ABSTRACT
Konda comprises several local dialects representing variations which do not affect mutual intelligibility to any degree. The most important isogloss, an alter ation of r!l (< PDr */), separates the western and northwestern areas of Araku as the r-zone, from the southern and southeastern areas as the /-zone, e.g. äru ~ älu ‘wife’. Other minor variations include the following: a nasal plus stop (Sova) vs a stop (Araku), e.g. zanta : zata ‘a grinding mill’, gampa : gapa ‘a basket’; and metathesis of the first two syllables (Sova) vs its absence (Araku), e.g. mränu : mar an ‘tTee\prêl : per el ‘to explode’.
