[INDOLOGY] Second-syllable rhyming in Dravidian

[Nagaraj Paturi]

>>My point in bringing it up in the context of second-syllable rhyme (SSR) was
just that ER (in its specific form reconstructible to Proto-SouthDravidian)
and SSR (as amply attested in the oldest surviving Dravidian literature) *work
exactly alike phonologically in that they decouple **quantity
correspondence (which is required of the initial vowel) from **quality
correspondence (which is not required of the initial vowel),* a property
not shared by most ER systems of farther north and elsewhere in the world.
I see this specific parallelism in phonology as adding somesupport to a
Dravidian origin of SSR, though like I said, it's only suggestive.

Can you please elaborate 'decoupling' mentioned by you with examples ?

quantity correspondence : long vowel to long vowel , short vowel to short
vowel; required of the initial vowel.

quality correspondence : glottal may correspond with palatal

pATa -gITa ; puli -gili ; (Telugu)

'A' to 'I' quantity correspondence but no quality correspondence. u to
i quantity
correspondence but no quality correspondence

khAnA -vAnA; pEn-vEn; (Hindi)

A to A , E to E both quantity and quality correspondences.

Is this what you are pointing at?

1. SSR and ER of Dravidian while sharing some similarities as pointed out
by you, have many dissimilarities too. ER has the same consonant as the
initial consonant in the reduplicate string always for a given language.
'g' for Telugu and 'v' for Hindi for example. SSR does not have this
feature. The initial consonant of the rhyming second half may differ from
case to case.

2. Semantic and/or semiotic significance is identified for the initial
consonant in the reduplicate string, in certain idiomatic usages of the ER.
for example, communication of the pejorative or angry mood discussed in

http://www.unige.ch/lettres/latl/chronos/grohmann&Nevins.pdf

for English seems to hold good for Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Punjabi too.
SSR does not have such a specific mood communication associated with it
though it is considered to be auditorily ornamenting to the poetic
expression.

3. SSR can be considered to be a tool of oral tradition, a memorising tool
for orally preserved verbal forms. ER does not have this function. ER is
part of speech pragmatics of day to day communication but not a structural
feature of verbal forms. SSR is a  structural feature of verbal forms.

4. For a Dravidian '*origin*' of SSR to be considered the following are the
hurdles:

a. SSR of Dravidian verse and lyrical meters is intra-line and the SSR of
Sanskrit meters either as used in languages of the south or in cases such
as gOpIgItam of Sanskrit, is inter-line.

b. In intra-line situation, the two parts of the line with an SSR are very
short and the rhyming occurs within a short gap after the first occurrence.
In the case of inter-line of SSR in Sanskrit meters such as
S'ArdUlavikrIDita, the rhyming occurs after a very long gap after the first
occurence. This difference has implications for the difference function and
effects of SSR in the two situations:inter-line and intra-line.

c. SSR of Dravidian verse-meters is seen in relation to FSR, as an
alternative to FSR, at least in native Telugu verse meters. The inter-line
SSR of Sanskrit meters is not related to FSR.






-- 
Prof.Nagaraj Paturi
Hyderabad-500044


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