Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/233

 INDIA (RACES AND LANGUAGES) 221 matical gender, excepting in the pronoun of the third person, which belongs mostly to the verb. Nouns are distinguished, however, as belonging either to the higher or to the lower caste, the one comprising rational and the other irrational beings; men, gods, demigods, spirits, and the like, forming one group, and animals, inanimate objects, and subjective ideas, the other. Singular and plural numbers are distinguished, the latter by means of high- or low-caste suffixes. The former was originally called mar, and is now chiefly employed as an honorific plural ; otherwise it is reduced to ar, dr, ir, and ir, appearing in Telugu and Kannadi, as aru, urn, ru, ri, dru, and eru. The latter was originally called kal and gal, as still clearly seen in Tamil and MalaySlam. In Canarese it is gal u. The cases are indicated by means of suffixes. The declension of nouns is shown in the following examples : 1. Tamil. Singular nom. ray ay ( rrnLUCBT), a king, ace. rdyaqi, gen. rdyaqudiya, (rrnUjS>'<35)l-UJ ), dat. rd- yaqukku ( rTniU3'3> v Of), abl. rdyanilirundu, instr. rdyandl, loc. rdyan.il, rdyaqidattil ; plu- ral nom. rdyar ( nTlLUIT)i acc - rdyar$, gen. rdyarudjya (rrnuJJ3fl5)i_uj), dat. rdyarukku, abl. rdyarilirundu, instr. rdyardl, loc. rdyaril, rdyaridattil. 2. Telugu. Singular nom. gur- ramu ( ^^.aJ) ), a horse, acc. gurramunu, gen. gurramuyokTca ( 7v6,355iB-vi )> dat. gurramu- ku, gurramunaku, instr. gurramudeta, loc. gur- ramulo; plural nom. gurramulu, acc. gurra- mulanu, gen. gurramwla, dat. gurramulaku, instr. gurramuladeta, loc. gurramulalo. 3. Malayalam. Singular nom. mala, a moun- tain, acc. malaye, gen. malayute, dat. malekka, abl. malayilninna, instr. malaydl, loc. mala- yil ; plural nom. malakal, acc. malakale, gen. malakalute, dat. malakalukka, abl. malakal- iloninna, instr. malakaldl, loc. malakalil. 4. Kannadi or Canarese. Singular nom. mara- vu, a tree, acc. marava, gen. marada, dat. ma- rakke, abl. maradadeseinda, instr. maradinda, loc. maradalli; plural nom. maragalu, acc. maragala, gen. maragala, dat. maragalige, abl. maragaladeseinda, instr. maragalinda, loc. maragalalli. 5. Tulu. Singular nom. mara, a tree, acc. marana, gen. marada, dat. maraka, instr. maradda, loc. marada; plural nom. marakulu, acc. marakuluna, gen. marakula, dat. marakuluka, instr. marakuludda, loc. marakuluda. Adjectives remain always un- changed in the Dravidian languages, and al- ways precede their nouns. Personal pronouns, however, are capable of inflection. The pro- noun of the first person singular, nominative, is in Tamil ndq, Telugu nenw, Kannadi ndnu, Malayalam Mn, Tulu ydn; plural, Tamil ndm, Telugu rnemu, Kannadi ndm, dm, and ndvu, Malayalam ndn, Tulu narnma. In Sen-Tamil the suffix gal is added to produce a pure plural form; hence ndngal instead of ndm. The first ten cardinal numbers in Tamil are oqdu, irandii, jnuqdu, ndlu, indu, ddu, efa, etfu, oqladu, and pattu. In Telugu there is no word for one ; the others are rendti, mudu, ndlugu, aidu, dru, yedu, yenimidi, tommidi, and pad i ; in Kannadi the ten are ondu, eradw, muru, ndlku, aidu, dru, elu, entu, om bhaitu, and hattu ; and in Malayalam, onna, ranta, munna, ndla, aMa, dra, ela, etta, onpata, and patta. The most peculiar constituent of the Dravidian languages is the verb, which is a mere compound of a form of the noun with a personal pronoun. Caldwell says of it: " When case signs are attached to a root, or when, without the addition of case signs, it is used as the nominative of a verb, it is re- garded as a noun ; the same root becomes a verb without any internal change or forma- tive addition, when the signs of tense and the pronouns or their terminal fragments are suf- fixed to it." Further on he says : " The struc- ture of the Dravidian verb is strictly aggluti- native. The particles which express the ideas of mood and tense, transition, intransition, causation, and negation, together with the pro- nominal fragments by which person, number, and gender are denoted, are annexed or ag- glutinated to the root in so regular a series and by so quiet a process, that generally no change whatever, or at most only a slight euphonic change, is effected either in the root or in any of the suffixed particles. As the Dravidian noun has but one declension, so the Dravidian verb has only one conjugation and but very few irregular forms." Cingalese or Singhalese, the language of the Elu, the original inhabitants of Ceylon, incorporated a large number of Pali and Sanskrit words, while the modern modifications of it are tinged with Ma- lay. (See CINGALESE LANGUAGE.) The Elu alphabet has 34 consonants and 12 vowels. This alphabet may be classified as follows : Gutt. s& k, 5) kh, co g, 3 Pal. O4 tf  ?. els ...... | ) v. Sib. and asp. cB p, Vowels . . . s, E3, tS) h. <j) 3 au, There is no grammatical gender, though gram- marians distinguish between male and female, restricted however to animate beings, and even this is very vaguely applied. Feminines are in- dicated by the Sanskritic termination i, inni, or inna. The plural is formed either by substi- tuting 6 for the final d, or by dropping the final vowel, and further by one of the four affixes