Kalyan Yadav SPKAY at 12:03, 7 April 2026

2026-04-07T12:03:21Z

New page

{{Short description|Hypothetical ancestor of the South Dravidian languages}}
{{infobox proto-language
|name=Proto–South Dravidian
|altname=Proto–South Dravidian I
|familycolor=Dravidian
|ancestor=[[Proto-Dravidian]]
|target=[[South Dravidian languages]]
|era={{circa|2nd–1st millennium BC}}<ref name="southworth3">{{citation |last=Southworth |first=Franklin |title=Linguistic archaeology of South Asia |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415655446| postscript = . |page=195}}</ref>
|region=Primarily [[South India]], possibly also areas of [[North India]] during [[Bronze Age]].
}}
{{Dravidian}}

'''Proto–South Dravidian''' is the [[linguistic reconstruction]] of the common ancestor of the southern [[Dravidian languages]] native to [[southern India]].<ref name="Krishnamurti-2003">{{cite book |first=Bhadriraju |last=Krishnamurti |title=The Dravidian Languages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54fV7Lwu3fMC |date=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-43533-8}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Andronov |first=Mikhail Sergeevich |title=A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages |year=2003 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz |isbn=978-3-447-04455-4 | postscript = . |page=299}}</ref> Its descendants include [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Kannada]], [[Malayalam]], [[Tulu language|Tulu]], [[Badaga language|Badaga]], [[Kodava language|Kodava]], [[Irula language|Irula]], [[Kota language (India)|Kota]] and [[Toda language|Toda]]. [[South Dravidian languages|South Dravidian]] is sometimes referred to as South Dravidian I (SD1) by linguists.<ref name="southworth1">{{citation |last=Southworth |first=Franklin |title=Linguistic archaeology of South Asia |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415655446| postscript = . |pages=50–51}}</ref>

==History==

Going by attested changes in written documents, the Proto–South Dravidian I (PSD1) language has been hypothesised to have been present in the second half of the first millennium BC.<ref name="southworth1"/> Some linguists infer it to have split from Proto–South Dravidian II (Also known as South Central Dravidian or [[Telugu language|Telugu]]-Kui) at the beginning of the first millennium BC.<ref name="southworth1"/> These datings however, have been noted to be vague approximations.<ref name="southworth1"/> Til the 4th-5th century BC, Proto–South Dravidian remained one language, with possible dialectal variations.<ref name="hiremath">{{citation |last=Hiremath |first=RC |title=The Genesis and Growth of Dravidian|year=1984|publisher=Dravidian Linguistics Association |isbn=| postscript =|page=31}}</ref>

==Phonology==

===Vowels===

Proto–South Dravidian inherited the system of five short and long vowels from [[Proto-Dravidian]]: ''*a'', ''*ā'', ''*i'', ''*ī'', ''*u'', ''*ū'', ''*e'', ''*ē'', ''*o'', ''*ō''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krishnamurti |first=Bhadriraju |title=The Dravidian Languages |date=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-43533-8 |author-link=Bhadriraju Krishnamurti}} p.79</ref>

===Consonants===

[[Old Tamil]], the earliest attested branch of South Dravidian has preserved an inventory of 17 consonants very similar to [[Proto-Dravidian language#Consonants|Proto-Dravidian]]: /p t ṯ c ṭ k, m n ñ ṇ, r ẓ, l ḷ, y w *H/.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krishnamurti |first=Bhadriraju |title=The Dravidian Languages |date=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-43533-8 |author-link=Bhadriraju Krishnamurti}} p.53</ref>

===Shared innovations===

In Proto–South Dravidian I, there is a merger of Proto-Dravidian high vowels ''*i*u'' with ''*e*o'' in the environment [C-a]. There is also a loss of ''*c'' following two intermediate stages of ''s'' and ''h'' in initial and medial positions. This sporadic loss of ''*c'' is also shared with the neighboring [[Telugu language]], which suggests that the change occurred when the SD1 subgroup neighbored the ancestor of Telugu right from the beginning. Proto-Dravidian ''*ṯ'' also becomes ''*ṟ'' in intervocalic position in PSD1.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krishnamurti |first=Bhadriraju |title=The Dravidian Languages |date=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-43533-8 |author-link=Bhadriraju Krishnamurti}} pp.173-174</ref><ref name="Subrahmanyam 2008">{{Cite book |last=Subrahmanyam |first=P.S. |title=Dravidian Comparative Grammar 1|date=2008 |publisher=Central Institute of Classical Tamil|isbn= |author-link=}} pp.39-40</ref>

PSD1 also innovated separate demonstrative pronouns for females with a feminine suffix ''*-aḷ'': ''*avaḷ'' (distal) ''*ivaḷ'' (proximal), ''*uvaḷ'' (yonder).<ref name="Subrahmanyam 2008"/>

==Society==

The vocabulary of PSD indicates that the society was much more developed than at the [[Proto-Dravidian language|Proto-Dravidian]] stage, although not all reconstructed words are from a single chronological stage. There are several new words for headman, rulers (including an [[Vedic Sanskrit|Indo-Aryan]] loan word), taxes, armies, territorial divisions, tolls and customs, debt collection and corvée labor.<ref name="southworth7">{{citation |last=Southworth |first=Franklin |title=Linguistic archaeology of South Asia |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415655446| postscript = |pages=240–242}}</ref><ref name="southworth6"/>

There are also terms for urban structures and various types of habitations including villages, towns, castles, forts, prisons (or storehouses), palaces and streets. The [[caste system]] is well established with several names of occupations which later became caste terms. There are also many terms for metal objects such as weapons, ships, vehicles with wheels, clothes, and valuable stones. There are new developments in agriculture with new crops and irrigation techniques. This more advanced lifestyle has yet to be identified in the archaeological record of peninsular India in the timeframe of Proto–South Dravidian.<ref name="southworth6">{{citation |last=Southworth |first=Franklin |title=Linguistic archaeology of South Asia |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415655446| postscript = |pages=250–256}}</ref>

==Vocabulary==
===Shared words with Akkadian===

South Dravidian I (SD1) ''*eḷḷu'' ([[sesame]]) is cognate with [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ''ellu'' which suggests that the name was in use at the [[Indus–Mesopotamia relations|time of trade]] between the [[Indus Valley Civilisation]] (IVC) and [[Mesopotamia]] (circa 2600-1900 BC). As ''*eḷḷu'' is only found in SD1,<ref>Dravidian Etymology Dictionary - entry 854 -https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/burrow_query.py?page=83</ref> it suggests that specifically SD1 speakers were involved in the Indus-Mesopotamian trade, and that SD1 speakers migrated down the west coast of India following the collapse of the IVC (circa 1900-1300 BC).<ref name="kolichala"/> This hypothesis is further supported by several Dravidian loan words in Sanskrit like ''phala'' ‘fruit’<ref>Dravidian Etymology Dictionary - entry 4004 - https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/burrow_query.py?page=356</ref> and ''mayūra'' ‘peacock’<ref>Dravidian Etymology Dictionary - entry 4642 - https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/burrow_query.py?page=410</ref> being closer to the SD1 forms than to Proto-Dravidian forms.<ref name="kolichala">Kolichala, Suresh, 'The Dravidian Languages: An Overview', in R. Amritavalli, and Bhuvana Narasimhan (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Dravidian Languages (online edn, Oxford Academic, 19 Dec. 2022), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197610411.013.2, accessed 3 Jan. 2025.</ref> The Akkadian word for [[ivory]] (''pīru'') is also said to be of Dravidian origin (''*pīlu'') and cognate with [[Brahui language|Brahui]] ''*pīl''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ansumali Mukhopadhyay |first=Bahata |date=2021-08-03 |title=Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization: ultraconserved Dravidian tooth-word reveals deep linguistic ancestry and supports genetics |journal=Humanities and Social Sciences Communications |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=1–14 |article-number=193 |doi=10.1057/s41599-021-00868-w |issn=2662-9992 |s2cid=257091003 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bray |first=Denys |author-link= |date=1978 |title=The Brahui language |url=https://archive.org/details/TheBrahuiLanguagePart2/mode/2up?view=theater |location=Quetta |publisher=Brahui academy |page=236 |isbn=}}</ref> These words reinforce the hypothesis that Dravidian speakers were present in the [[Indus Valley Civilisation]].<ref name="southworth5">{{citation |last=Southworth |first=Franklin |title=Linguistic archaeology of South Asia |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415655446| postscript = |page=332}}</ref>

===Old Indo-Aryan loans in Proto–South Dravidian===

The following [[Vedic Sanskrit|Old Indo-Aryan]] loan words into Proto–South Dravidian have been proposed by linguist [[Franklin Southworth]]. The word ''*accu'' (axle) was hypothesised to have been loaned into [[Proto-Dravidian]] from [[Rig Veda|Rig Vedic]] ''akṣa''.<ref name="southworth2">{{citation |last=Southworth |first=Franklin |title=Linguistic archaeology of South Asia |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415655446| postscript = |pages=79–82}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
!Proto–South Dravidian reconstruction !! Meaning !! Old Indo-Aryan
|-
|style="width:08em"| *arank || stage, platform, veranda || ranga
|-
|*arac-an || king || rājan
|-
|*argaḷ || bar, cross bar || argala
|-
|*āṇi || nail || āṇi
|-
|*kañc || bell metal || kamśa
|-
|*kaṭṭ || stick || kāṣṭha
|-
|*kump-at || gourd, pumpkin || kumbha-phala, kumbhanda
|-
|*paṇ-i || comb || phaṇaga, ([[Marathi language|Marathi]] phaṇi)
|-
|*paṇṭi || cart, wagon || bhāṇḍa
|-
|*pōy || member of a spec. tribe/caste, headman|| bhōgin
|-
|*may-aṇ|| wax || madana, mayana, ([[Marathi language|Marathi]] men)
|}

===Other early borrowings in the Vedic period===

The following words are attested in both Proto–South Dravidian and [[Vedic Sanskrit|Rig Vedic Sanskrit]] (circa 1400 BC), with uncertainty of which direction the borrowing was from. The [[Rig Veda|Rig Vedic]] ''ulukhala'' (mortar) is proposed to be cognate with PSD ''*ul-akk'' ‘pestle’, while [[Rig Veda|Rig Vedic]] ''nīla'' (blue) is proposed to be cognate with PSD ''*aṇile'' (ink nut tree).<ref name="southworth2"/>

Other words in the [[Shatapatha Brahmana]] (circa 700 BC) include ''arka'' (the plant ''Calatropis gigantea'') cognate with PSD *erukku and ''muñja'' (‘the grass ''Saccharum Sara'') cognate with PSD ''*muñci''.<ref name="southworth2"/>

==Substratum effect on Indo-Aryan==

Ferenc Ruzca states that all the major shifts in Indo-Aryan phonetics over two millennia can be attributed to the constant influence of an old Dravidian language with a similar phonetic structure to Tamil.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ruzca |first=Ferenc |date=2013 |editor-last=Klein|editor-first=Jared S. |title=Indic Across the Millennia: from the Rigveda to Modern Indo-Aryans |publisher=Hempen Verlag|pages=145–152 |chapter=The influence of Dravidian on Indo-Aryan phonetics|url=https://www.academia.edu/472464|isbn=9783934106055}}</ref>

== References ==
{{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=[[Wiktionary]] has a list of reconstructed Proto-Dravidian forms at '''''[[Wiktionary:Appendix:Proto-Dravidian reconstructions|Appendix:Proto-Dravidian reconstructions]]'''''}}
{{reflist}}

{{Dravidian languages}}
{{Tamil language}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Dravidian languages]]
[[Category:Proto-languages|South Dravidian]]

Proto–South Dravidian language - Revision history

Kalyan Yadav SPKAY at 12:03, 7 April 2026