Kolami, a Dravidian Language

University of California Press, 1955. — 302 p. — (Volume 12 of University of California Publications in Linguistics).The Kolami of Madhya Pradesh (formerly the Central Provinces) speak a Dravidian language and are believed to number 36000 people. Several attempts have been made to record their language, but so far systematic inquiries have been brief and incomplete. Professor Emeneau spent six weeks on Kolami in 1937. Since then Shri P. Setumadhava Rao (in 1950) and Professor T. Burrow and Shri Sudhibhushan Bhattacharya (in 1951) have collected further material, which has made it possible to make sure of the salient features of the language. The author has laboured under one serious disadvantage, a shortage of texts, and has been able to record only a few hundred words of folk-story. The remainder of his material consists of short sentences. He naturally disclaims finality for his conclusions, but, until shown to be wrong in any particular, they can be accepted with some confidence. The first 163 pages are devoted to phonology and grammar, ending with an estimate of the comparative position of the language. Then follow a few pages of text and translation, a vocabulary of 113 pages, and a very useful English index to the vocabulary.