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Introduction
It is said that
“கல்தோன்றி
மண்தோன்றாக் காலத்தே
வாளோடு முன்தோன்றிய மூத்தகுடி."
Before the birth of stones and
sand,
Brave Tamil man was born”
The above poem portrays the heritage of Tamil language. The
treasured literature and grammar, outline of Sangam literature,
devotional literature, other literary categories, the grammar
treatise of Tholkaapiyar, structure of the language and the five
divisions of grammar are some of the topics covered in this
handbook. Moreover, the huge number of Tamil speaking people
cutting across countries, the birth and growth of the language,
the letters, the rules, the sound variations and the origin of
special characters, symbols for Tamil calendar, Tamil numbers,
time, land and cultural divisions, and coinage of words have
also been dealt with....
History of Tamil
All the south Indian languages belong to a single group known
as the family of Tamil language. Dr.Caldwel called this group of
south Indian languages as Dravidian languages. The Dravidian
family of languages are further subdivided into southern,
central and northern Dravidian languages. Tamil, Malayalam,
Kannada, Kudagu, Thulu, Thoada and Koatha belong to southern
Dravidian languages. Telugu, Koandi, Kooy, Koalami, Paarji,
Kadhaba. Koanda, Naayakki and Bengo belong to central Dravidian
languages. Kuruk, Maalthoa and Parakuy belong to Northern
Dravidian language. Southern Dravidian languages including Tamil
and Malayalam are being spoken in Tamilnadu, Kerala and
Karnataka. Central Dravidian languages like Telugu are being
spoken in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Maharastra.
Maalthoa is being spoken in Rajmahal hills of West Bengal.
The Tamil Speaking People
Tamil
Nadu is the main land of Tamil speaking people. More than 8
crore Tamils live in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. About one crore
Tamils live in the other states of India. Outside India,
Sri Lanka,
Burma,
Malaysia,
Singapore,
Indonesia,
South
Africa,
Fiji,
Mauritius
islands are some of the countries having a large number of Tamil
speaking people.
Tamil Grammar
Tamil grammar can be divided into five parts namely ezuthu
(Letter), sol (Word), porul (Meaning), Yaappu (poetic structure)
and aNi (Poetic decoration). The first book on Tamil grammar was
Agathiyam but the scripts of Agathiyam were never available. So
Tholkaappiyam
was accepted as the first book on Tamil grammar. Tholkaappiyam
is classified into three adhigaarams basically as
ezuthadhigaaram, solladhigaaram and poruladhigaaram and each
adhigaaram has 9 chapters allocated to it.
The birth and categorisation of Tamil characters along with
the listing of Tamil characters and the maathraas of Tamil are
some of the aspects described in ezuththadhigaaram.
Single letter words, multi letter words, sandhi rules,
classification of words according to origin, and syntactic
categorization of words are some of the features detailed in
solladhigaaram.
In poruladhigaaram some of the topics discussed are the
meaning of words, conventional usage of words, metaphors,
classification of nouns based on human and nonhuman aspects,
words expressing emotions and classification of living things
based on number of senses.
Characters in Tamil
There are 12 vowels, 18 consonants, 216 consonant vowels and
one aaydham in the Tamil language and hence there is a total of
247 characters in Tamil.
Vowels
There are twelve vowels in Tamil. They are, அ, ஆ, இ, ஈ, உ, ஊ,
எ, ஏ, ஐ, ஒ, ஓ, ஒள
Kinds of vowels : Depending on the duration of utterance the
vowels are classified into two, namely குறில் (kuril) and நெடில்
(nedil), The classification is as follows.
Short Vowels (kuril) : அ, இ, உ, எ, ஒ
Long Vowels (nedil) : ஆ, ஈ, ஊ, ஏ, ஐ, ஓ, ஒள
Consonants
There are eighteen consonants in Tamil. They are :
è¢ é¢ ê¢ ë¢ ì¢ í¢ î¢ ï¢ ð¢ ñ¢ ò¢ ó¢
ô¢ õ¢ ö¢ ÷¢ ø¢ ù¢
vallinam வல்லினம்) க், ச், ட், த், ப், ற்
mellinam (மெல்லினம்) ங், ஞ், ண், ந், ம், ன்
idayinam (இடயினம்) ய், ர், ல், வ், ழ், ள்
aaydham
There is one aaydham type of character in Tamil namely ஃ
Special Characteristics of some Tamil characters
Some Tamil characters display semantic functions in addition
to functioning in their normal way.
Demonstrative Letters (suttu)
The three short vowels அ, இ & உ
are used to indicate proximity in other words point to
objects and hence are called pointing characters of
suttezhuthukkaL.
ammaaNavan (அம்மாணவன்) -
the student, immaram (இம்மரம்) - this tree, upputhakam
(உப்புத்தகம்)
Interrogative Characters (vinaa)
When ஆ எ ஏ ஓ யா convey a question semantically then they are
called interrogative characters.
Prolongation (aLabedai)
In poetry, to adjust the maathras to make the poem fit the
structure, certain long vowels and long consonant vowels raise
their vowels to an extra maathraa(ala). This property of Tamil
is called aLabedai.
Position of Characters in a Word
The twelve vowels and the ten consonant vowels such as
க ச த ந ப ம வ ய ஞ ங are all allowed to occur at the
beginning of words.
The twelve vowels, eleven consonants ஞ் ண் ந் ம் ன் ய் ர் ல்
வ் ழ் ள் and shortened கு சு டு பு று are all allowed to occur
at the end of words.
Other Symbols and words in Tamil
Tamil has special symbols and words to represent days of the
week, months of the years, division of period into years
depending on historical significance, numbers and punctuations.
Days of week
The seven days of the week are :
Nyaayiru - Sunday
Thingal - Monday
Sevvaay -
Tuesday
Budhan (aRivan) - Wednesday
Viyaazhan -
Thursday
VeLLi - Friday
Sani (kaari) - Saturday
Months of the year (maatham / thingal)
The names of the months now in use are not Tamil names;
They are later year changes. The Tamil names are given in
brackets.
chiththirai (mezham) - April-May
vaigaasi (Vidai) -
May-June
aani (aadavai) - June-July
aadi (kadagam) -
July-August
aavaNi (madangal) - August-September
purattaasi (kanni) - September-October
aippasi(thulai) -
October-November
kaarththigai(naLi) - November-December
maargazhi (silai) - December-January
thai (suRavam) -
January-February
maasi (kumbam) - February-March
panguni (meenam) - March-April
Punctuation
There are special words in Tamil to indicate the different
punctuation marks. They are
Comma (kal puLLi) - , Semicolon (arai puLLi) - ; Colon
(mukkal puLLi) - : Full stop (mutru puLLi) - . Question Mark
(vina kuri) - ? Exclamation Mark (uNarchi kuri) - ! Double
Quotation (irattai mErkoL) - “ ” Single Quotation (otrai mErkoL)
- ‘ ’ Brackets (adaipu kuri) - ( ) History Mark (varalatru kuri)
- :- Hyphen (otrai samakkuri) - - Plus Sign (siluvai kuri) - +
Star Mark (natchathira kuri) - * Braces (irattai iNaippu kuri) -
{ }
Phonetic Rules
There are rules that specify certain phonetic considerations
like sound cariations for similar sounding characters, duration
for the sounding of maathraas, etc.,
Sound Variations
ல (la),
ள (La), ழ (zha) -
variations
la - This sound ‘la’ is produced when tip of tongue gently
runs over the upper jaw’s front teeth. example : palaa, pal
La - This sound ‘La’ is produced when tongue-tip bends to touch
the upper jaw’s central portion. example : paLLam, koL
Zha - This special sound ‘zha’ produced when tongue-tip proceeds
further bending as if to reach the inner tongue. example :
vaazhai
Ra, ra variations
ra - This is called idayinam ra which is produced by the
tongue tip touching the frontal edge of the upper jaw. example :
maram, karam
Ra - This is called vallinum Ra. It is produced in the same way
as ra but with more pressure. example : aRam, muRam
n’a, na, nna variations
n’a - Dental sound ‘n’a’ is produced when upper teeth is
pressed by tongue tip. example : n’anRu
Na - Tongue twist sound ‘Na’ is produced with the rear side of
tongue-tip touches the upper jaw. example : kaN, aNai
na = Proximity teeth sound ‘na’ is produced when tongue-tip goes
near the teeth but doesn’t touch the teeth. example : manam
vallina letters sound variations
Unlike other Indian languages, Tamil has single glyphs for
ka, cha, ta, tha, pa, Ra. But their sounds vary depending on the
context where they occur. They have normal sound while occurring
in the beginning of a word, strong sound when preceded by their
consonants, soft sound while occurring in the middle of a word
and a special sound when preceded by their ina ezhuthukkaL ங்,
ஞ், ண், ந், ம் and ன்.
kappal - ka (when comes at the beginning of a word)
akkaaL - (when preceded by its consonant க்)
thangam - ga (when comes in words preceded by ங்)
pahal - ha (when occurs in the middle of a word without
prefixing ங் or க்
Same thing happens with ச ட த ப ற letters also
Variation in duration for maathraas
Maathraas can be pronounced with short or long duration
short vowels - single maathraa
long vowels - two maathraa
Consonants - half a maathraa
aaydham - half a maathraa
Word
If a single letter or a group of letters together has a
meaning then it is termed as a word.
There are two types of classifications - literary &
grammar.
Literary types
iyar chol : Natural Tamil words in common usage
thiri chol
: Deformed words used in literature
vata chol : words with
Sanskrit origin
thisai : words from other languages
Grammar types
Noun (peyar chol)
Verb (vinai chol)
Participle (idai
chol)
Attribute (uri chol)
Noun Types
Noun of things (porul peyar)
Noun of place (idappeyar)
Noun of date year etc (kaalappeyar)
Noun of parts (chinai
peyar)
Abstract noun or noun of qualities (kuNappeyar)
Verbal noun or noun of action (thozhilpeyar)
Types of verb
Direct verb (therinillai vinai mutru)
Indirect verb
(kuRippu vinai mutru)
Participle (idaichchol)
The words that come in between noun and verbs but on
separation which may or may not have meaning by itself are
called participle words.
Gender Markers
There are markers to indicate gender which are added to words
to form appropriate gender forms.
Male - an, aan
Female - aL, aaL, i
Plural Human - ar,
aar, pa, maar
Singular Non human - thu
Plural Non human -
a, kaL
Attribute (Urichchol)
This is neither a noun nor a verb but it adds on to the
meaning and have one or more than one properties associated with
it.
Word Doubler (Irattaik kiLavi)
If a meaningless word doubles itself in a sentence it is
called a word doubler.
Example : vazha vazha, sala sala
Word chains (adukkuth thodar)
Two meaningful words which doubles due to fear or rapidity
are termed as word chains.
Example theethee, OduOdu
Word Coining (PuNarchi)
When two words join together it is called coining. The first
word is called static word and the next word is called joining
word. Static word’s ending and the joining word’s beginning
merge together to form such coinages.
There are three types of coinages. They are :
*Addition (thOntral)
*Alteration (thirithal)
*Deletion (keduthal)
Addition
A new letter adds on when the coinage occurs.
Eg. poo + chedi = poochchedi
Alteration
A letter gets altered when the coinage occurs.
Eg. pon + kudam = poRkudam
Deletion
During the coinage one letter gets deleted.
Eg. maram + vEr = maravEr
Sentence (Vakkiyam - Thodar)
When words stand together to give some meaning on the whole
they form a sentence.
Parts of Sentence
The various parts of the sentence are classified according to
the roles they perform as follows :
* Subject (ezhuvaai)
* Predicate (payanilai)
* Object (seyappatuporuL)
* Titles (adaimozhi)
* Punctuations (kurikaL)
Semantic Classification
In Tamil nouns are classified as human and nonhuman. Life in
general is classified as internal and external. In Tamil
literature land and its culture are also classified. In addition
there are classification for time and emotions. There is another
classification on living things based on senses.
Classification of nouns
Nouns in Tamil are generally classified under human and
non-human as given :
Human (uyarthiNai)
* Thevar (God)
*MakkaL (Man)
*Naragar (Devil)
Non-Human and Object (ahRiNai)
* Living non-humans like animals, birds and plants
*Non-living non-human like stones, rocks etc. are the
two categories here.
Literary Life (poruL)
The life found in Literature is termed as Literary life. It is
divided into two
- Internal - life (aham) - Internal-life (aham) talks
more about the love and passion between the hero and heroine of
the literature which are felt and known only to the couple and
not elsewhere. Internal- life comprises of five ThiNais.
* kurinchi - togetherness of hero and heroine
* mullai - Heroine awaits arrival of the Hero
* marudham - Short temporary mis understanding between the
pair
* neydhal - heroine depressed since the hero has not
returned.
*paalai - departure of the hero from the heroine for the
purpose of earning money.
Apart from these there are two other classes :
*kaikiLai (One sided Love)
* perun’dhiNai (mismatched Love)
- External-life (puRam) - The portion of life that is
declared publicity, the events that happen with the knowledge of
public are all termed to be under External - life. There are ten
parts of External life where the first eight songs are about the
war and the next two are about the external characteristics of
the Hero.
* vetchi -Kidnapping the cows from the enemy country
* karandhai - fighting and getting back the kidnapped
cows.
* Vanji -march towards the enemy country to capture it.
* kaanji - fight against the opposing marching troops to
prevent them capturing the country
* uzhinjai - Surrounding the fort walls of the enemy
country.
* nochchi -Saving the fort from the inside of the fort.
* thumbai -head to head fight in an open ground
* vaahai -the winner wearing a garland of the vaagai
flower
* paadaaN - singing in praise of the king who won the war
* podhuvial - all the other aspects that were not sung in
the above nine thinais.
Land and culture divisions
In Tamil Literature many songs are based on cultural
differences and land is classified based on its geographic
characteristics and cultre. The division are :
* kurinchi - mountain area
* mullai - forest area
* marudham - agricultural area
* neydhal - sea surrounded area
* paalai - merge of kurinchi and mullai
Time (pozhuthu or kaalam)
Time is first divided as long time and short time. Long time
is the year divided based on seasons and short time is a day
divided based on hours.
- Long time (perum pozhuthu)
the year is divided into periods of two months each based on
seasons
* iLavEnil - April May
* mudhuvEnil - June July
* kaar - August September
* kuLir - October November
* munpani - December January
* pinpani - February March
- Short Time (chiru pozhuthu)
* kaalai - 06-10 Hrs.
* n’aNpahal - 10-14 Hrs.
*Erpaadu - 14-18 Hrs.
* maalai - 18 -22 Hrs.
* yaamam - 22-02 Hrs.
* vaiharai - 02 - 06 Hrs.
Feelings (meypaadu)
Tholkappiyar divides feelings and emotions into eight
categories
* Laugh (nahai)
* Cry (azhuhai)
*Embarrassed (iLivaral)
*Wonder (marutkai)
*Fear (acham)
* Proud (perumidham)
*Anger (Chinam)
*Happiness (uvakai)
Classification of Life
Based on the sense Tholkaapplyar classifies life into six.
* uni-sensed - grass, tree
* di-sensed - shell, snail
* tri-sensed - ants, termite
* tetra-sensed - crabs, dragon fly
* penta sensed - birds, animals
* hexa sensed - humans
Poetic Grammar (yaappu)
The protocols and exceptions for creating poetry is termed as
poetic grammar. In this there are two types; asai and aNi.
* asai
Letters join together to form asai. There are two types of
asai - nEr asai and nirayasai
* Poetic Decorations (aNi)
aNi means beauty, these decorations are not only to just
beautify the lines of the poetry but also for comparisons and
adding extra meaning to the lines.
Tamil Literature
On the basis of time, Tamil Literature can be classified into
three categories. They are :
* Sangam Literature
* Medieval Literature
* Modern Literature
Sangam literature emphasizes on love and bravery.
Medieval Literature includes kaappiyams, devotional literature
and short literature.
In Modern Literature (19th century.) liberty, social status,
poverty and love are the main topics of discussion.
Sangam Literature
Sangam Literature normally written in the form of poetry can
be classified into two categories.
They are mElkaNakku and KeezhkaNakku
* mElkaNakku NoolkaL
mElkaNakku noolkaL consists of eight books of small verses (ettuththogai)
and ten books of long verses (paththuppaattu)
ettuththogai
1.
n’atriNai
2.
kurunthokai
3.
pathitruppaththu
4.
paripaadal
5.
aingurunooRu
6.
kalithogai
7.
aganaanooRu
8.
puranaanooRu
paththupattu
1. thirumurukaatrupatai - nakkeerar
2. porunaaraatrupatai - mutathama kaNNiyaar
3. chirupaaNaatrupatai - nalloor naththanaar
4. perumpaaNaatrupati - katialoor uruthirankaNNanaar
5. malaipatukadaam - perungausikanaar
6. kurinchipaattu - kapilar
7. mullaippaattu - napputhanaar
8. madhuraikaanchi - maankudi maruthanaar
9. n’edunelvaadai - nakkeerar
10. pattinappaalai - katialoor uruthirankaNNanaar
keezhkaNakku
noolkal
This comprises of eighteen books on human morals.
1. n’aalatiyaar - SamaNa munivarkaL
2. n’aanmaNikatikai - Vilampi naakanaar
3. thirukkuraL - thiruvaLLuvar
4. pazhamozhi n’aanuru - munrurai araiyanaar
5. innan’ aaRpathu - kapilar
6. iniyavai n’aaRpathu - poothensenthanaar
7. kaar n’aaRpathu - kannan kuthanaar
8. kaLavazhi n’aaRpathu - poikaiyaar
9. inthiNai aimpathu - maranporaiyanaar
10. thiNaimozhi aimpathu- kannansenthanaar
11. thiNaimaalai nootraimpathu- kanimethaviyaar
12. kainnilai - pullangatanaar
13. thirikatukam - nallathanaar
14. chirupanchamoolam - kariyaasan
15. Elaathi - kanimethaviyaar
16. muthumozhi kaanchi - kudulurkilaar
17. aasaarakkovai - peruvain mullaiyaar
18. inthiNai ezhupathu - moovathiyaar
Medieval Literature
kaappiyam
Kaapiyam describes the story of a incomparable hero and
also consists of many sub stories. Kappiyam usually embodies
the good qualities that a man should have, the necessary dos
and do nots of the citizens of a country, love and about the
means to obtain salvation.
Tamil kaapiyam can be divided into aimperum kaapiyam
(big) and ainchiru kaapiyam (small)
aimperum kappiyams -
*
silappathigaaram - ilankOvadikaL
*
manimEgalai - seeththalai chathanaar
* seevaga chinthaamaNi - thiruthakkathEvar
*
vaLayaapadhi
* kundalakEsi - nAkuthanaar
ainchiru kappiyams -
* uthayaNakumaara kaaviyam
* n’aagakumaara kaaviyam
* yasOdara kaaviyam
* n’eelakEsi
* suuLamani - thoolamozhithevar
Devotional Literature
Devotional literatures were created in large numbers during
the period of the Cholas and the Pallavas. There were two types
of devotional literature namely Saiva literature known as
panniru thirumuraikal and VaiNava literature known as
Nalayirathiviyaprabantham.
Short Literatures (chitrilakkiyam)
Short literatures were written mainly during the period of
the Naayakkars. Later, there were ninety six short literatures
created in Tamil which concentrated on aspects of farming, the
art of war fare and about the processions taken by temple
deities and ruling kings, etc.,
Modern Literature
All literatures written after 19th century from the period of
Mahaakavi Bhaarathi are known as modern literatures. Some
examples are :
*
Bhaarathiyaar kavidhaigaL
*
Bhaaradhidhaasan kavidhaigL
*
Kalki’s Novels
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