http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnatic_music
It's a rundown of the stuff, if you just google Carnatic theory you'll find a ton. Shawn Lane should have a video on timing, or picking in odd groupings or rhythm where he explains the way in which timing is perceived in this system - I found this to be incredibly valuable and once you learn their sylable system it can immediately be applied to odd times and stuff ? yay!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tala_(music)
This is a big section on the timing thing, but it doesn't cover the sylables in the way I was hoping ?
The basic idea though is that counting in say 5, and going 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 feels unnatural when you're trying to play at speed or just get a nice flow going so in Carnatic music they assign phonetic sylables and so counting in 5 would then be Ta - Ka - Di - Mi - Ta, seems strange but just say it a few times over and immediately it should help you to envision the rhythm better, or at least I found it helped me ? as another example if you were to count in say 7s it would be Tha - Ka - Di - Mi - Ju - Di - Ka (I think ???) but yeah, find the sylables and they will help unlock the DOOR! Muhahahaha!
