Characteristics

Ancient s is generally lost in southern Dravidian, but a special feature of the Kanara-Tamil group is the reduction of initial sn to n in Kanara nō.d-, Tamil nōkk- (<* nō.tk -) look at. Elsewhere initial sn became sN, and the N changed to t or zero. A feature separating Kanara-Tamil from Telugu and Tulu is the development of * pitar thru *picar to Kanara pesar, Tamil pejar name, t being palatalized by the preceding i. A similar development, likewise lacking in Telugu and Tulu, is found in Tamil mujal, mucal < *mical < *mital < *midal hare ; the Kanara form mola, instead of *mosal corresponding to the Tamil forms, is a loan-word from Gôndi, which has malōl < *molal < *mudal < *midal, Palatalized nt is represented in Kanara īs- < *īc- < *īñc- < *īnt-, also īζ - < *īñζ- < *īñc- < *īnt-, beside Tamil nīñc- < nīnt- (with n - from nīr water ), against Telugu īd- < īd-<*īnd- swim. A change of tl to cl, similar to the Italian development in secchia < *sekkλa < sitvla, appears in Kanara sikk- be caught, be found, with the variants siluk-, silk- < *cilk- < *sclik- < *stlik- < *slik-, corresponding to Tamil cikk-, Telugu cikk-, against Tulu tikk- < *stlik- < *slik-, Gôndi hilk- < * silk- < *slik-; but perhaps the Tulu word was borrowed from early Kanara.