In this article we are going to show about Beḷāri language.
Beḷāri is the name of a tribe mainly engaged in making baskets from bamboo sticks, inhabiting the slopes of the Western ghats to the east of Kundapur in the Udupi district, Mysore. This language is quite distinct from both Kannada and Tulu, even though it contains a considerable amount of borrowings from them. Structurally itappears to be nearer to Tulu than to Kannada. It also shows similarities with the Koraga language spoken by another basket making tribe of that area who use creepers and not bamboos in
their profession.
There are quite a number of Tulu and Kannada borrowings in this language, of which the latter are apparently of more recent origin. Almost all the Belari speakers can freely converse in Kannada which is the majority language of the region inhabited by
them, and because of the existence of a large number of Tulu borrowings in their speech, they can also understand Tulu to a certain extent. The Tulu borrowings appear to have taken place at an early stage in Belari, and have undergone many interesting sound changes, It is possible, of course, that these vocabulary items are also native
to the language itself, and in that case the relationship between Tulu and Belari will tum out to be closer still.
A word-initial p of Tulu regularely corresponds to h in Belari.
Belari | English | Tulu |
---|---|---|
haṇ | to say | paṇ |
haḷdi | elder sister | paḷdi |
hudar | name | pudar |
hugel | shoulder | pugel |
hooju | to smear | pooju |
hoḷthu | time | poḷthu |
hijin | Ant | pijin |
In Belaari The Dravidian phoneme ḻa is represented by ḷa.
Example:
| bāḷe - banana | gaḷde - field | kōḷi - fowl | aḷi - weep | toḷi - kick | oḷi - remain | giḷeṅg - sweet potato |.
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