. echo reduplication is not specific to Dravidian. It is found in Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi and many other north Indian languages too. In an article on "Reduplication and echo words in Hindi/Urdu",

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00449691/document

Annie Montaut, Inalco, Paris says, "Reduplication is a pan-Indian phenomenon regularly quoted as one of the dozen features accounting for the consistency of the South Asian linguistic area " citing Massica 1992, Emeneau 1980 in the endnote.

In the section dealing with echo reduplication, the author says,

"Such a phenomena is omnipresent in all the so-called “dialects” or regional varieties of Hindi, although it often displays a consonant different from the v- used in Standard Hindi : In Panjabi and Panjabi-ized Hindi for instance sh- is used to derive F’ (matlab-shatlab “signification”, with some of such formations quasi lexicalized (gap-conversation- shap, ‘gossiping, talking’) ; in the Pahari (mountain) speeches, h- or ph- is used with the same function (lenîn-henîn, rûs-hûs, ishk-phishk ‘love-etc"

end note to this says,

"Pahari (« mountain») speeches include mainly Garhwali and Kumaoni. ishk transcribes the native prononciation of ishq. This type of echo is even panindian (Emeneau 1980), with various consonants used for the first consonant in F’, such as g- in Telugu (puli-guli « flower »)."

Prof.Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad-500044