Irula language
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Indian English Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other
Irula is a Dravidian language spoken by the Irulas who inhabit the area of the Nilgiri mountains, in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, India.Template:Sfnp It is closely related to Tamil. It is written in the Tamil script.
Origins
The language was first described and classified by indologist Kamil Zvelebil, who in 1955 showed that the Irula language is an independent Southern Dravidian language that is akin to Tamil, particularly Old Tamil, with some Kannada-like features. Before that, it was traditionally denied or put to doubt, and Irula was described as a crude or corrupt mixture of Tamil and Kannada.
According to a tentative hypothesis by Kamil Zvelebil, a pre-Dravidian population that forms the bulk of the Irulas anthropologically began to speak an ancient pre- or proto-Tamil dialect, which was superimposed almost totally on their native pre-Dravidian speech. That then became the basis of the language, which must have subsequently been in close contact with the other tribal languages of the Nilgiri area as well as with the large surrounding languages such as Kannada, Tamil, and Malayalam.[1]
Phonology
The tables present the vowelTemplate:Sfnp and the consonantTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp phonemes of Irula.
Vowels
Zvelebil and Perialwar had listed centralized <ä, ǟ> before in the phonology. The real quality distinguishing <ä, ǟ> and <a, ā> is not clear.
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv./ Palatal |
Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | ||||
| Stop | voicelessScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink |
| voicedScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | |
| Fricative | Template:IPAlink | ||||||
| Approx. | centralScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | ||||
| lateralScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | |||||
| Rhotic | Template:IPAlink, Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | |||||
- It is not clear how /d/ and /r/ are different phonemes.
References
Sources
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Further reading
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Template:Dravidian languages Template:Languages of Tamil Nadu Template:Languages spoken in Kerala
- ↑ Das, Pauline. "The Irula Language and Literature." The Criterion Journal, April 2013 Vol 4 Issue 2.