Languages and Nations. 



155 



Of the Dialect of the Todavers, the Aborigines of the Neelgherries* 



2. There can be no do^ubt that an examination of this dialect, 

 according to the principles laid down in this essay (or according to 

 improved ones) and a comparison of it with other languages and pro- 

 vincial dialects of India, will be the means, together with other 

 collateral evidences, of discovering and demonstrating, if not with 

 nearly mathematical precision, yet very satisfactorily, to what tribe the 

 Todavers originally belonged, and about what time they may have 

 separated and become an isolated race of mountaineers. And it may 

 be expected that one beam of clear light being once thrown upon their 

 history, it may afford a clue which will lead to historical discoveries 

 relative to other tribes also.* 



One third perhaps of the words of the Todaver dialect I cannot yet 

 trace to any language with which I am acquainted ; the other 

 part is Tamul, but so disfigured, by a regular process of chang- 

 ing the letters, that such words are not easily recognized. They 

 change the vowels nearly in the same manner as the Thiiringian 

 peasants do. Every vowel sinks in its pronunciation one or more de- 

 grees deeper than in Tamul, and the consonants are coarser. 



They change v into b, or p ; — b into p ; — h or g is frequently 

 changed into k ; e. g. pogiren Qt-jrrSiQ rposr j s j n their dialect, 

 po/cenn ; s is generally changed into A 1 ; e.g. sevi O^®^ is pro- 

 nounced by^ them, kevvi, — stnna ^<50T6ST ; — and vice versa", kilei 

 QoJdrr j s c h ari g e( i by them into tzillu ;— but the most peculiar change 

 is that of r, I, r, * ^ OT and into a kind of sh or 



£P ; yet so, that the consonants , the place of which this sound of sh 

 respectively supplies, are in many cases distinguished by the ear ; very 

 much so as a distant object can be pretty distinctly recognised in the 

 drizzling clouds so frequent on the Neelgherries. Their words which they 

 have in common with the Tamulians, are mostly changed into mono- 

 syllables; e.g. miirugu ^(J£(f) is changed into meyshk ; — ilei d? 6 ^ into 

 ersh ; viragu ©^(^j is verg, berk and burk (for it is a known fact 

 that all unwritten languages are very vague and unsettled in idiom and 

 pronunciation) ; volli ©®J6rrs$ is biilxsh the I and r, however, 

 are so melted together, if I may say so, that they form one consonant, 

 although both sounds be pretty distinctly heard ; — pal is parsh ; 



puli is puri ; pal UTTe & is polsh ; mil or villu or G&ta^Jp 



* Although their language may appear to be a jargon, and they themselves may be de- 

 graded, yet they are men ; homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.— I scarcely need 

 remind the reader, of Qamoos who was long seeking in vain for the correct meaning of 

 two words, when writing his great dictionary, and learnt them at last from the mouth of 

 some poor children in a little village.— Even, in merely philological respects, the Todaver 

 dialect is interesting. 



