422. Source of words ending with ‘o’ in Tulu

Some of my friends who write in Tulu language these days are getting fastidious about the purity of the expressed Tulu language. They make extraordinary efforts to filter out usage of   words derived from other languages like Sanskrit in Tulu.  These efforts appear ludicrous to people like me since there are no language that can claim itself as pure. All languages in the world have grown and evolved after absorbing words and features from other contemporaneous languages and cultures that came into their sphere of influence. And Tulu is not an exception to this rule.

The Tulu language has been classified as South Central Dravidian by linguists.. The reason for differentiation from other proximal and coexisting southern Dravidian languages (like Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam etc) is that Tulu has absorbed a good share of antique words derived from the ancient languages of India like Prakrit and Austro-Asiatic Munda during the course of its evolution. Even though such features of assimilation has been evident in other coexisting languages also, the effect of homogenization within the languages has masked the evidences.

Tulu words ending with vowel o

Tulu has abundant words that end with the vowel o (pronounced ‘oh’) as in the example “pātero” which means a spoken language or a dialect. In some parts of the Tulunadu (ie traditional Tulu speaking areas), like around Udupi and Karkal, the alternate form of the same word “pātera” has also survived.  It appears that adding o at the end has been a standard practice for many Tuluvas knowingly or unknowingly. For example, a standard word like Bhārata (ie India) is usually modified as “Bārato” in some of the Tulu circles, imparting   the cultivated impression that adding o at the end is mandatory in Tulu .

In other Dravidian languages in the vicinity like, Kannada or Tamil or Malayalam this practice of adding o at the end of words apparently does not exists.

Then when and where from the   Tulu language acquired this specific feature?.

Prakrit based languages

The Prakrit and the Prakrit derived languages have ample words ending with o.  Emperor Ashoka’s edict dated ca.250 BC was in Prakrit/Pāli which was the administrative language in larger part of India. During the history, accordingly, the Tulu and Kannada speaking areas were under the influence of Prakrit (or ruled by kings wherein the common administrative language of the day was variants of Prakrit/Pāli (probably along with Austro-Asiatic Munda languages) up to around third or fourth century CE. In order to compare and to trace the source of words ending with 0 in Tulu we can compare a few random words current in Prakrit derived languages of the Northern India like Hindi and Bengali.

Hindi words ending with o.

Random word samples   from Hindi, for example, like: “aao, naacho, gaavo” would clarify the nature of Prakrit derived Hindi words associated with vowel o at the end.

Aavo= come

Naacho= dance

Gaavo= sing

Bengali words with o

In Bengali we can find the presence of added o not only at the end of words but also within words. Check the following Bengali word samples.

(a)Samples of Bengali words ending with o:

Pujo  (puja =worship)

Borno (varna=color/alphabet)

Samajo (samaja=society)

Also personal names like Supriyo, Arko etc.

(b) Samples of Bengali words with internal o:

Porichoy (parichay= acquaintance)

Bonomali (Vanamali=gardener)

Shomay (samay=time)

Jol (jal=water)

Roy (Rai=king)

Mondal (mandal=division)

Chakraborty (Chakravarthy=emperor/ a surname)

Danonjoy (Dhananjay; a personal name)

Unlike in Bengali, in Tulu language the words have an added vowel of   o only at their ends.

Prakrit influence on Tulu

In the overall analysis, we may conclude that the special feature of the Tulu words ending with a vowel of o has been acquired during contact with speakers of Prakrit languages. We can make further detailed analysis when direct resources from the Prakrit languages were available.

R