Badaga language

Badaga is a southern Dravidian language spoken by the Badaga people of the Nilgiris district of Northwest Tamil Nadu. The language is closely related to Tamil-Kannada.[1]

Badaga
படுக
Native toIndia
RegionThe Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu
EthnicityBadaga
Tamil script and Kannada script
Language codes
ISO 639-3bfq
Glottologbada1257

Phonology

Badaga has five vowels qualities, /i e a o u/, each of which may be long or short and until the 1930s were contrastively half and fully retroflexed, for a total of 30 vowel phonemes.[2] Current speakers only distinguish retroflection for a few vowels.[3]

Example words[4]
IPA Gloss
/noː/disease
/po˞˞ː/scar
/mo˞e˞/sprout
/a˞e˞/tiger's den
/ha˞ːsu/to spread out
/ka˞˞ːʃu/to remove
/i˞ːu˞˞/seven
/hu˞˞ːj/tamarind
/be˞ː/bangle
/be˞˞ː/banana
/huj/to strike
/hu˞j/tamarind
/u˞˞j/chisel

Note on transcription: rhoticity ⟨◌˞⟩ indicates half-retroflexion; doubled ⟨◌˞˞⟩ it indicates full retroflexion.

Bilabial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɳ
Stop voiceless p t ʈ c k
voiced b d ɖ ɟ g
Fricative v s
Approximant l ɻ j
Trill r

Writing system

Several attempts were made at constructing an orthography based on English and Kannada. The earliest printed book using Kannada script was a Christian work, "Anga Kartagibba Yesu Kristana Olleya Suddiya Pustaka" by Basel Mission Press of Mangaluru in 1890.[5]

Usage of vowels and consonants of Tamil-Kannada script to create Badaga script
Usage of Tamil-Kannada script to create Badaga script

The Badaga language is also written in the Tamil script.

List of Books in Kannada Script:[6]

  1. Anga Kartagibba Yesu Kristana Olleya Suddiya Pustaka
  2. Jonah
  3. Mana Kannadi
  4. Marka Bareda Loka ratchagana kade
  5. Zion

Dictionary

The Badaga language is well studied and several Badaga-English Dictionaries have been produced since the latter part of the nineteenth century.[7]

References
  1. Hockings, Paul (2004), "Badaga", in Ember, Carol R.; Ember, Melvin (eds.), Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology: Health and Illness in the World’s Cultures Volume I: Topics Volume II: Cultures, Boston, MA: Springer US, pp. 572–578, doi:10.1007/0-387-29905-x_57, ISBN 978-0-387-29905-1
  2. Emenau (1931) reports no tokens of /i˞˞/, but suggests this is an accidental gap.
  3. "Badaga". UCLA Phonetics Lab. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  4. "Word List for Badaga". UCLA Phonetics Lab. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  5. http://gospelgo.com/q/Badaga%20Bible%20-%20Gospel%20of%20Luke.pdf
  6. https://archive.org/details/kannadabadagakur00brit
  7. Paul Hockings, Christiane Pilot-Raichoor (1992). A Badaga-English Dictionary (Reprint ed.). Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110126778. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.