Kota language (India)
Kota | |
---|---|
Kō mānt | |
Native to | India |
Region | Nilgiri Hills |
Ethnicity | Kotas |
Native speakers | 930 (2001 census)[1] |
Dravidian
| |
Tamil script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | kfe |
Glottolog | kota1263 |
ELP | Kota (India) |
Kota is a language of the
Tamil-Kannada and is closely related to Toda language. The Kota population is about 2500. The origin of the name Kota is derived from the Dravidian root word 'Ko' meaning Mountain.[4][5]
Traditionally Kota and Toda are seen as from a single branch Toda-Kota which separated from Tamil-Kota but recently Krishnamurti considers it to have diverged first from Tamil-Kota and later Toda as it doesnt have the centralized vowels characterized for Tamil-Toda.
Phonology
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
short | long | short | long | short | long | |
High
|
i | iː | u | uː | ||
Mid | e | eː | o | oː | ||
Low
|
a | aː |
Kota notably doesn't have central vowels like the other Nilgiri languages, Toda, the closest language also has it.
Consonants
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv./ Palatal |
Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n̪ |
ɳ | ŋ | |||
Stop
|
voiceless | p | t̪ |
t |
ʈ | t͡ʃ | k |
voiced | b | d̪ |
d |
ɖ | d͡ʒ | ɡ | |
Fricative
|
s | ||||||
Tap
|
ɾ | ɽ | |||||
Approx.
|
central | ʋ | j | ||||
lateral | l |
ɭ |
[s] and [z] occur in free variation with /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/. [ʂ] occurs as an allophone of /s/ before retroflexes.
References
- ^ a b Kota at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Caldwell, Robert. 1875. A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Or South-Indian Family of Languages. London: Trübner & Company
- ^ Prema, S. n.d. "Status of Dravidian Tribal Languages in Kerala" University of Kerala
- ^ Raju, Jamuna (30 June 2012). "The Kota Tribes of Nilgiris". Breeks Chatter. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
- ISBN 9788120605596.
- ISBN 978-0-511-06037-3.
Further reading
- Emeneau, M.B. 1944. Kota Texts[permanent dead link] California: University of California Press.
- Emeneau, M. B. (April 2000). "Some Origins of Kota -j(-)". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 120 (2): 231–233. JSTOR 605026.
- Emeneau, M. B. (June 1969). "Onomatopoetics in the Indian Linguistic Area". Language. 45 (2): 274–299. JSTOR 411660.
- Emeneau, M. B. (24 December 2009). "Proto-Dravidian *c-: Toda t-". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 15 (1): 98–112. S2CID 123788248.