words is not in the Telugu characters but simply long a at found in the word after.
