163 Tulu Prefixes and Words

Additional data from Hosabettu Viswanath provides some more material on the aspect of ancient prefixes in Tulu and Dravida languages.
Incidentally, 'Mu' was the name of hypothetical continent that allegedly existed in one of the Earth's oceans but disappeared at the dawn of history. However, this has no connection to our Tulu prefix 'mu'.

Prefix 'mun'
Prefix 'mun' appears as a derivative of the prefix mu.
mun=initial,beginning, frontal,the first etc.
'Mundu'(front); 'mungar :(mun+kar= initial season of rainy clouds) . Munnade (mun+naDe=go forward), 'mungurul' (mun+kurul= locks of hair on the frontal forehead). Munjāv (mun+jav= early time, early morning),
Similarly, the opposite prefix of 'mun' is 'hin' as in 'hingar' (hin+kar =next rainy season, winter rains, also winter crops).

Prefix 'muk' or 'muv'
'Muk/v' means 'three' (mukkal, mukkalige= three legged stool or small chair). Muvver (=three persons)

Prefix 'mei'
Possibly prefix 'me' (pronounced 'mei') =above or upper.
Consider the word 'medale'.
'mei' + tale (head or shoulder)> medale. i.e. end part of sāri taken to back side over the shoulder. .
Apparently the original 'mei' evolved into words like 'mel' (mei+l) = upper or above.

Prefixes 'Pa' and 'pā'
There is a shorter 'pa' prefix besides the 'pā' cited in previous post.
Possibly pa=rocky, pā= water
Panja p' or pa+anja (=rocky land), punja (p'+anja =rocky land)
Pā:(=water,river)
Pāngala pā+angala (land on the bank a river), Pāndi (pā+anDi). pā+ani=water

Bandar:
band+ar Enclosed or protected area, port. The port was a protected area within enclosures to protect goods since the historical days. However the word 'bandar'(=port) is apparently more widely spread.
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In Maharastra, there is a place called 'Bandra' in the Western suburbs of Mumbai city, which was the centre of power of Portuguese in 16th/17th century before gifting away the Bombay islands to British as marriage gift. The word Bandra appears to be variant of the word bandar, the port. The Bandra is known as 'Vandra/Vandre' in Marathi.Earlier entire parts of the Mahim-Bandra Island was known as 'Salsette' Note the following lines on Bandra as gleaned from a Wikipedia page:

“Bandra is a possible adaptation of Bandar, a Persian word for Port. There are other views on the origin of the name: that it is derived from a Portuguese Princess for one, and another more plausible one that it is a corruption of 'Bandar-gah' in Persian (Bandar is a common word for Port in Iran), which means Port. May be Vandre in Marathi and Bandar in Persian both mean port and come from the same Sanskrit root word. This area was under Shilahar dynasty in 12th Century. It is referred to as 'Bandora' in gravestones in the cemetery of St. Andrews Church and in the writings of Mount Struart Elphinstone of the English East India Co., which describe the endeavours to acquire the island of Salsette”.
Similarities in place names of Maharastra and Tulunadu needs to be studied further.

Prefix 'ban'
The prefix 'ban' (pronounced as bun) stands for forest or wild area and the Sanskrit equivalent of 'van'(forest).[A case of b>v transition;.banga>vanga]
Examples for place names with ban- prefix: Bannanje, Bannadi,Banvasi,
Further, the 'banga-' words as in banga, bangarasu, bangawadi,bangal,bangera,bangar, bangere (<.bengare) and also the 'banna' words like 'bannngayi' etc. could have been derived from this prefix.

There is a coastal village name 'Bankot' in Ratnagiri District of Maharashtra.
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Written with Hosabettu Viswanath
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