The Past Stem of Kurux and Malto

<p>Kurux and Malto, together with Brahui, have been considered to be the first subgroup to branch off Proto-Dravidian. Based on the assumption that traces of older morphology are preserved in the lexically idiosyncratic past stems to which the current past suffix is attached, we analyzed what older past suffixes are incorporated in those past stems.</p><p>  The past stems ending in coronal stops such as onɖ- ‘to drink’, kuʈ(ʈ)- ‘to be hot’, and pet(t)- ‘to take up’ are explained by the addition of *-t-, the best-attested past suffix of Dravidian. Those ending in -y- date back to *-i(ṉ)-, another well-established Dravidian past suffix. The productive class of past stems in -c(c)- such as barc- ‘to come’ and cic(c)- ‘to give’, and the relic past stems in -s- and -j- such as pos(s)- ‘to fall’ and meɲj- ‘to hear’, respectively date back to *-cc- and *-c-, past suffixes which are considered to be an innovation in Kurux-Malto, and possibly in Brahui as well. -ɲj- in iɲj- ‘to shoot (an arrow), to pelt’ might be a rare reflex of the Proto-Dravidian past suffix *-nt-.</p><p>  Of the Dravidian past stems in 1.*-t(t)-, 2.*-i(ṉ)-, 3.*-nt-, 4. stem-final gemination, 5.*-k-, 6.*-c(c)-, and 7.*-a/e-, Kurux-Malto shares the first four with South Dravidian, 1 and 2 with South-Central Dravidian, 1 with Central Dravidian (and also *-nt-, stem-final gemination, and *-a/e- with Parji), and 5 to 7 with Brahui. The result of our research indicates that Kurux-Malto preserves archaic features of Dravidian verbal morphology despite the fact that it is highly innovative in many other respects.</p>