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The Dravidian Languages Old Tamil This article was downloaded by: 10.3.98.104 On: 01 Oct 2021 Access details: subscription number Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG, UK The Dravidian Languages Sanford B. Steever Old Tamil Publication details https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203424353.ch3 Thomas Lehmann Published online on: 18 Dec 1997 How to cite :- Thomas Lehmann. 18 Dec 1997, Old Tamil from: The Dravidian Languages Routledge Accessed on: 01 Oct 2021 https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203424353.ch3 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR DOCUMENT Full terms and conditions of use: https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/legal-notices/terms This Document PDF may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproductions, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The publisher shall not be liable for an loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. PARTI SOUTH DRAVIDIAN Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 17:26 01 Oct 2021; For: 9780203424353, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203424353.ch3 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 17:26 01 Oct 2021; For: 9780203424353, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203424353.ch3 3 Old Tamil Thomas Lehmann 3.1 Background and History Of all the Dravidian languages Tamil has the longest literary tradition, covering more than two thousand years. The earliest records are cave inscriptions from the second century b c e ; the earliest extant literary text is the grammar Tolkäppiyam (100 b c e ), which describes the grammar and poetics of Tamil dur­ ing that period. During its two-thousand-year uninterrupted history, Tamil distin­ guishes three different stages: Old Tamil (300 b c e to 700 c e ), Middle Tamil (700 c e to 1600) and Modem Tamil (1600 c e to the present), each with distinct grammatical characteristics. Causation, for example, is expressed lexically in Old Tamil, morphologically in Middle Tamil and syntactically in Modem Tamil. Old Tamil has verb bases whose causative stem is idiosyncratic and must be listed in the lexicon, e.g. iru ‘sit’ and iruvu ‘make sit’, akal ‘disappear’ andakarru ‘make disappear’. In Mid­ dle Tamil causative stems are productively formed by suffixing -vi, -pi or -ppi to a verb base where the suffix chosen depends on the phonology of the base, e.g. cey ‘do’ and cey-vi ‘make do’, aru ‘cut’ and aru-ppi ‘make cut’. And in Modem Tamil causation is expressed periphrastically by means of the auxiliary verbs vaikka ‘place’, ceyya ‘do’ and panna ‘make’ following the infinitive of the main verb, e.g. arukk-a vaikka ‘make cut’. The techniques used to form causatives in Middle and Modem Tamil occur sporadically in Old Tamil, e.g. cèr-vi ‘make join’ (pari 12.74) and väz-a.c cey ‘make live’ (pura 367.10). Thus, despite the grammatical individuality of each stage of the language, many features of Mid­ dle and Modem Tamil are anchored in Old Tamil, demonstrating a grammatical continuity from the old to the modem language. During the period of Early Old Tamil (100 b c e to 400 c e ), the Pântiya, Cëra and Cözä dynasties ruled over much of South India. These kings and other chief­ tains patronised many bardic poets. Two anthologies of love and heroic poems composed by these bards survive: they contain 2,381 poems ranging in length from 3 to 782 lines. Totalling 32,000 lines, this corpus is known as Cankam (‘academy’) literature. During this period, with the propagation of Jainism and Buddhism in South India, a number of Prakrit and Sanskrit borrowings entered Old Tamil and appear in the Cankam anthologies. The literature of Late Old Tamil (400 c e to 700) comprises the two epics Cilappatikäram and M animé kal ai, 7 5 Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 17:26 01 Oct 2021; For: 9780203424353, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203424353.ch3 76 SOUTH DRAVIDIAN several ethical texts and certain poems conventionally included in the Cankam anthologies. The language of Old Tamil is thus embodied in a fixed corpus of poetic texts; conversely, poetic usage characterises the grammar of the language. From its beginnings in Tolkäppiyam, traditional Tamil language study has linked grammar (ilakkanam ‘that which characterises’) and literature (ilakkiyam ‘that which is characterised’) so closely that the texts and their commentaries have become symbiotic. As noted later, these texts are not readily accessible without the help of commentaries written during the ancient and medieval peri­ ods. Although the Cankam corpus is ancient, many texts and commentaries were only recently rediscovered in the last century through the efforts of such scholars as U. Ve. Cäminäthaiyar. So, paradoxically, the modem study of Old Tamil grammar is quite new. Abbreviations of Example Sources äcär äcärakkövai aink ainkurunüru aka akanänüru kali kalittokai kuri (pattupättu) kurincippättu kuru kuruntokai narri narrinai pari paripätal pati patirrupattu peri periyapuränam pura puranänüru 3.2 Phonology and Orthography The traditional Tamil grammar Tolkäppiyam describes phonetic, phonological and orthographic aspects of the Old Tamil sound system without distinguishing these three aspects as is done in modem linguistics. The phonemic inventory of the language consists of ten vowels and seventeen consonants (see Table 3.1). Old Tamil has ten vowels, five short and five long: /a/, /ä/, /i/, A/, /u/, /u/, /e/, /ë/, /o/, /ö/. The seventeen consonants include six stops: /k/, /c/, /t/, /r/, /t/, /p/; five nasals: /η/, /n/> /θ/> /n/, /m/; two laterals: A/, /}/; two glides /y/, /v/; one tap /r/; and one approximant /z/. The articulatory descriptions in Tolkäppiyam are often in­ complete: they do not, for example, distinguish between retroflex and non-ret- roflex consonants, leading some scholars (e.g. Meenakshisundaram 1965: 55) to speculate that retroflexes were distinguished from alveolars and dentals only at later stages of Tamil. However, comparative Dravidian phonology indicates the presence of distinct dental, alveolar and retroflex series in the proto-language. In addition to these phonemes, traditional Tamil grammar recognises two more vowels and two more consonants. The two diphthongs /ai/ and /au/, Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 17:26 01 Oct 2021; For: 9780203424353, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203424353.ch3 OLD TAMIL 77 Table 3.1 The phonemes of Old Tamil High Mid Low Short Long Short Long Short Long Front i I e ê Central a ä Back u Ü 0 Ö Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Stops P t r t c k Nasals m n n n n (ή) Laterals 1 1 Glides v y Taps r Approximants z Note: ( ) = allophone grouped with vowels, are combinations of /a/ and /i/ and /a/ and /u/. In the case of other possible vowel combinations, e.g. */ai/, */ei/, */oi/, the final /i/ is treated as the glide /y/. Old Tamil thus has only two diphthongs. The two additional con­ sonants are merely allophones of other consonants but are represented by sepa­ rate graphemes. With one exception cited below, /yäfmanam/, the velar nasal /ή/ is an allophone of other nasals and occurs only before the velar stop /k/. The fri­ cative /h/, called ay tarn and transliterated as k, occurs only between a short vow­ el and a stop, e.g. aktu ‘it, that’: it may be regarded as an allophone of /y/ since /y/ is the only consonant that does not occur in this context. These phonemes have the following distribution. All vowels and the diph­ thong /au/ occur word-initially. All vowels and diphthongs occur after all conso­ nants except /ή/ and /k/. There is, however, one occurrence of /a/ after /ή/: yäm anam ‘in which way’ {aka 27.12). All vowels and /au/ occur word-finally. Long vowels and /ai/ may be elongated for metrical purposes: this consists in the addition of a short vowel to a long vowel. For example, eläm ‘everything’ {kali 65.8) may be elongated as eläam ‘id.’. This process may be repeated: a short vowel can be added to an already elongated vowel, as in cirär ‘small ones’ {pari 3.6) becoming ciräar {aka 107.17) and further ciräaar {pura 291.2). Only the nine consonants /p/, /t/, /c/, /k/, /m/, /n/, /n/, /y/, and /v/ occur word-initially. Only the ten consonants /m/, /n/, /n/, /n/, /l/, /I/, /y/, /v/, /r/ and /z/ occur word-finally. Internal and external sandhi processes involve deletion, insertion or assimila­ tion either when a suffix is added to a stem or when two words are compounded or stand in a particular syntactic relation. A stem-final /u/ that follows a long vowel, a consonant or two syllables, traditionally called ‘extra-short u \ is delet­ ed when followed by a vowel-initial suffix, as in nätu ‘country’ + in > nätin {pari 2.55), karpu ‘chastity’ + in > karpin {aka 6.13), varaku ‘coming’ + in > varakin Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 17:26 01 Oct 2021; For: 9780203424353, chapter3, 10.4324/9780203424353.ch3 78 SOUTH DRAVIDIAN (aka 194.9). When a stem-final vowel, except extra-short /u/, is followed by a vowel-initial suffix, a glide is inserted, e.g. pala + in > palavin (aka 7.20), mozi + in > moziyin (aka 13.8). When a stem-final retroflex consonant is followed by a dental-initial suffix, for example, that dental assimilates to a retroflex place of articulation, e.g.
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