Proto-Nilgiri : *jāmä (*ēmä)
Meaning : tortoise
Kota : ēm(b)
Toda : āmy (Sak.; < Tamil?)
Notes : The choice of reconstruction depends on whether the Toda form is authentic or not. The final -y would certainly indicate a borrowing (the final -ä is never retained in any form in Toda), but considering that the form was only recorded by S. Sakthivel (not M. B. Emeneau), there is a possibility of it representing a dialectism. In this case, the correspondence "Kota ē : Toda ā" could only go back to a proposed PN *jā- (< PSDR *tjā-, since PSDR *jā- regularly > PN *ā-). That said, even if the Toda form is a borrowing, Kota ēm(b) ultimately still has to go back to something like *tjām-, since otherwise Kota ām(b) should be expected.
Number in DED : 5155
