The Dravidian Languages

ISBN-13: 9780521771115 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 574 str.

B. H. Krishnamurti

Opis

The Dravidian languages are spoken by nearly 200 million people in South Asia and in diaspora communities around the world. They include Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu, as well as over 20 non-literary languages. Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, one of the most eminent Dravidianists of our time, provides a linguistic overview of the Dravidian language family. He describes its history and writing system, discusses its structure and typology, and considers its lexicon. Distant and more recent contacts between Dravidian and other language groups are also covered.

Recenzje

'… handled with great lucidity … DL is of interest to a wide range of scholars and students of language … Because of the thorough and meticulous nature of the analysis, it is an important contribution to the theory of comparative reconstruction … a timely work of great importance. The merits of the book can perhaps best be summarized by stating that, after almost a century and a half, Caldwell's great work has at last been superseded.' School of Oriental & African Studies

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Phonology: descriptive; 3. The writing systems of the literary languages; 4. Phonology: historical and comparative; 5. Word formation: roots, stems, formatives, derivational suffixes and nominal compounds; 6. Nominals: nouns, pronouns, numerals and time and place adverbs; 7. The verb; 8. Adjectives, adverbs and clitics; 9. Syntax; 10. Lexicon; 11. Conclusion; Bibliography; Indexes.