Page:An introduction to Dravidian philology.djvu/98

Rh guage undergoes before it attains the standard pronunciation of the society to which it belongs. If this supposition is correct, we may turn for light on the etymology of words to the language of children. The languages of children and of the illiterate section of society have a great deal in common in phonetic resemblances, and if the speech of the illiterate sometimes illuminates the derivation of the forms of words, there is no reason why the language of children also way not be expected to do the same. I shall illustrate my point. The numeral for two in the Dravidian languages is రెండు,, ఎరడు, (Kui) &c. So far, no word has been found in any known families of languages to correspond to any of those forms. But, on turning to the language of a Telugu child, we find the form దొందు (dondu) for two, which in his own language soon passes into రొండు (rondu)! దొందు (dondu) is also found in the