Nilgiri etymology : List with all references

Proto-Nilgiri : *aṇ

Meaning : channel; edge of swamp

South Dravidian etymology: South Dravidian etymology

Kota : aṇ "water channel brough to village from stream"

Toda : ? ony "edge of swamp"

Additional forms : Also Kota ēt_ aṇ edge of bank or stream or tank

Notes : Toda form is irregular (ṇ would be expected). It is probably a re-borrowing from Telugu.

Number in DED : 122

Proto-South Dravidian : *aṇai

Meaning : dam

Dravidian etymology: Dravidian etymology

Tamil : aṇai

Tamil meaning : embankment, dam, ridge for retaining water in a field, bank of river or sea

Tamil derivates : aṇṭai field bund, ridge of a field

Malayalam : aṇa

Malayalam meaning : dam

Malayalam derivates : aṇṭa bund, ridge of field

Kannada : aṇe

Kannada meaning : dam, dike

Kodagu : aṇḍa

Kodagu meaning : bank or edge of river

Proto-Nilgiri : *aṇ

Notes : The two "variants" - *aṇai and *anḍai - in reality cannot be joined together as easily as Burrow & Emeneau propose it in DEDR. In order to trace them back to the same source we would have to suppose that both go back to an early, and presumably, verbal root like *aṇ-, and even then the two lines of derivation would be rather vague. I would deem it more reasonable to reconstruct a PSDR nominal stem *aṇai "embankment". Tamil and Malayalam aṇṭa(i), with an obviously narrower meaning ('field bund', but not 'dam' in general) are a different, more local, formation, maybe contaminated with *anḍ- ' to approach, join' (?). As for Kodagu aṇḍa, in this case the retroflex cluster may actually go back to a simple retroflex nasal, i. e. reflect the earlier *aṇai; cf. a similar case in PSDR *pUṇai 'bamboo'. (It is possible that *-ṇ- > -ṇḍ- is a regular development in Kodagu nominal stems in the position before a strong suffix; unfortunately, the data are very scarce).

Number in DED : 0122

Proto-Dravidian : *aṇái

Meaning : bank, dam

Proto-South Dravidian: *aṇai

Proto-Telugu : *ana

Notes : A good SDR-Telugu agricultural isogloss; PDR status is unclear. // Present in 2/6 branches.

Proto-Telugu : *ana

Meaning : bank or dam

Dravidian etymology: Dravidian etymology

Telugu : ana

Number in DED : 122

Nilgiri etymology :

South Dravidian etymology :

Dravidian etymology :

Telugu etymology :