I noticed continually that the Toda words as pronounced by my interpreters were quite different in sound from those which came from the mouths of the Todas themselves. This was especially the case with the vowels, and in the addition of the initial y, so well known in the Tamil pronunciation of English. So far as I could detect, there was no trace of this initial y in Toda, although it occurs occasionally in some of the previously recorded Toda vocabularies.
These differences between the pronunciation of my interpreter and that of the Todas may often be the source of inconsistencies in my record, for on some occasions, owing to lack of time, I was unable to listen carefully to the Todas themselves, and had to content myself with the words given to me by the interpreter.
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.