ABSTRACT
South Dravidian (SDr) and South-Central Dravidian (SCDr) must have split from Proto-South Dravidian (PSDr) several centuries b c e . This is illustrated by (1) the change *avantu > *avan (loss of -tu) ‘he’ in SDr, and (2) the development of a sound change called ‘apical displacement’ in SCDr, viz. *(C)VL-V-> *(C)LV-(L = non-nasal apical liquid or stop, i.e., *r, */, */, *t [r], */, *z), which produced word-initial apicals and consonant clusters. Both SDr and SCDr share two innovations: ( 1 ) *nän/*nan (backformed from *näm ‘we (incl.)’) besides Proto-Dravidian (PDr) *yän/*yan, of which the latter occurs in all branches, and (2) the sound change PDr *i, u> e,o / # (C) C-a, a change not shared by Cen tral or North Dravidian.
