153(In that place, you get suṇḍrega:ḍi (?), magani vine (?), and the sucilu
plant (?), the uruvilu tree (?), all these belong to the horrega:ḍu. They
don’t grow here.)
(MRM) Illi uruvilu mara illevelella?
(There’s no uruvilu tree here, right?)
(BG) Illi ille. Ge:ru mara pu:ra i:kaḍe... 7
(Not here. There are lots of ge:ru trees ( Semicarpus anarcardium ) this way.)
When the consultants in the fi rst elicitation session were asked to describe
orrega:ḍu , they described traits that were different, but not inconsistent with those
mentioned by BG. In the following extract, JS and NG emphasise the topographic
qualities of orrega:ḍu.
Extract X (K)
(JS) Alli ful maṭṭa baratte ondu ka:ḍu, ful maṭṭa, alli beṭṭa sṭre:ṭ a:girutte. A:
maṭṭa ka:lu ba:ga, arda ba:ga, i: beṭṭa arda ba:ga tagoṇḍu orrega:ḍu
baratte... i:ga maṭṭa bandu beṭṭa irutte hi:ge, allava? Adaralli madya
bandu ma:tra orrega:ḍu baratte.
(There you see a fl atland forest , completely fl at, then a hill goes straight
(up. A forest that’s) a quarter or half on fl at land, and half on a hill is an
orrega:ḍu ... It’s fl at here, and then the hill goes like this, right? Only in
the middle of that do you get orrega:ḍu .)
(NG) Idu maṭṭaga:ḍiga ue borega:ḍiga ue eraḍaka ue se:ri, adakka orrega:ḍu.
(When the fl atland forest and the hill-slope forest join, that’s orrega:ḍu .)
It is quite likely that the terms na:ḍu ka:ḍu , kutarega:ḍu and orrega:ḍu are used
interchangeably in some contexts, as they were often substituted, or explicitly
equated, in the two elicitation sessions. In Extract III, for example, BG states that
na:ḍu ka:ḍu and orrega:ḍu are much the same, also adding that this was the name
for the forest below the hill grasslands —this matches the description in Extract X,
where orrega:ḍu is said to be the forest at the foot of a hill and on the adjacent fl at
land. In the following extract, when asked to explain kutarega:ḍu , BG states clearly
that this term denotes the same forest type as orrega:ḍu (which, as discussed above,
was said to be identical to na:ḍu ka:ḍu ). Consistent with this, MRM describes the
vegetation in such areas as consisting of small trees, while BG suggests that the
grass that grows there is typical na:ḍu ka:ḍu grass.
Extract XI (S)
(BG) Orrega:ḍu kutarega:ḍu. Ittaka na:vu oitivĩ keḷeka, adu kutarega:ḍu.
Ittakella, maṭṭaga:ḍu, guḍḍega:ḍu, ishṭakella biri tho:pu ka:ḍe.
(An orrega:ḍu is a kutarega:ḍu. Like we said, downhill from here it’s
kutarega:ḍu. All this, the fl atland forest , the hill forest , all this is just
tho:pu ka:ḍu .)
(^7) BG goes on to warn about the fruit of the ge:ru tree: the fl esh is edible, but the seed is
poisonous.
5.3 Landscape/Forest Types in Solega