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DOCUMENT RESURE ED 132 859 FL 008 261 AUTHOR McAlpin, David W. TITLE A Core Vocabulary for Tamil. Final Report. INSTITUTION Pennsylvania Univ., Philadelphia. Inst. of South Asia Regional Studies. SPONS AGENCY Bureau of Postsecondary Education (DHEW/OE), Washington, D.C. Div. of International Education. PUB DATE Nov 76 CONTRACT 300=75-0314 NOTE 146p. AVAILABLE FROM South Asia Regional Studies, 820 Williams Hall CU, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19174 . EDRS PRICE MF-$0.83 HC-$7.35 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Diacritical Marking; Dialects; Diglossia; Dravidian Languages; *Glossaries; Instructional Materials; *Language Instruction; Language Variation; Pronunciation; Second Language Learning; Semantics; *Standard Spoken Usage; *Tamil; Uncommonly Taught Languages; *Vocabulary; Word Frequency; Word Lists; *Written Language ABSTRACT This vocabulary list is directed towards the Tamil instructor and the advanced student. Its primary goal is to bring some order to the teaching of vocabulary in the first two years of Tamil instruction. A secondary goal is to help the student through the vocabulary maze of Tamil diglossia. Three main criteria were employed in selecting words for the list: high frequency, usage, and semantic adequacy. The list is primarily in Modern Literary Tamil (MLT) and is glossed in both Colloquial Tamil (CT) and in English. High Literary Tamil (HLT) words have been entered in brackets after or ander the main MLT entry as a third variant. As the normal script used for MLT is in many ways ambiguous for colloquial pronunciation, a system of diacritics has been added to make the pronunciation clear. Appendix 1 groups the words by Semantics and usage and allows for access to the list through CT or English. Appendix II gives the few words which have a high frequency in LT but were not included in the main list because of a more common synonym. (Author/AM) * Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every. effort * * to obtain the best copy availableNevertheless, items of marginal * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy'reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * * responsible for the quality of the-original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made frOm the original. * *********************************************************************** 1 IITLE VI, NDEA,SEC. 602 Contfact No. 300-75-0314 C:r CO U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH EDUCATION & WELFARE NC, TIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION TTTIS DOENNIENT NAtFIF EN LEPRO- DUCED EXAC TL Y AS RECEIVED FRom THE PERSON OP ORGANIZATION ORIGIN ATING IT POiNT OE VIEW OR OPINIONS STA 1 FO DO NOT NECEV,APILY REPRE- SENT OFFICIAL NA TIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUEATION POSITION OR 001 IC r Final Report USOE Contract 300-75-0314 A CORE VOCABULARY FOR TAMIL BY DAVID W. McALPIN Department of South Asia Regional Studies University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19174 Novembe , 1976 Copies available from: South Asia Regional Studies 820 Williams Hall CU University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19174 Research and production costs were supported by a contract with the United States Office of Education (No. 300-75-0314). This support is gratefully acknowledged. Materials in the List for Modern Tamil used with the author's permission. This volume is dedicated to R.Shanmugam whose innovative and fundamental work of many years made this project possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction viii Use of Vocabulary List ix Conventions for Writing Colloquial Tamil Sources Used xii Abbreviations and Symbols xiii ALPHABETICAL LISTING 1-68 APPENDIX T.Words Grouped by Topic, Use, and Semantics 69 Section One Function Words A. Pronouns and Deictics 69 1. Personal and Resumptive Pronouns 69 2, Deictic and Interrogative Pronouns 69 3. Other Deictics 70 Postpositions 72 1. Postpositions with Simplex Nouns 72 a. With Nominative 72 b. With Accusative 72 C. With Dative 72 d. With Oblique 73 e. With Dative or Oblique 73 2. Postpositions with Verbal Forms 74 a. With Participles 74 b. With Participial 74 c. Postpositions and Clitics with conditionals 75 C. Clitics 75 Sentence Markers 76 1. Conjunctions 76 2. Interjections, Address Forms, and Tag Markers 76 E. Verbs with Special Uses 77 I. Impersonal Verbs 77 2. Grammatical Verbs 78 F. Modifiers 79 1. Adjectives 79 2, Adverbs 80 3. Colors 81 4. Other Qualities 81 C. Quantifiers 82 1. Numerical 82 a. Natural Numbers 82 b. Other 83 2. Nonnumerical 3. Related Words 84 Time 85 1. Time Units 85 2. Related Words 86 iv I. Location and Shape 87 1. General Location, Directions 87 2. Other Locatives 88 3. Place Names 88 4. Form and Shape 89 Section Two Soc-aty and the Social Sciences J. Government, Administration, and Politics 90 1. Administration 90 2. Government 90 a. Politics, Rule 90 b. Land( Administration 91 c. War 92 d. Law 92 3. Related Words 93 K. Economics 93 1. Business and Finance 93 2. Money and Salaries 95 3. Related Words 95 L. Religion, Rites and Festivals 96 M. People and Society 97 1. People 97 2. Family and Kin 97 3. Roles and Occupations 98 4. Related Words 99 Section Three Biology and the World N. Animals and Plants 101 1. Animals 101 2. Plants 102 3. Animal and Plant Parts 102 4. Related Words 103 O. Land 103 1. Agriculture 103 2. Geography 104 3. Weather 104 P. Food 106 1. Foods 106 2. Utensils, etc. 107 3. Related Words 108 Q. Anatomy and Health 109 1. Body Parts 109 2. Health and Medicine 110 3. Related Words 111 Section Four Things R. Artifacts 112 1. Tools, Machines, and Miscellaneous Artifacts 112 2. Transportation and Travel 114 3. Dress, Clothing, and Ornament 114 S. Materials and Construction 116 1. Materials and Substances 116 2. Buildings 117 3. Parts of Buildings 117 4. Related Words 118 Section Five Humanities and Sciences T. Learning and the Arts 119 1. Education 119 2. Literature and Writing 120 3. Philosophy 120 4. Arts and Sports 121 5. Related Words 121 U. Mind and Behavior 122 1. Emotions 122 2. Mind 123 3. Perceptions, Feelings, and Behavior 123 V. Physical Sciences 125 1. Physics 125 2. Measurement 125 3. Movement, Verbs of Motion 126 W. Basic Abstract Nouns 127 X. Basic Verbs 128 APPENDIX IT High Frequency High Literary Words not Included in thc Coro Vocabulary 131 vi PREFACE A work of this nature obviously depends upon the previous work of numerous scholars and language teachers. Of particular importance is-the work of R. Shanmugam of Madurai University and his A Word Frequency List for Modern Tamil. Without his major work, this project could not have been undertaken. I am grateful for his kind permission for me to make a partial hand copy of his manuscript and to make use of this material in this vocabulary list. In a real sence this volume is directly derivative from his monumental work. Among the people who worked on this project, special mention must be made of William Webster who was both the research assistant and the Tamil scribe. His patient, methodical collecting of disparate data is greatly appreciated as is his care in writing the Tamil in the manuscript. Rajam Ramamurti spent countless hours of her own time in providing stylistic equivalents in the various levels of Tamil. She also performed an invaluable service in proofing the manuscript as did Mary Kroul. While principall; the typist, Elliot Stern was of even greater service as the initial proofer and controller of foimat. He is responsible for the removal of countless inconsistencies. My thanks to all of these people and the many others who provided specific pieces of information. The work was made possible by a contract with the Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Many thanks go to the people in the Office of Education ,particularly Mrs. Julia A. Petrov, for their help at all stages of this project. David W. McAlpin University of Pennsylvania November, 1976 9 vii INTRODUCTION The primary goal of this vocabulary list is to bring some order to the teaching of vocabulary in the first two years of Tamil. Three main criteria were employed in selecting words for this list: (1) high frequtna, any word with a frequency of over 20 per 100,000 in Modern Literary Tamil-(MLT) was normally included as was any comparable word in Colloquial Tamil (CT), (2) usaga, any word comonly used by American students either in their readings or in living in South India, (3) adequacy, a complete enough semantics to allow the student to express himself however haltingly and to allow Tamil to Tamil glossing In more advanced texts. The actual words were taken from R.Shanmugam's A Word Fre_quency_List for Modern Tamil and commonly used texts along with enough additions to meet the adequacy criterion above. Selection in many cases became somewhat arbitrary, and the author solicits additions and corrections to this list. The ultimate goal is a standard vocabulary which the student can have mastered completely within two years, which is in itself adequate, and which can form a reasonable base for more advanced work. This does not mean that vocabulary should be limited to this list, but rather-that these items be stressed and 'other words deemphasized. A secondary goal is to help the student through the vocabulary maze of Tamil diglossia. Having been on innumerable occasions at a loss as to what the CT equivalent is of a word I knew in MLT or vice versa, I considered it necessary to provide both theMLT and CT forms for every entry. Due to differences in teaching approaches, the CT form has been given in both Tamil and Roman scripts.