OF BHARATAVABSA OR INDIA. 
33 
stance is a proof of tlie relationship between the r and t 
sounds. After this statement the peimutation between the 
lingual d and the /• and I sounds will not create any surprise. 
Some of these changes are pretty common elsewhere ; they 
occur in the Aryan as well as in the Dravidian languages. 
A further peculiarity of the Dravidian languages, and 
especially of Tamil, is their dislike to beginning words with 
compound letters : Brahma becomes Piramam, LSjrtaLh ; jn-a- 
bandha, pirapantam, i^jtu^^ld ; grantha, kirantam, Sst^^ld. 
In consequence of indistinct pronunciation and the desire 
for abbreviation, initial and medial consonants are often 
dropped at the beginning or in the middle of words, while on 
the other hand in opposition to this tendency a half -consonant 
is prefixed to an initial vowel, in order to prevent a word from 
beginning with a vowel. We thus occasionally meet words 
whose initial consonants are dropped and replaced by half- 
consonants, e.g., vella, white, in Telugu becomes ella and yella, 
vesa, haste, esa and yesa, the name of the Billavar of Travan- 
core becomes Ilavar and Yilavar ; Yelur becomes Elur and 
Yelur. This practice of prefixing a half-consonant before an 
initial vowel is generally enforced in the middle of a sentence, 
— a y is thus placed before an a, e, t, and ai and a v before 
0, u, and au. The half -consonant is used to avoid an hiatus 
and this explains why the University-degrees M.A. and B.A. 
are pronounced by many Natives Ya>n Ya and Be Ta. 
Metathesis is likewise of not unfrequent occurrence in the 
Dravidian languages. It is even found in words of common 
occurrence, in kurudai, e.g., for kudirai, horse ; in Marudai for 
the town Madura ; in Vend for Elora (Yelur or Ballora) ; in 
Vaikdsam (eaeu^an-'fLa) and VaikdU (erosuis/r^)) for Vaisdkham 
and Vaisdkhi ; in the Telugu agapa and ahaka, ladle, &c. 
Another peculiarity is to drop one of two consonants in 
a syllable and to lengthen the vowel if it happens to be 
short, or to double a consonant and to shorten the vowel, 
