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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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