Friday, December 28, 2007

Etruscan view on blogging

An alternate view to the Basque proverb can be found here.

I will admit it. There's a certain sense of unavoidable shame that comes with learning, particularly the kind of open day-to-day learning that a blog can convey. Blogs can be brutally personal, which explains no doubt why some people experience blogger burnout. It's taxing to the ego to make a booboo. We all want to be accepted in the beehive, not shunned as the town heretic. Communication, especially in our day and age is a double-edged sword that is both necessary to explore new answers and seek them out from others, and yet a potential source of embarassment if it should so happen that there's even a chance that you're horribly wrong. There's no such thing as a perfect learner that never makes mistakes. Errors are the very soul of learning. So when you're like me that puts himself out there for the world to see weekly, I too find it hard not to feel a sense of shame when I have to prove myself wrong because of that blasted thing called conscience. And yet, I would be more embarassed as a human being to pretend that I don't make mistakes.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Hanigavana

I read this small poem written in early nineties and liked it a lot. I don't remember the poet. Possibly, Dundiraj. Since it is a pun-poem I can't translate it into English. I am afraid I may not be using the exact words but I guess I still remember the pun part.

pradhAni, advAni, imAmi
ellarU koTTaru kare
kOmu sauhArda
tege


Since I am into Hanigavana let me quote another one that I really enjoyed. This was put up on our PUC (+2 years after 10 years of basic education) college notice board. The poem basically says Malayalis are plague (Malaria) of coastal Karnataka (Tulu region). Again I may not remember the exact words.

dinapatrikeyalli baMtoMdu suddi
maMgaLUrinalli malEriya hAvaLi
marudina adu baMtu tiddi
alla malayALi hAvaLi

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Dravidian Word Structure

The generally accepted form of Dravidian root structure is (C)V(C). Here I am proposing a new form based on a word that identifies the fundamental unit of Dravidian population. Dravidian child.

In my variant of Malayalam (spoken in Kasaragod/Mangalore region) the word for child is, kDAvu. In standard Malayalam the word has become kiDAvu. Adding a vowel i in between or before the foreign words with CCV- root structure is a common feature of Dravidian speakers. eg. school -> iskUlu or prIti (Skt:love) -> pirIti (Kannada). This gives a good idea about the Proto-Dravidian form of Dravidian words.

The Proto-Dravidian words had a root structure of (C)(C)V(C).ie.
V
VC
CV
CVC
CCV
CCVC

But it appears even before the downstream language families began to appear CCV and CCVC roots changed into CVCV and CVCVC respectively. As far as my knowledge goes, only one word has retained that PD form intact.

Note:
C- Consonant
V- Vowel

Sunday, December 02, 2007

A Basque Proverb

A blog is the appropriate space for those who only want to hear themselves.