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.