Dravidian golla and Hindi gvAla

[Lakshmi Srinivas]

Ganesan,

Plse bear with me. This is my last post on this
thread.

Indeed if golla > gvAla, how does it become kOvalan.
Is it because the short 'o' was lacking in Old Tamil?

I believe it is much simpler to derive the radical
syllable of the Tamil word kOnAr (milkman), kOvalar
from Skt go, gau than to look for it in a complicated
essay on old Tamil literary landscapes. In any case
the Old Tamil root  for  hills seems to be kvR where v
stands for a vowel such as 'u', so it is not clear how
one derives kOnAr and kOvalar (which do not even agree
on the second consonant) from the root word for
'hill'. And oh btw before I forget,  which came first,
the sheep or the hills?

First it was the rivers, now it is the castes. One
point about these proposed etymologies: strange that
there is a tendency to derive 'yamuna' from Dr roots
while at the same time there is an adamant, almost
fanatical,  refusal to acknowledge that Tamil river
names can not at all be satisfactorily derived using
Dr roots.  This brings me to  M Witzel's point about
Tamil scholars liking to believe that Tamils are
autochthonous in Tamilnadu (cf EJVS paper on
Substratum languages in the Rigveda).

In a world where etymologies are a matter of faith, I
prefer being a Dravida Kazhagam adherent :-) although
without the "tamiz oru kATTumirANTI mozhi" rider :-)

Also, I can not understand how a word for 'millet' in
Hindi could be borrowed from Tamil when millet is
originally an African crop. Also, most agricultural
terminology in Dr, IA itself is shown to be borrowed
from elsewhere (cf Masica).

I see one of two things happening (sometimes both):
1. Common borrowings from third sources are attributed
to Dr loans
2. Phonetic resemblances are used, with the help of
complicated reasoning involving Tamil literary
landscapes or equally extraneous stuff, to set up
etymologies without adequate
phonological/morphological considerations. Something
of an Indological Soundex algorithm :-)

Thanks and Warm Regards,

LS








--- "N. Ganesan" <naga_ganesan at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> In Telugu, golla = a herdsman, a shepherd, ...
> (C. P. Brown, Telugu-English dictionary, p. 389 )
> Further, Brown records that "golla" is derived from
> "gorri" =  A sheep. DED 1799 Ta. koRi sheep
> ... Te. goRe, goRRe sheep ....
>
> For the Telugu word "goRe", compare the Tamil
> cognates:
> a)koRi 02 1. sheep; 2. aries, a constellation of the
> zodiac
> b)koRi-ttal 01 1. to nip off the husks of grains; to
> nibble grain; 2. to
> graze;
> to pick up food here and there, as cattle; to eat
> scantily;
> c)koRRi 1. young calf; 2. cow with a young calf.
>
> gvaala in Hindi meaning herdsmen does not seem to be
> transmuted from Skt. gopAla, even though this is
> popularly
> attested in modern dictionaries.
>
> Consider Hindi jvAr < ka. jOLa, ta. cOLam, co_n_nal,
> tel. jonna.
> (Though Mayrhofer 1953 EWA derives yananala from
> yavana - Greek, Ionian etc.!)
>
> Just as hindi jvAr (= millet ...) < drav. jOLa,
> the Hindi word gvAla ultimately has roots in drav.
> golla,
> and not Skt. gopAla.
>
> Regards,
> N. Ganesan
>
> a) Like jvAr < drav. jOLa, and gvAla < drav. golla,
> Hindi kvAn/kuA_n 'well" seem to be related with
> DED 1518 Ta. tank, reservoir, lake, Ka. koLa, koNa.
> .... It appears hindi kvAn < drav. koNa
>
> b) This process seems to be working in
> Skt. jvAla, dhvani. Are jvAla and dhvani IE?
> and are they attested in old Persian?
> Thanks.
>
>
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