Q: Kannada words in a Greek play?

[zydenbos at flevoland.xs4all.nl]

Replies to msg 29 Mar 97: indology at liverpool.ac.uk (jacob.baltuch at infoboard.be)

 jbb> I've read in a book by A. Danielou that a Greek papyrus
 jbb> from the 2nd c. AD was found at Oxyr. which contained
 jbb> a spoof on Euripides's "Iphigeneia [hi] en Taurois" in
 jbb> which are found some Kannada words. Does anyone know
 jbb> anything about this?

If you could give me the "Kannada words", I could tell you whether they are
Kannada words. I haven't seen them myself; but in Karnataka I have heard the
rumour that those famous words (?) in that famous Greek play (? it must be that
same play to which you referred) are not Kannada but Tulu. This could suggest
that the words in the Greek text are distorted in Greek script in such a way
that it is difficult to make out whether they are Kannada or Tulu; or perhaps
they belong to an older stage of a Dravidian language which cannot easily be
identified as either. But if you or somebody else can post them, we may reach
some kind of verdict.

Robert Zydenbos
Internet: zydenbos at flevoland.xs4all.nl