Description
Book SynopsisBeṭṭa Kurumba is a Dravidian language spoken in the Nilgiri and Waynad Hills of India. Annotated Texts in Beṭṭa Kurumba presents folktales and dialogues in this language, together with a grammatical sketch and a glossary. These interlinearised texts provide rich data for linguistic analysis, as well as some of the earliest published cultural information about a highly understudied ethnic group. The cultural information is presented, for the most part, by the Beṭṭa Kurumbas themselves, who speak in their own native language about aspects of their lifestyle, spiritual beliefs, and social organization into clans.
Trade Review"The texts in ATBK are only a part of those that Coelho has collected over the past quarter century. Dravidian scholars will applaud her admirable achievement and look forward to the future publication of additional texts and grammatical analysis of this fascinating, understudied language. ATBK is the foundational study on which all subsequent study of BK will stand." -Sanford B Steever, in Linguist List, Tue Oct 01 2019.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Illustrations Symbols and Abbreviations 1 Introduction 1.1 General Overview 1.2 Overview of the Language 1.3 Grammatical Information 1.4 The Physical and Social Context 1.5 The Texts in This Book Part 1 Folktales 2 Prelude to the Folktales 2.1 General Overview 2.2 The Storytellers 2.3 The Folktales in English Translation 3 The Turban Maker 4 The Fish Prince 5 The Offended Daughter 6 The Prince Who Subdivided Himself Part 2 Dialogues 7 Prelude to the Dialogues 7.1 General Overview 7.2 Cultural Background 7.3 The Dialogues in English Translation 8 Aspects of Community Life 8.1 Catching Fish 8.2 Cooking Fish 8.3 Gathering Forest Honey 8.4 Building Houses 8.5 The Head of the Clan 8.6 The binji: a Spirit Invocation Ritual 8.7 Working with Elephants 8.8 An Encounter with a Wild Bear 8.9 Traditional Healing 9 Legends about Deities 10 Legends about Ancestors Glossary References Index
