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5.3.6 Begga:ḍu
This forest/landscape type is characterised by its lack of utility to the Solega.
Although BG did mention begga:ḍu in connection with orrega:ḍu (see Extract VIII
above), he most probably intended to group these two forest types together (and in
turn, contrast them with ka:nu ka:ḍu ) only because they shared an important fea-
ture—the absence of big trees. This is not inconsistent with the description of
begga:ḍu given in the elicitation session with younger speakers:
Extract XIII (K)
(NG) Begga:ḍu, ella ḍra:i enta ful oṇa:gi iruvanta ja:ga istaḷa. Alli
e:nue be:re asaru giḍagaḷu illa.
( Begga:ḍu , it’s a place where everything is dry. There are no other green
plants there.)
(JS) Begga:ḍu andare ye:n sigalla, je: nu sigalla, matte pa:se sigalla.
( Begga:ḍu means you don’t fi nd anything there, no honey , no lichen.)
(AS) Alli ya:va tara:da giḍagaḷu sigutte?
(What sort of plants do you fi nd there?)
(JS) Mara du:ra du:ra irutte.
(The trees are spread out.)
(JV) A:mele alli ya:vadu: sigalla. Ni:r sigalla, pa:se, nellika:i, je: nu tuppa.
(And you don’t fi nd anything there, no water, lichen, amla fruit, honey .)
(JS) Adakke begga:ḍu andare alli ye:n sigalla, adu we:sṭ ka:ḍu ante:ḷi namma
jana he:ḷta:re.
(That’s why begga:ḍu means there’s nothing there, our people call it a
‘waste’ forest.)
(NG) Namma avara ba:sheli be:ḍe ka:ḍu ante:ḷi.
(In the language of our people it is called be:ḍe ka:ḍu .)
There are indications that the term begga:ḍu might actually be a ‘functional’
landscape category that cross-cuts several other basic forest/landscape categories.
Begga:ḍu would then simply mean ‘forest/land of any description which does not
yield any useful products’. The following statement by JS supports this point of
view:
Extract XIV
(JS) Begga:ḍalli guḍḍega:ḍu ide, oḍḍuga:ḍu ide...
(In a begga:ḍu you can fi nd hill forest s , boulder fi eld s ...)
The terms guḍḍega:ḍu and oḍḍuga:ḍu , which I have translated as ‘ hill forest ’
and ‘ boulder fi eld ’ are lexicalised landscape terms in their own right (see explana-
tions below). Still, JS states that they can be part of a begga:ḍu —this suggests that
in this utterance, he is drawing attention to the fact that even other forest/landscape
types, which do not yield honey , edible fruit or other tradable goods, can be labelled
begga:ḍu.
5 Landscape Terms in Solega