The members, constituting the family of languages, which may be appropriately called the dialects of Southern India, are the high and low Tamil; the Telugu, grammatical, and vulgar; Carņáţaca or Cannaᶁi, ancient and modern; Malayálma or Malayálam, which, after Paulinus a St. Bartholomæo may be divided into Sanscrit (Grandonico-Malabarica) and common Malayálam, though the former differs from the latter only in introducing Sanscrit terms and forms in unrestrained profusion; and the Tuluva, the native speech of that part of the country to which in our maps the name of Canara is confined.
Besides these, there are a few other local dialects of the same derivation, such as the Coᶁugu, a variation of the Tuluva spoken in the district of that name called by us Coorg; the Cingalese, Mahàrástra and the Oᶁᶁiya, also, though not of the same stock, borrow many of their words and idioms from these tongues. A certain intercommunication of language may indeed, always be expected from neighbouring nations, however dissimilar in origin, but it is extraordinary that the uncivilized races of the north of India should in this respect bear any resemblance to the Hindus of the south; it is, nevertheless, the fact, that, if not of the same radical derivation, the language of the mountaineers of Rájmahàl abounds in terms common to the Tamil and Telugu.
The Telugu, to which attention is here more specially directed, is formed from it's own roots, which, in general, have no connexion with the Sanscrit, nor with those of any other language, the cognate dialects of Southern India, the Tamil, Cannaᶁi, &c., excepted, with which, allowing for the occasional variation of con-similar sounds, they generally agree; the actual difference in the three dialects here mentioned is in fact to be found only in the affixes used in the formation of words from the roots; the roots themselves are not similar merely, but the same.
The roots of the Telugu Language, like, those of the Sanscrit, are mostly the themes of verbs, but they may often be used in the crude form, or with a single affix, as nouns or adjectives, and many of them are used only in the latter acceptation; thus గుద్దు, as a noun, signifies a blow with the fist, and is the root
