Sholaga language

Sholaga
Sholaga
Soliga
Native to	India
Region	Karnataka, Tamil Nadu
Ethnicity	Soliga
Native speakers	24,000 (2006)
Language family	Dravidian Southern Southern I Tamil–Kannada Badaga–Kannada Kannadoid Sholaga; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sle
Glottolog	shol1240
ELP	Sholaga

The Sholaga (IPA: [ʃoːlɐɡɐ, s-]) language is a Dravidian language related to Kannada and Tamil, spoken by the Soliga people. It's also known as Kadu Sholigar, Sholiga, Sholigar, Solaga, Solega, Soliga, Soligar, Solanayakkans, Sholanayika.

Etymology

The term comes from śōla "forest" and -ga "people".^[2]

Classification

Sholaga is classified as a Dravidian language, more specifically South Dravidian. Dravidian languages are split into five main categories by the name of Southern, South Central, Central, North and Unclassified. Sholaga falls into the Southern category which is then split into the three categories: Tamil-Kannada, Macro-Tulu, and unclassified. Sholaga falls into the Tamil-Kannada category.

Phonology

The tables present the vowel and the consonant phonemes of Sholaga.^[3]

Vowels

	Front		Central				Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
High	i	iː	ɨ	ɨː	ʉ	ʉː	u	uː
Mid	e	eː	ə	əː	ɵ	ɵː	o	oː
Low			a	aː

Zvelebil had listed centralized <ä, ǟ> in the phonology. The real quality distinguishing <ä, ǟ> and <a, ā> isn't clear.

There are phonemic nasal vowels and all plain vowels have nasal counterparts, mostly from old final nasals, eg. akkã "sister", mö̃yi "body".

Consonants

Consonants^[4]
		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal/ Pst.alv	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n̪	ɳ		ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t̪	ʈ	t͡ʃ	k
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	b	d̪	ɖ	d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative			s				h
Approximant		ʋ	l	ɭ	j
Rhotic			ɾ⠀r	ɽ

/s/ in free variation with [ʃ] and does not clash with /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/.
p- > h- > ∅-, eg. So. aga, Kn. hoge; So. haḍagu, Kn. haḍagu. There are initial p- too, e.g. paḍḍe.
/ɖ, ɽ/ are distinct, eg. nōṛ- "see", ōḍ- "run".
No k- palatalization like Kananda, eg. So. kimi, Kn. kivi, Ta. cevi.
Rare g>ṅ, eg. So. maṅa, Kn. maganu.

Grammar

Source: ^[3]

The formative morpheme *-ay is -a, eg. iṯappay "eyelid": Ka. rappe, Sh. ṟappa.
Like Irula and nearby Nilagiri languages, it lacks the oblique form in compounds with determinans followed by determinatum, eg. kāḍu aṉḏi "forest pig": Ta. kāṭṭu (< kāṭu) paṉṟi.
Unlike Jenu Kuruba, it has rich use of plural forms. Most take -ga, most ending with -ã take -diru, others take -ru.
Most cases are like Kannada but not identical.
There are only 2 tense stems: past/non-past but its more like verb finished vs unfinished. From the past preterite tense is fromed and from non-past the present-future tense.

Words

English	Sholaga
tiger	dodinayi
elephant	coquedana
elephant with huge tusks	coquedonga
female elephant with growing tusks	coreyani
deer	Maan
Sambar deer	kadave
Chital	saraga
Moss Deer	koore
muntjac	tadu-koori
Area with boulders and rarely any rain	udugaru
An evergreen forest	Patchai kadu

References

^ Sholaga at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ Zvelebil (1990).
^ ^a ^b Zvelebil (1990), p. 157.
^ Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian languages (null ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-511-06037-3.

Sources

Zvelebil, Kamil V. (1990). "The Language of the Shōlegas, Nilgiri Area, South India". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 110 (3): 417–433. doi:10.2307/603185. JSTOR 603185.

External links

[e25-1] Sholaga at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

[FOOTNOTEZvelebil1990-2] Zvelebil (1990).

[FOOTNOTEZvelebil1990157-3] Zvelebil (1990), p. 157.

[4] Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian languages (null ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-511-06037-3.

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