Toda language
Toda | |
---|---|
Native to | India |
Region | Nilgiri Hills |
Native speakers | 1,600 (2001 census)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | tcx |
Glottolog | toda1252 |
ELP | Toda |
Toda is a
Phonology
Vowels
For a Dravidian language, Toda's sixteen vowels is an unusually large number. There are eight vowel qualities, each of which may occur long or short. There is little difference in quality between the long and short vowels, except for /e/, which occurs as [e] when short and as [æː] when long.[4]
Front | Central | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
Close | i 〈i, i·〉 | y 〈ü, ü·〉 | ɨ 〈ï, ï·〉 | u 〈u, u·〉 | ||
Mid | e 〈e〉 | ɵ 〈ö, ö·〉 | o 〈o, o·〉 | |||
Open | æ 〈e·〉 | ɑ 〈a, a·〉 |
Consonants
Toda has an unusually large number of fricatives and trills. Its seven
Labial | Denti- alveolar |
Apical alveolar |
Apical post-alveolar
|
Laminal post- alveolar |
Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | sib. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | ||||||
Nasal | m 〈m〉 | n̠ 〈n〉
|
ɳ 〈ṇ〉 | ||||||||||
Affricate
|
voiceless | p 〈p〉 | t̪ 〈t〉
|
t̪s̪ 〈c〉
|
t̠ 〈ṯ〉
|
tʃ 〈č〉 | ʈ 〈ṭ〉 | k 〈k〉 | |||||
voiced | b 〈b〉 | d̪ 〈d〉
|
d̪z̪ 〈ɀ〉
|
d̠ 〈ḏ〉
|
dʒ 〈j〉 | ɖ 〈ḍ〉 | ɡ 〈g〉 | ||||||
Fricative
|
voiceless | f 〈f〉 | θ̪͆ 〈θ〉 | s̪ 〈s〉
|
s̠ 〈s̠〉
|
ʃ 〈š〉 | ʂ 〈ṣ〉 | x 〈x〉 | |||||
voiced | ʒ 〈ž〉 | ʐ 〈ẓ〉 | (ɣ) 〈x〉 | ||||||||||
Lateral | ɬ̪ 〈ɬ〉
|
ɭ̊˔ 〈ꞎ〉 | |||||||||||
Approximant
|
l̪ 〈l〉
|
ɭ 〈ḷ〉 | j 〈y〉 | w 〈w〉 | |||||||||
Trill | r̘ 〈r〉
|
r̘ʲ 〈ṛy〉
|
r̠ 〈ṟ〉
|
r̠ʲ 〈ṟy〉 | ɽr 〈ṛ〉 | ɽrʲ 〈ṛy〉 |
All of these consonants may occur in word-medial and word-final positions. However, only a restricted set occur word-initially. These are /p, t̪, k, f, s̪, m, n̠, r̘, l̪, j, w/, in boldface above.
Unlike the other dental consonants, /θ/ is interdental. Similarly, /f/ is labiodental whereas the other labials are bilabial.[citation needed]
The palatalized rhotics are only mentioned by Spajić and Ladefoged (1996), previous descriptions like of Emeneau (1984) and Krishnamurti (2003) only have the 3 plain ones as the rhotics.
Apical consonants are either alveolar or postalveolar. The actual feature that distinguishes /r̘/ and /r̠/ is uncertain. They have the same primary place of articulation. Spajić and colleagues have found that the rhotic that may occur word initially (erroneously called "
Another difference between them is that /r̘/ is the least strongly trilled, most often occurring with a single contact. However, unlike a
The retroflex consonants are
The palatalization of the slided consonant ɽ͢rʲ does not affect the initial retroflex articulation, ɽ is not simultaneously coarticulated with ʲ.
Grammar
Verbal Morphology
As described by Murray B. Emeneau, in his "Toda Grammar and Texts,"[5] the entire Toda verbal system is based on the addition of many suffixes to the two base verb stems, stem 1 (henceforth, S1) and stem 2 (henceforth, S2). There are fifteen classes of verbs in Toda, each of which uses one of four suffixes to form its S2 from its S1. A short summary is given below:
Class | Example | Suffix | S2 |
---|---|---|---|
Ia | ko·ṭ- "to show" | -y- | ko·ṭy- |
Ib | koc- "to bite" | -y- (c- > č-) | koč- |
Ic | oɀ- "to fear" | -y- (ɀ- > j-) | oj- |
IIa | nen- "to think of" | -θ- | nenθ- |
IIb | kïy- "to do" | -θ- (-y > -s) | kïs- |
IIc | ïr- "to sit" | -θ- (-r > -θ) | ïθ- |
IIIa | kwïṛ- "to give (to 3rd)" | -t- | kwïṛt- |
IIIb | ko·y- "to bear fruit" | -t- (-y > -c) | ko·c- |
IIIc | soy- "to die" | -t- (-y > -t) | sot- |
IIId | kaɬ- "to learn" | -t- (-ɬ > -ṯ)1 | kaṯ- |
IIIe | wïṟ- "to undertake" | -t- (-ṟ/-l > -t-) | wït- |
IVa | kwïḷ- "to hatch" | -d- | kwïḷd- |
IVb | mi·y- "to bathe" | -d- (-y > -d) | mi·d- |
IVc | sal- "to belong to" | -d- (-l > -d) | sad- |
V (irregular) | pï·x- "to go," o·x- "to become" | - | pi·-, o·y- |
1Emeneau lists the rule "S1 -ṟ/-ɬ/-ṛ/-ꞎ/-ḍ/-x + -t- = S2 -ṯ/-ṯ/-ṭ/-ṭ/-ṭ/-k; S1 -r/-l/-n/-s̠/-ḷ/-ṇ + -t- = S1 -d/-ḏ/-ḏ/-ḏ/-ḍ/-ḍ" for this class.
To each of these stems, further suffixes may be added to create verb forms indicating different tenses and moods. The following table summarizes them:
Function | 1sg. | 1pl. excl. | 1pl. incl. | 2sg. | 2pl. | 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Present-future I | S2-pen | S2-pem | S2-pum | S2-py | S2-tš | S2-t |
Present-future II | S2-n | S2-m | S2-m | S2-ty | S2-tš | S2-u |
Past I | S2-špen | S2-špem | S2-špum | S2-špy | S2-š | S2-č |
Past II | S2-šn | S2-šm | S2-šm | S2-č | S2-š | S2-šk |
Tenseless | S2-en (Class I: S1-nen) | S2-em (Class I: S1-nem) | S2-um (Class I: S1-num) | S2-y (Class I: S1-ny) | S2-š (Class I: S1-nš) | ? |
Dubitative | S1-špen | S1-špem | S1-špum | S1-špy | S1-š | S1-č |
Voluntative | S1-kin | S1-kim | S1-ku | S1-ky | S1-kš | S1-kθ |
Imperative | - | - | - | S1 | S1-š | S1-mo· |
Negative | S1-en | S1-em | S1-um | S1-y | S1-š | S1-oθ |
Negative voluntative | S1-šn | S1-šm | S1-šm | S1-č | S1-š | S1-šk |
Negative imperative | - | - | - | S2-oṭ | S2-oṭṣ | - |
See also
- E. E. Speight, who was compiling Toda grammar in the period before his death[6]
- Murray B. Emeneau
References
- ^ Toda at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Toda language and script, Omniglot.
- ^ Krishnamurti (2003).
- ^ a b c Spajić, Ladefoged & Bhaskararao (1994).
- ^ Emeneau (1984)
- ^ Walsh, R R (15 April 1953). "Ernest Speight - A Portrait". The Sunday Statesman.
During his retirement he lived alone, devoting himself to the care of his fascinating library and extensive collection of Japanese art treasures and antiques. and the study of the language and customs and mythology of the Nilgiri hill tribes, the Badagas. He was compiling a Toda grammar when he died
Bibliography
- Emeneau, Murray B. (1984). Toda Grammar and Texts. American Philosophical Society, Memoirs Series, 155. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 9780871691552.
- Spajić, Siniša; Ladefoged, Peter; Bhaskararao, P. (1994). The rhotics of Toda. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 87: Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages II.
- Spajić, Siniša; Ladefoged, Peter; Bhaskararao, P. (1996). The trills of Toda. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Vol. 26. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–21. JSTOR 44526193.
- Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys (1 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77111-5.
External links
- The Toda Language, as part of the Endangered Languages project
- Toda at the UCLAPhonetics Archive
- Toda resources
- Toda swadesh list
- Toda morphology