> 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'...