Inscriptions and Dravidian sound changes "y" > "c" and "y" >

[Robert Zydenbos]

Replies to msg 26 May 98: indology at listserv.liv.ac.uk (DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA)

 nVNI> At 07:31 PM 5/25/98 EDT, S.Palaniappa wrote:

>The hyper-corrective behavior Krishnamurti mentions can be expected from a
>person with literacy in Sanskrit and comparative/historical linguistic
>knowledge.

 nVNI> This is not correct. It is the illiterate person who is
 nVNI> afraid that he is pronouncing a word wrongly that tries to
 nVNI> hypercorrect.

Not necessarily so. See e.g. an article by Wm. Labov, "Hypercorrection by the lower middle class as a factor in linguistic change", in Wm. Bright, _Sociolinguistics_ (The Hague/Paris. 1966), pp. 84-113.

It is precisely due to an awareness of what sort of thing is correct (but not quite understanding why) that hypercorrection can occur at all. Literacy actually increases this (plain 'literacy' is not the same as 'learning' and 'understanding').

Robert Zydenbos
zydenbos at flevoland.xs4all.nl