question about Kodava

[John Peterson]

VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
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          John Peterson, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
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The following response is being forwarded on behalf of the author of the
grammar in question, Karen Ebert.

John

________________________________________________________
KoDava is the name used by the speakers themselves; KoDagu is the Kannada
name. I don't remember where I found the number 70.000.
The booklet was the result of a field-method seminar in Zürich over 10 years
ago and a very short episode in my academic life; it is not meant to be THE
description of KoDava. I am not a Dravidianist and I am certainly not going
to be one.
Apart from that: it's all in the "introductory remarks".
Karen Ebert


> VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
> Editors:  Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, New York
>           John Peterson, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
> Details:  Send email to listserv at listserv.syr.edu and say: INFO VYAKARAN
> Subscribe:Send email to listserv at listserv.syr.edu and say:
>           SUBSCRIBE VYAKARAN FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME
>           (Substitute your real name for first_name last_name)
> Archives: http://listserv.syr.edu
>
> In a recent Lincom catalogue (projectline 16, 2006) they listed a book on
> Kodava as follows (on pg. 50)
>
> **************************************************************************
>      LWM 104: Kodava
>
> Karen Ebert
> Universitaet Zuerich
>
> Kodava is a South Dravidian language spoken by approximately 70,000 people
> in Coorg, Karnataka. Although some Kodava claim that they speak a dialect
> of Kannada, their language is closer to Tamil. The Kannada script is used
> for writing Kodava. Kodava shares all the well-known traits of South
> Dravidian languages, such as exclusively suffixing morphology, strict SOV
> word order with modifiers preceding their head, dative subjects, the use
> of converbs and participles in subordination. Apart from the retroflex
> consonants Kodava has central vowel phonemes.
>
> Earlier publications on Kodava are a grammar from 1867 and articles on the
> vowels and on morphophonemic processes in verb stems. This description is
> based on work with a native speaker.
>
> ISBN 3 89586 038 7. Languages of the World/Materials 104. 57 pp. 1996.
>
> ref.no.: ISBN 3 89586 038 7
> price: EUR 34,00
> USD 40,80
> incl. 7% VAT/MWST/TVA
>
> **************************************************************************
>
>
> My question is, is this the same as Kodagu (a.k.a. Coorg) or is this a
> different language? Ethnologue states that Kodagu has 120,000 speakers,
> but doesn't list Kodava as a separate language, while this report says
> there are only 70,000 speakers.  The term "Kodava" is totally new to me,
> but Ethnologue does say there are dialects of Kodagu with this name.
> Anybody have any information on this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Hal Schiffman
>
> =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 			  Harold F. Schiffman
>
> 		Professor of Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
> 			Dept. of South Asia Studies
> 			805 Williams Hall Box 6305
>
> 			University of Pennsylvania
> 			Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305
>
>        			Phone:  (215) 898-5825
> 			Fax:  (215) 573-2138
>
> 			Email:  haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
> 			http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>


-- 
John Peterson
FB 7, Sprachwissenschaft
Universität Osnabrück
D-49069 Osnabrück
Germany
Telephone: (+49) (0)541-969 4252
Telefax: (+49) (0)541-969 4256
Homepage: http://www.SouthAsiaBibliography.de/