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Root reversal in Dravidian

From:Danny Wier <dawiertx@...>
Date:Thursday, May 20, 2004, 2:19
Been slow on the list lately, so I'll post something at least...

I'm doing something dumb here; I'm trying to learn several languages at
once. One of them is Tamil, and I discovered an interesting inflectional
feature in Dravidian languages where the consonants in a root are reversed
in a derivation!

Some examples from an unspecified Drav. language pulled from the article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_languages

a:rasu 'gather' > se:ru 'join'
kanu 'look' > inuku 'peep'
atta 'attic' (pro'lly a false cognate) reverses to itself

And I noticed there were quite a few palindromes or near-palindromes in
Tamil, such as amma, appa, an`n`a, anna 'rice', ken`aku 'tease, irritate'.
(Note the retroflex consonants when marked.)

My question: is this an exclusive feature of Dravidian, or can this be found
in other languages (besides Shelta, obviously)? Maybe I should form antonyms
in Tech by reversing the word, so that _bwarg_ 'to make war' becomes _grabw_
'to make peace'...

Replies

Tim May <butsuri@...>
Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>