The Sholaga (Soliga) language is a Dravidian language related to Kannada and Tamil, spoken by the Soliga people.

Sholaga
Soliga
Native toIndia
RegionKarnataka, Tamil Nadu
EthnicitySoliga
Native speakers
24,000 (2006)[1]
Dravidian
Language codes
ISO 639-3sle
Glottologshol1240
ELPSholaga

Other names

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Sholaga language, is also known as Kadu Sholigar, Sholiga, Sholigar, Solaga, Solega, Soliga, Soligar, Solanayakkans, Sholanayika.

Phonology

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The tables present the vowel and the consonant phonemes of Sholaga.[2]

Vowels

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Front Central Back
short long short long short long short long
High i ɨ ɨː ʉ ʉː u
Mid e ə əː ɵ ɵː o
Low a

Zvelebil had listed centralized <ä, ǟ> in the phonology. The real quality distinguishing <ä, ǟ> and <a, ā> isn't clear.

  • There are phonemic nasal vowels.

Consonants

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Consonants[3]
Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Retroflex Palatal/
Pst.alv
Velar Glottal
Nasal m ɳ ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p ʈ t͡ʃ k
voiced b ɖ d͡ʒ ɡ
Fricative s h
Approximant ʋ l ɭ j
Rhotic ɾr ɽ
  • /s/ in free variation with [ʃ].

Classification

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Sholaga is classified as a Dravidian language, more specifically South Dravidian. Dravidian languages are split into five main categories by the name of Southern, South Central, Central, North and Unclassified. Sholaga falls into the Southern category which is then split into the three categories: Tamil-Kannada, Macro-Tulu, and unclassified. Sholaga falls into the Tamil-Kannada category.

Words

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English Sholaga
tiger dodinayi
elephant coquedana
elephant with huge tusks coquedonga
female elephant with growing tusks coreyani
deer Maan
Sambar deer kadave
Chital saraga
Moss Deer koore
muntjac tadu-koori
Area with boulders and rarely any rain udugaru
An evergreen forest Patchai kadu

References

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  1. ^ Sholaga at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ Zvelebil (1990), p. 157.
  3. ^ Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian languages (null ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-511-06037-3.

Sources

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