Phonetics
In order to indicate the sounds of the Toda language, I have kept as closely as possible to the generally recognised system in use in India, but have been obliged to adopt many more signs than those usually employed.
The vowel sounds which I distinguished were very numerous. The following vowels and diphthongs certainly occurred: [[606]]â, a, ä, ê, e, î, i, ô, o, ö, ò, û, u, ü, ai, au, ei, eu, oi.[7] I am doubtful, however, whether in some cases a distinction between two sounds was not due to individual differences of pronunciation or to dialectical differences. This is almost certainly the case with the distinction between ai and oi. Some other cases which are more complex may be considered in detail.
Â, ò and o. The first two sounds are often interchanged with one another. There is no doubt that the usual â of some Dravidian languages becomes ò in Toda, as in the change from nâḍ to nòḍr, and most previous writers have regarded this change as constant, and have used the sign â for the sound which the Todas undoubtedly pronounce like the aw of the English word ‘law.’ I should much have liked to follow their example, and by so doing could have avoided the introduction of a new sign for the Toda sound, a sound for which there appears to be no generally recognised symbol in the phonetic systems used by anthropologists. I could not do so, however, because the Todas sometimes use the true â sound. There are certain words which are always pronounced with exactly the same sound as in the English word ‘father,’ and I never heard these words pronounced otherwise. In some cases there is a definite reason why this should be so. Thus the Toda word for ‘again’ is mâr, and I never heard this word uttered otherwise than as I have written it. If it had undergone the common transformation it would have become mòr, the ti word for buttermilk, and in one case at least there would have been occasion for misunderstanding, for one of the salt-giving ceremonies is called mârup or ‘again salt,’ while another is called mòrup or ‘buttermilk salt.’ The syllable also occurs in the words pâtatmâr and ertatmâr, and is never pronounced in these words otherwise than as I have written it. On the other hand, there are certain words in which the sound is always that of ò, and in other cases the two sounds are undoubtedly interchanged, and in the latter case I have usually adopted the spelling in â. A good example of this is pârs or pòrs, milk, for which [[607]]I have throughout adopted the former spelling, though it is quite as often called pòrs.
The ò is often shortened into o, and this is especially the case with the word for ‘man.’ The general Dravidian form of this word is âḷ, but in Toda it becomes òḷ or oḷ (which I write as ol), and in compound words, such as palol and wursol, it is always, or nearly always, pronounced so as to be indistinguishable from the o of the English word ‘olive.’ The long ô is not a very frequent sound in Toda.
A and ä. The sign a is used, in accordance with the general Indian practice, for the sound of the English word ‘hut,’ one of the commonest of Toda sounds. It is undoubtedly interchanged sometimes with the sound of the English word ‘hat’ for which I use the sign ä. In such cases of interchange, I use the sign a in preference, but when I always heard the ä sound, I have used it. It seemed to me that this sound was especially frequent in proper names, as in that of the village Päm and in such words as Kän.
Û and u. These are used for the sounds of the words ‘moon’ and ‘full’ and both are of frequent occurrence. The short form seems occasionally to be changed into a; thus, the word mun means ‘maternal uncle,’ but the word for ‘sister’s son’ is manmokh. This is a good instance of the value of vowel sounds in Toda; the mankugh is the sister’s daughter, but the munkugh is the name of the daughter of a maternal uncle. The two words which resemble one another so closely have two very different meanings, those of niece and cousin.
Ê and ei. I use ê for the sound of the ei in the English word ‘their.’ Ei is the sign which I use for the long ä of the English word ‘date.’ A sound for which I often use this sign is one which gave me a great deal of trouble. In it the vowel sound is prolonged so as to form almost a dissyllable, and in my earlier records I wrote it êe, the first ê having the sound of the ei in ‘their.’ I decided later to use ei, though I acknowledge it is not at all a satisfactory representation of the sound I heard.
Î. The only point on which I have to remark about this sound is that it is sometimes prolonged so as to become a dissyllable as in the example already mentioned. In one [[608]]case, the word mîis, used in the erkumptthpimi ceremony, this prolongation of the sound is so marked and so constant that I have preserved a record of it in the spelling, but in most cases I have been content to indicate it by î only.
Eu and ö. I use the former sign for a sound which seemed to me very much like the French eu. It often resembled very closely the German ö, and in some cases, as in that of the word for the numeral 7, I was doubtful which was the right sign. The sound for which I use eu is, however, more prolonged, and approaches a dissyllable. It occurs in the most definite form in the word for god, teu. This is undoubtedly derived from the Sanscrit ‘deva’ in general use in Southern India, and it is therefore very interesting that this word, which has become ‘Dieu’ in French, should have become the very similar teu in the Toda language.
U, ü, and i. The ü sound, almost exactly like that of the German language, was common, though in many cases I was doubtful whether to write u, ü, or i. Thus it was difficult to say whether the word for bow was purs, pürs, or pirs; the last named would bring it in line with general Dravidian orthography, but the first seemed to me the most frequent, and I have therefore adopted it.
Ai and oi. The sound ai is not very frequent in Toda, and when it occurs is often on the way to oi. Thus the naim or council was often noim, and mogai and mogoi were said indifferently.
I had very much difficulty in writing the consonants, being especially troubled by my lack of familiarity with linguals. The following were those which I heard:—b, ch, d, ḍ, f, g, gg, gh, h, j, k, kh, l and ḷ, m, n, ñ, p, r, s, sh, t, th, v, w, z, zh.
In the text of the book I have not attempted to distinguish the lingual consonants, and I have also omitted the very common euphonic insertions, especially of ch, sh, and th.
B, p, v, w, and f. The sound expressed by b was heard very rarely, and I am doubtful whether it really occurs in true Toda. It is a common letter in Badaga, but when a Badaga word is pronounced by the Todas, the letter usually becomes p. In a few words I had much difficulty in making up my mind whether a given sound was b or p, and this was especially [[609]]the case with the word kudupel or kudubel, which is probably a Badaga word.
One of the most frequent consonants in Toda is p, which often changes into v, especially when p is the initial letter of the latter part of a compound word; thus the word pet or wand in pôhpet became pôhvet, kugpali became kugvali, and nedrpol, nedrvol. Occasionally p would become a distinct w, as in the name of the flower kargwûv for kargpûv.
The letter f undoubtedly occurs in Toda, though not very frequently. It is sometimes changed into v, but in some cases, as in the name of the ancient village Kusharf, I never heard any sound other than a distinct f. I did not hear f and p interchanged.
As already mentioned, the letter w may occasionally occur as a variant of p or v, but it also occurs in words where it is never interchanged with either of these letters. The most frequent example of the occurrence of the letter is in the word wursol, and here the sound was so elusive that for a long time I hesitated whether to write the word as wursol or ursol. Breeks wrote this word varzhol, and we may take it that he distinctly recognised the initial letter as allied to v and p.
D, ḍ, t, th. I have used the sign d for two sounds in the text. One I could not distinguish from the English sound expressed by this letter. It is sometimes the representative of nd of Badaga, mand or village becoming mad in Toda,[8] while the Badaga form of Pidati is Benduti. The d of other Dravidian languages often becomes t in Toda; thus pandava becomes pateva, and the Teivaliol almost certainly derive their name from some form of the word deva.
More frequently, however, d is used for the lingual consonant ḍ, which is one of the commonest sounds in Toda. Very often this letter is immediately followed by the letter r, and the combination ḍr (which in the text of the book I have written dr) is an extremely frequent sound. Often to my ear it was quite indistinguishable from the simple r, and usually I had to refer to my interpreter to know whether a given sound was ḍr or r. Neither of my interpreters [[610]]seemed ever to be in any doubt, and they were so consistent on this point that wherever this spelling occurs it is probably correct. So far as I can tell the ḍr is the representative of ḍ in other Dravidian languages; thus, nâd of Canarese becomes nòḍr, and the kêdu of Badaga becomes kêḍr. On reference to the list of Badaga and Toda names of villages given in [Appendix III]. it will be seen that the ḍr of the Todas is usually the equivalent of the Badaga ḍ, Telkodu becoming Telkudr, and Kudimal becoming Kudrmas.
The sound which I express by dr has been very variously spelt by previous writers; thus, the Toda future world has been written Humanorr or Omnorr by Harkness, Amunàd by Breeks, Amnôr by Marshall and Pope, and Amnor by Thurston, and the sacred plant tudr has been written tûd, tûde, tiurr, tûre and tûr.
When the sound ḍ occurs before letters other than r, I am afraid I may have often omitted it. Thus till nearly the end of my visit I wrote the word teḍshk as teshk, and the name of the village Teḍshteiri as Teshteiri, and I have little doubt that this letter, the presence of which I had so much difficulty in recognising, may have been omitted in other cases.
There seems to be no doubt that ḍr and t might sometimes be interchangeable. Thus the termination of personal names, kûtan seemed to be the same word as kûḍr. A horn is kûḍr and imitation-horns are kûter. An assembly is kût, and the corresponding verb is kûḍriti (3rd person singular). Sometimes ḍr becomes rt; thus the word kêḍr becomes kêrt in the compound word kêrtnòdr, and the names of the clans Kuuḍr and Pieḍr often become Kuurt and Piert in the words Kuurtol and Piertol.
I failed to distinguish between t and ṭ, and it is probable that my t includes both letters. My interpreters used the sign th for ṭ, as is common in the transliteration of missionaries and others in India, and I am afraid that in a few cases my th should stand for the lingual ṭ. It is very unfortunate that th should be used for ṭ, for the true th not only occurs among the Todas but is a very frequent consonant. It is frequently inserted euphonically in words which are at other times pronounced [[611]]without it, and this is especially the case in connexion with the letter l. The consonant th also occurs frequently apart from any other consonant, in such words as pûthi, pathanmul, &c.
I think it probable that under the sign th I have included two sounds, that of the English word ‘though’ and that of ‘throw,’ but I could not make up my mind whether the two sounds were definitely distinguished. The softer sound is undoubtedly the more common, and often it seemed to me to be even softer than this sound is ever heard in English.
K, kw, g, kh, gh, h. Perhaps the commonest Toda consonant is k, which often becomes kw, and it seemed to me that the two were sometimes interchanged, kûḍr becoming kwûḍr, &c.
The consonant g is less frequently heard, but kûḍr, especially as the termination of the names of men and places, is often pronounced gûḍr, and it seemed to me that this pronunciation is somewhat more common among the Teivaliol than among the Tartharol. The sound g occurs very definitely, sometimes at the ends of words as in the names of villages, as in Kwirg and Perg, and in the word kug, and in these cases there is no doubt that it is a true Toda consonant.
The sounds which I have expressed by kh and gh are fairly common, though I do not feel quite confident that the two sounds are definitely distinguished from one another. I heard them very frequently in the words mokh and kûgh, and it certainly seemed to me that the final sound of the latter was always softer than that of the word mokh. When one or other of these sounds occurs at the end of a word, it is probable that I have in some cases omitted to notice it. A man named Perpakh was called by me Perpa till nearly the end of my visit, and it is probable that I made similar errors which were not detected. Similarly kh in the middle of a word may easily escape attention, and this has probably happened in some cases.
I also had much trouble about a sound occurring at the end of a word for which I have used the sign h. Its chief [[612]]occurrence is in the word pôh, and the same or a closely similar sound sometimes occurs in the middle of the word pali. The word pôh has usually been written boath, following Marshall, or boa (Breeks). The word certainly often sounded like a dissyllable, but I was doubtful whether this was anything more than the prolongation of vowels to which I have already referred in the case of ei and i. There is some kind of consonantal sound at the end of the word, but it is certainly not the ordinary th nor is it kh, and I have adopted h as the nearest equivalent though I recognise that it is not the right sign.
R, l. I have already considered the letter r in connexion with ḍ, but it also occurs frequently by itself. At the end of a word it is sometimes distinctly rolled. When used after a short vowel, as in such a word as persin, it was sometimes not easy for me to detect its presence, and occasionally it is possible that I have omitted it from words in which it should occur.
The letter l is of fairly frequent occurrence, but has certainly often been lost in Toda in words which contain it in other Dravidian languages; thus the word kîl, lower, inferior, becomes kî in Toda, though the l has been retained in meil or mel, meaning upper or superior.
There are almost certainly two different l sounds in Toda which I failed to distinguish definitely. I have written the word for dairy pali but the second consonant of the word is certainly a different sound from that of the l in meil, and is probably the representative of the l of Tamil. It is in connexion with this letter that the euphonic th is so often inserted, and I believe that the proper name for a Toda dairy is paḷthḷi. When this l occurs at the end of a word, it is sometimes hardly audible, and to my ear bears a very close resemblance to the French l. The end of the word Kudreiil seemed to me to be pronounced almost exactly like the end of Auteuil.
It appears that r and l may sometimes pass into one another; thus, the name of the bow and arrow ceremony is pursütpimi, but the buffalo given on this occasion is called pulkwadr.
M and n. The letters m and n, indistinguishable to my [[613]]ear from the corresponding English letters, are of frequent occurrence. They are, however, often omitted in the Toda forms of Tamil or Canarese words; thus, as we have already seen, the word mand, village, becomes the Toda mad; the Tamil ambu, arrow, becomes ab; and the Toda form of Kurumba is Kûrub.
The n may also disappear from the Toda names of villages when it exists in their Badaga names; thus Tarnard becomes Taradr and Korangu, Kwirg. The omission of the letter n and other changes which words undergo in Toda are very well shown in the word padjpateva, which is the Toda form of the Panchpandavas. Although my ear failed to separate the n of the Todas from the English n, it is probably different and represents the ṇ of Tamil.
In addition to the ordinary n the Todas have another consonant which is extremely like the final French n for which I have used the sign ñ. The sound only occurs in certain exclamations or greetings; the Oñ which occurs so frequently in the dairy ritual is pronounced in this way, and so is bañ, which is uttered by the palol as a greeting to the Tartharol. The sound also occurs in the various kinship greetings. The commonest of these, tioñ, offered to an elder brother, is a corruption of itian, but I never heard the nasal pronunciation when the word an or anna was uttered in the ordinary way. In this case the sound I have expressed by n is undoubtedly the letter ṇ of Tamil, this word being aṇṇa in that language.
S, sh, z, zh, dz, j. The sound for which I have used the letter s is a somewhat harsh sound, harsher, I think, than is heard in English, but much like the sound which I have heard in English words pronounced by Scottish Highlanders. Breeks wrote zh for this sound, but I have used this sign for a different sound which was exactly like the si in the English word ‘occasion.’ It occurs not uncommonly in Toda in such words as puzh, earth, and in the verbal form kaizhvat.
The sound z occurs frequently. I was often doubtful whether to write dz or z, especially at the ends of personal names, and in other cases what was obviously the same termination was pronounced more like dj; thus I was often [[614]]doubtful whether to write the name Piliodz in this way or as Pilioz or Piliodj; (the three English equivalents would be the sounds of Dods, Boz and Dodge).
The sounds s and sh are often inserted euphonically; thus, the name Kuriolv is as often as not pronounced Kursiolv, and, more rarely, Kurshiolv.