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How did Dravidian languages influence Indo-Aryan phonology?
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Indo-Aryan languages
Devanagari script from a section of the Sanskrit Bhagavata Purana, c. 1880āc. 1900; in the British Library.
The long-standing proximity between Dravidian languages and Indo-Aryan languages led to significant convergent features in their phonological systems. Scholars attribute several major developments in Indo-Aryan phonology to this Dravidian influence:1
- Proliferation of Retroflex Consonants: The emergence of retroflex consonantsāsounds produced by curling the tongue tip toward the hard palateāis a hallmark of this influence, as these sounds were not present in other Indo-European languages.1
- Consonant Modifications: Dravidian contact contributed to the voicing or weakening of intervocalic stop consonants in Pali and Prakrit, as well as the simplification of consonant clusters (for example, the transition of Sanskrit aį¹£į¹a- to Prakrit aį¹į¹ha- for "eight").1
- Word-Base Resolution: The development of specific word-base structures, such as (C)V:C or (C)VCC, occurred by resolving older (C)V:CC types, as seen in the evolution of Sanskrit dīrgha- into Prakrit dīgha-/diggha- ("long").1