Hi,

Piotr will know better (duh) but lemme splash some mud around before
he gets to answering this :)

Marathi (spoken by @65 million mainly in Maharashtra, South-Central
India, towards the West Coast) has a c^ > ts (e.g. /tsAkar/
for /c^Akar/ meaning servant).

The /ts/ > /c^/ change can be found in Telugu (spoken by @70 million
mainly in Andhra Pradesh, South-Central India, towards the East
Coast) has been influenced by and has influenced, among others, the
language of the neighbouring Marathas (esp, the northern dialect
spoken in the Telangana region). Eg. /tsApa/ (mat) to /c^Apa/. This
change was an inevitable phonetic decay, despite an attempt at using
an additional symbol to differentiate between the two phonemes during
the standardisation of the Telugu alphabet effected by CP Brown
during the Raj. In effect, /ts/ and /c^/ are allophones in Telugu
now, but this was not so before, i.e., /tsApa/ meant mat, and /c^Apa/
meant fish: nowadays both could mean either, though it must be said
that /ts/ is rendered now only by punctilious (n-1)th generation
prudes.

--I think. :D

Piotr, the floor is yours now [to tut tut and make corrections]

Peace,
Rohit


PS: Telugu, though immensely Sanskritised by the (now assimilated)
invaders, remains (at heart) a Dravidian Language. It has also come
to inherit persian, arabic and turkish words over the centuries of
muslim rule. Marathi is IE, though.

--- In phoNet@yahoogroups.com, "altamix" <alxmoeller@t...> wrote:
> I would like to ask if it is known any change of "ts" to "c^" in
the IE
> languages.To me it appears imposible a such change but it ought one
asks
> for learning some more.
>
> Alex