ہلی

Brahui

Uncertain. Several hypotheses have been put forth:

Burrow proposes a relation to Tamil இவுளி (ivuḷi, “horse”).^[1]^[2] The Tamil initial ivu- is difficult to reconcile with Brahui (h)u-, and no such contraction is attested in other cognate sets. Krishnamurti does not mention this etymology in his work, perhaps considering it too unlikely.^[3]
Emeneau instead derives it from Proto-Dravidian *uḷ- by connecting it with Tamil உளை (uḷai, “mane of horse or lion, man's hair”), proposing that the Brahui term etymologically means "that which possesses/is characterised by a mane", i.e. a horse.^[4] However, this means cognates are only found in Tamil and Malayalam, despite the implied pan-Dravidian age of the term if we suppose descent in both Tamil-Malayalam and Brahui.
Bray originally suggested a connection to Tamil குதிரை (kutirai, “horse”), from Proto-Dravidian *kutiray, but later scholars (Burrow, Emeneau, McAlpin) have rejected this etymology.

ہُلِّی (hullī)

^ Burrow, T. (1972) “The primitive Dravidian word for the horse”, in International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, volume 1, number 1, pages 18-25
^ Burrow, T., Emeneau, M. B. (1984) “500”, in A Dravidian etymological dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, →ISBN.
^ Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003) The Dravidian Languages (Cambridge Language Surveys), Cambridge University Press, →ISBN.
^ Emeneau, M. B. (1997) “Brahui Etymologies and Phonetic Developments: New Items”, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London‎^[1], volume 60, number 3, pages 440–447

Bray, Denys (1934) “hullī”, in The Brahui Language‎^[2], Calcutta, India: Superintendent Government Printing, Part II: The Brāhūī Problem; Part III: Etymological Vocabulary, page 140
Ali, Liaquat, Kobayashi, Masato (2024) “hullī”, in Brahui Texts: Glossed and Translated Short Stories and Folktales‎^[3], Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, page 707