A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil This is a reference grammar of the standard spoken variety of Tamil, a language with 65 million speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. The spoken variety is radically different from the standard literary variety, last standardized in the thirteenth century. The standard spoken language is used by educated people in their interactions with people from different regions and different social groups, and is also the dialect used in films, plays and the media. This book, a much expanded version of the author's Grammar of Spoken Tamil (1979) is the first such grammar to contain examples both in Tamil script and in transliteration, and the first to be written so as to be accessible to students studying the modern spoken language as well as to linguists and other specialists. The book has benefited from extensive native-speaker input and the author's own long experience of teaching Tamil to English-speakers. Harold F. Schiffman has taught at the University of California (Davis), the University of Washington (Seattle) and is presently at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written and co-authored books on Dravidian linguistics, language standardization, diglossia, language policy and the sociolinguistics of South Asia. He has extensive experience of teaching Tamil to English-speakers, and has also undertaken research on the Tamil media and film industry. A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil Harold F. Schiffman CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www. c ambridge. org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521640749 © Harold F. Schiffman 1999 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1999 This digitally printed first paperback version 2006 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Schiffman, Harold F. A reference grammar of spoken Tamil = peeccut tamir nookk ilakkanam/Harold F. Schiffman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 64074 1 (hardback) 1. Tamil language - Spoken Tamil. I. Title. PL4753.S34 1999 494'.81182421 -dc21 98-53883 CIP ISBN-13 978-0-521-64074-9 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-64074-1 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-02752-6 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-02752-7 paperback For my father, Merl Schiffman in celebration of ninety years of grace-filled living 1909-1999 Contents Phonology and Transliteration 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.1.1 Background 1 1.1.1.1 Standard Spoken Tamil 1 1.2 Phonetics of Spoken Tamil 3 1.2.1 Tamil Vowels 3 1.2.1.1 Initial Position 4 1.2.1.2 Final Position 4 1.2.1.3 Words Ending in a Vowel plus Nasal ... 4 1.2.1.4 The Epenthetic Vowel e_u 5 1.2.1.5 Words Ending in Sonorants, Liquids and Glides 6 1.2.1.6 Rhotics, Final and Otherwise 7 1.2.2 Nasal Consonants 8 1.2.3 Glides 9 1.2.4 Stop Consonants 9 1.2.4.1 Deletion of Intervocalic $u v and <i k .... 10 1.2.4.2 Voiced Consonants 11 1.2.5 Gemination 12 1.2.6 Vowel Length 12 1.2.6.1 Transliteration of LT and ST 12 1.3 Sandhi 20 1.3.0.2 Sandhi following front vowels 21 1.3.0.3 Sandhi following back vowels 21 1.3.1 Deletion of final sonorants 22 1.3.2 Sandhi and noun classes 22 1.4 Appendix 22 vn viii CONTENTS 2 The Nominal System 25 2.1 Nouns and Noun Classes 25 2.1.1 Nouns Ending in ^UD -am 25 2.1.2 Nouns Ending in fp -ru 26 2.1.3 Nouns Ending in © -du 26 2.1.4 Syntactic Usage of Oblique Forms 26 2.1.5 Oblique and Genitive 27 2.2 Number 27 2.2.1 Form of the Plural Marker 28 2.2.1.1 Use of 6~rax\)mb ellaam 'all, everything' for Plural 28 2.2.1.2 Plurality and Case 29 2.3 The Case System 29 2.3.1 Dative Case 29 2.3.2 The Dative Case Marker 30 2.3.3 Locative Case 31 2.3.3.1 Syntax of ®LQi_ kitte 31 2.3.4 Ablative Case 33 2.3.4.1 Semantically Locative Forms 33 2.3.4.2 Inanimate Nouns 33 2.3.4.3 Animate Nouns 33 2.3.4.4 Semantically Locative Expressions 33 2.3.5 Associative/Instrumental Case 34 2.3.5.1 Associative Case 34 2.3.5.2 Instrumental Case: Means by Which .... 35 2.3.6 Accusative Case 36 2.4 Postpositions 37 2.4.1 Postpositions Occurring with the Nominative: ... 38 2.4.1.1 Gtfj^&J seendu 'together' 38 2.4.1.2 QpaHh muulam 'with; by means of; through (the agency of); under the auspices of . 38 2.4.1.3 fljQrjaj^Lb varekkum, QJQIJ vare, duOrrujQa) vareyle 'up to, until' 38 2.4.2 Postpositions Occurring with the Oblique (Genitive) 39 2.4.2.1 0V.QL_ kuude 'along with' 39 2.4.2.2 GLDQ6\) meele 'above, on top of, after' .... 39 2.4.2.3 uiaih pakkam 'near, in the vicinity of, by' 40 2.4.2.4 Q^nQflnmLiQa) toneyle 'in the company of, with' 40 2.4.2.5 e.a'ffhLjQtt) ucciyle 'top, at, on the top of . 40 2.4.2.6 SQjp kiire 'below, under' 40 CONTENTS ix 2.4.2.7 -^TOTQL_, ^^mrQi_ -nde, ande 'near' ..... 40 2.4.3 Postpositions Occurring with the Dative 40 2.4.3.1 cg^db aaha 'for the sake of, on behalf of . 40 2.4.3.2 ^Lq-iLiQcx) adiyle 'at the base, foot of .... 40 2.4.3.3 6T@Qp" edire 'opposite, across from; contrary to, facing, against' 41 2.4.3.4 CLDQW meele 'above, on top of, after' .... 41 2.4.3.5 u<i<g5^^jQw pakkatiule 'near, in the vicinity of 41 2.4.3.6 e_$TTQsTT ulle 'by, within; into the inside of . 41 2.4.3.7 uglaxT badilaa 'instead of 42 2.4.3.8 LJ)6i5TfljTnQa) pinna ale 'after' 42 2.4.3.9 (LpsiHOTnQft) munnaale 'before' 42 2.4.4 Postpositions occurring with the accusative 42 2.4.4.1 CdFji^j seettu 'together' 42 2.4.4.2 u^@ patti 'about, concerning the topic of, regarding' 43 2.4.4.3 ung)§\ paattu 'at, to, towards' 43 2.4.4.4 ^flSlij tavira 'besides, except (for)' 43 2.5 NP-gi_ NP-^: 'Within a Particular Time or Context' ... 44 2.5.1 NP-oorfa NP-aa 44 2.5.2 NP-ooda NP-aa with Non-Time Expressions 44 2.5.2.1 Mass Nouns 44 The Tamil Verb Phrase 45 3.1 The Verb Stem 45 3.2 Imperatives and Infinitives 45 3.3 The Imperative 45 3.3.1 Negative Imperative 46 3.3.2 Imperative plus £T<»OT een 'why' 46 3.4 Forms of Address 47 3.4.1 Use of Singular Polite s_ih um 47 3.4.2 Plural (Honorific) Polite (fi_)i5ia>(rir) (u)nga(l) .... 47 3.4.2.1 Polite (Honorific) Plural 47 3.4.3 Honorific SLI5J<S5(CTT) (u)nga(l) 48 3.4.3.1 Other Uses . 48 3.4.4 Singular Non-Polite 48 3.4.4.1 Singular Informal Non-Polite 48 3.4.5 Hortative rornb laam 'let's (VERB)', 'shall we (VERB)?' 48 3.4.5.1 Hortative 48 3.4.6 Other Address Forms 49 3.4.6.1 (cg>|)i_rT (a)daa and (S\)\JL (a)dii (non-polite) 49 CONTENTS 3.4.6.2 (^i)L-n- (a)daa with Female Child 50 3.4.6.3 Use of (c°)|)L_rT (a)daa and (<3\)m (a)dii with Non-Kin 50 3.4.6.4 (<JM)UUIT appaa 'father, older man' and (^UDLDIT ammaa 'mother, older woman' (pol.) 50 3.4.6.5 Imperative Honorifics 50 3.4.6.6 (^)iijLurT (a)yyaa and (^LDLDIT (a)mmaa . 50 3.4.6.7 (^)iLiujrT (a)yyaa (masculine) and (^LDLDrr (a)mmaa (feminine) 50 3.4.6.8 ^^flKjrmjff), annaacci, ^flrorflnmT annaa\ ^j<S5<36iT akkaa; ^&LDL5) tampi; &&}&&&) tangacci 51 3.5 Finite Verbs 51 3.5.1 'Strong Verbs' with Tense Markers i^nb/^^/uu . 52 3.5.2 'Weak' Verbs, with Tense Markers gLrb/®<rar/flJ .... 53 3.5.3 Graul's Class II: Weak Present/future, pp> Past ... 53 3.5.4 Verbs with Weak Present/Future but Past with Doubled Retroflex Consonant 55 3.5.5 Verbs of the Problematical Class V 56 3.5.5.1 The Verb: Person-Number-Gender (PNG) Agreement 57 3.5.5.2 sun vaa 'come' 58 3.5.5.3 Gun poo 'go' 58 3.6 Transitivity and Verb Classes 58 3.6.1 Overview: Classification of the Tamil Verb 60 3.6.1.1 Graul's Verb Classes 61 3.6.2. Transitivity 61 3.6.2.1 Dative Subjects 64 3.7 Sample Paradigms of Common Verbs 65 3.7.1 Examples of Strong Verbs (Graul's Class VII) .... 65 3.7.1.1 unr© paaru 'see': INF: urr<i<sb paakka AVP urTjigj paattu 'having seen' 65 3.7.1.2 j£j(5 iru 'be located': INF: ®(5<i<sb irukka AVP: ^lojfe^j irundu 'having been' 65 3.7.1.3 tfrnJiJ® saappidu 'eat' INF: <jrTLJi_5)i_ saappida AVP: ^ULJIJIL-© saappittu 'having eaten' .