The language uses the Arabic and Kannada alphabets for writing. Being a distant cousin of other dialects of Malayalam and surrounded by other linguistic groups for centuries, mainly Tulu, the dialect exhibits ancient features as well as modern innovations not seen in other well-known dialects of Malayalam.[3]
Surrounded by Tulu-speaking populations, the impact of Tulu on the phonological, morphological and syntactic structure of the dialect is evident.[4]
Distinction of ḻ, ṇ, ṟ
Sounds peculiar to Malayalam such as 'ḻ', 'ṇ', 'ṟ' are not found in this dialect.[5] 'ḷ' and 'ṇ' are merged with l and n, respectively.[5] 'ṟ' is merged with r and tt, 'tt' to t.[6] This resembles Tulu.[6]
Beary Bashe
Kannada
Malayalam
English
sante
sante
canta
'market'
ēni
ēṇi
ēṇi
'ladder'
puli
huḷi
puḷi
'tamarind'
kāt
gāḷi
kāṯṯu
'wind'
cor
anna
cor
'rice'
v > b
The initial v of standard Malayalam corresponds to an initial b in Beary Bashe.[6]
The same change has taken place in Tulu, too.
Beary Bashe
Malayalam
Tulu
Kannada
English
bēli
vēli
bēli
bēli
'fence'
bitt
vittu
bitte
bitta1
'seed'
bādige
vāṭaka2
bādai
bādege
'rent'
Some dialects.
This orthographic representation is phonemic. On a phonetic level, it often becomes [ˈʋaːɖəɡə], which is closer to the Tulu and Beary Bashe forms. This occurs because of a rule whereby voiced plosive consonants are intervocalic allophones of their unvoiced counterparts. However, this only applies to native Dravidian words, and as vāṭaka is a Sanskrit loanword, the prescriptively correct pronunciation is indeed [ˈʋaːʈəkə].
Distinction of 'a' and 'e'
The final 'a' of standard Malayalam corresponds to the final 'e' in Beary Bashe.[6]
Beary Bashe
Kannada
Malayalam
English
āme
āme
āma
'tortoise'
cēre
kere
cēra
'rat snake'
mūle
mūle
mūla
corner
Distinction of 'n' and 'm'
The word final 'n' and 'm' of standard Malayalam are dropped in Beary Bashe.[6]
Beary Bashe
Malayalam
Kannada
English
ādya
ādyam
(modalu)
'first'
kalla
kaḷḷan
kaḷḷa
'thief'
cattae
kuppāyam(catta)
(batte)
'cloth'
Degeminated consonants
Geminated consonants occurring after a long vowel and also after a second short vowel of a word in standard Malayalam get degeminated in Beary Bashe.[7]
Beary Bashe
Malayalam
Tulu
English
pūce
pūcca
pucce
'cat'
Lexical relations
Almost all lexical items in Beary language can be related to corresponding lexical items in Malayalam, Tulu or Perso-Arabic origin.[8]
However, some equivalents can only be found in Mappila dialects of Malayalam in Kerala.[8]
Person endings
Verbs in old Dravidian languages did not have any person marking.[9] Person endings of verbs observed in modern Dravidian languages are later innovations.[9]
Malayalam is the only Dravidian language that does not show any verbal person suffixes,[9] so Malayalam verbs can be said to represent the original stage of Dravidian verbs (though Old Malayalam did have verbal person suffixes at some point).[9] Person suffixes in Beary Bashe closely resemble those of Tulu,[9] although the past tense in this dialect agrees with that of standard Malayalam in shape as well as in the distribution of allomorphs.[9]
Arabic influence
Beary Bashe is strongly influenced by the Arabic language.[10] Nativised Arabic words are very common in everyday speech, especially in coastal areas. Beary Bashe also has words related to Tamil and Malayalam. Tamil and Malayalam Speakers can understand Beary up to an extent of 75%.
Upadhyaya, U. Padmanabha, ed. (1996). Coastal Karnataka: studies in folkloristic and linguistic traditions of Dakshina Kannada Region of the western coast of India. Udupi: Ku. Shi. Abhinandana Samiti, Rashtrakavi Govind Pai Samshodhana Kendra. ISBN978-81-86668-06-1.
A Byari speaker speaking Byari