North Dravidian is a branch (Zvelebil 1990:56) of the Dravidian languages that includes Brahui, Kurux and Malto. (There have been slight differences in the way the Dravidian languages are grouped by various Dravidian linguists: See Subrahmanyam 1983, Zvelebil 1990, Krishnamurthi 2003). It is further divided into Kurux-Malto and Brahui.
It has been suggested that this article be merged into Dravidian languages#Classification. (Discuss) Proposed since May 2022. |
Northern Dravidian | |
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Geographic distribution | Balochistan and Eastern India |
Linguistic classification | Dravidian
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Northern Dravidian is characterized by the retraction of Proto Dravidian *k to /q/ before vowels other than /i(:)/ and later spirantizing in Brahui and Kurux, in return the *c also retracted to /k/ in the same environment.[1]
Initial *w's became b likely due to influence from eastern Indo Aryan languages. Brahui also has a voiceless lateral which formed after the merge of *ḷ to *l as there are words from both of them but the conditions of the split are not clear.[1]
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