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Tamil: Its Assets & Current
Needs
Dr.
R. Jegannath
"...Interestingly, the Tamil word for
vowels, Uyir means life, and the word for
consonants, Mey means both body and reality.
Neither life nor body can exist without the
other. .."
1. Tamil is a more logical
language than most other languages. For
instance,
a) there is no arbitrary assignment of gender
to inanimate things as in Latin, French or the
Sanskrit-based languages. Just imagine having to
memorize whether a stone or a book is masculine
or feminine!
b) declination of verbs: the verb-ending in
Tamil depends on the number, gender and person,
invariably. The middle depends on the tense. In
most other languages there are too many
categories of verb-endings, which one simply has
to memorize. (English, of course, has hardly a
method to its madness in this matter and rightly
dubbed as one of the most illogical of languages
by Bernard Shaw)
c) all case- endings follow similar sets of
rules; eg: when the word is only two-letters-long
and starts with a short letter, it inserts a
vowel or doubles the consonant in all case-
endings, so that the identity of the word is not
lost. Eg: Avan becomes avanai or avanaal, but
Kan, instead of becoming kanai or kanaal, becomes
kannai or kannaal
d) common alteration of vowels and consonants
leads to an ease of production by the vocal
apparatus and to a euphonic sound. Consonant
clusters such as seen in the Scandinavian
languages are clumsy and call for a bit of
gymnastics by the vocal apparatus. The Japanese
language is very particular about this, always
alternating the vowels and the consonants. Even
when it borrows words from other languages, it
naturalizes them suitably: eg. Pikkunikku (the cn
calls for an awkward jump), domokurashy .
Tamil too generally does this, avoiding the
gymnastics of Prakriti, naturalizing it into
Pirakiruti.
Interestingly, the Tamil word for vowels,
Uyir means life, and the word for consonants, Mey
means both body and reality. Neither life nor
body can exist without the other.
Uyir by itself, such as aeoui, will be all
ethereal, with no solidity, while consonant
clusters such as brkjtp will be all hard and
lifeless as stones without the enlivening vowels.
So the logical need for their alternation.
e) not ending a word with a plosive consonant
(like k,ch,t,p etc) which would entail the effort
of a sudden break .and stiffness. (Even languages
which allow it often add a vowel at the end while
singing, which promotes relaxation: Dost dost na
raha becomes Dostu dostu na raha)
f) avoiding insertion of plosive sounds in the
middle of a word _ for instance, the normal
tendency of the language will be to pronounce
� as Sedhu rather than as
Sethu.
Nasal consonants are followed by the
corresponding consonant that originates at the
same location in the vocal apparatus: nga (back
of the throat � guttural), nja
(palatal), nda (tongue bent on palate), mba
(bilabial-both lips) and so on, again generally
avoiding the need for vocal gymnastics. (These
four tendencies of the language given in d, e, f
and g give the euphonic sound to it.)
g) Tamil has perhaps the most extensive,
scientific and intricate system of prosody. While
the Sanskrit prosody is much more extensive and
intricate than that of English, it pales in
comparison to that of Tamil.
2. In spite of being spoken by a whole race of
people including the illiterate among them, Tamil
has maintained such a continuity and uniformity
that literature written 2000 years ago can be
understood by the educated readers of the
present. This is unusual.
Languages spoken by the common man generally
undergo a great deal of change from region to
region and with the passage of time. For
instance, English changed so much in a thousand
years that the works such as those of Chaucer's
need to be almost rewritten in order to be
understood by the readers of today.
This is not applicable to Latin and Sanskrit,
since they have always been languages of the
court and scholars only and not of daily usage by
the people. In this respect, Tamil has managed to
keep the cake and eat it too, by keeping the
written form unchanged while the spoken has been
changing with time, and in addition has
variations based on region and community. The
result is a spoken language markedly distinct
from the written. This is a source of great
trouble for non-Tamils who wish to learn to speak
and read Tamil, but can be overcome by learning
the written form and then the general lines and
principles on which it is distorted when spoken.
However, the aforesaid great advantage remains,
namely, the written form does not change too much
with time.
3. The great difficulty faced by those who do
most of their learning through the medium of
Tamil is the difficulty in consistently
representing certain alien sounds in Tamil. It is
not unusual to hear some of them say Bagisdhan
for Pakisthan or gaali when they actually want to
say kaali (empty), a word naturalized into
Tamil.
The unfortunate thing is that to use B or G at
the beginning of a word is entirely alien to the
Tamil language, yet many Tamils whose learning of
these words is through the medium of Tamil, make
such errors because of confusion. The word
Pakisthan illustrates their plight: written in
Tamil, the first consonant could be B or P, the
second G or K, and the third Th or Dh, leading to
eight possibilities in pronouncing the word
written in Tamil.
When our Tamil medium students need to
communicate with those of other languages in
later life, they frequently encounter such
pitfalls as Bagisdhan for Pakisthan. Thus, they
are exposed to ridicule by others and lose all
self- confidence and start getting a feeling that
their language is in some way inferior.
In this age when we are constantly in contact
with matters pertaining to the whole world, if we
do not address this great difficulty, those who
learn in Tamil medium will face a great
disadvantage. In due course of time, when the
Tamil parents realize this, they will not want to
send their children to Tamil medium schools; the
language will languish. That would be a pity,
since Tamil is such a wonderful language and can
be practically effective in the present world too
if it overcomes this limitation.
A simple scheme and some guidelines are
proposed in this connection and I hope that it
will lead to a wider discussion and action in
this matter. (sorry, not yet written down)
4. The representation of Tamil through the
English alphabet:
It can be shown that the representation
naturally followed by a Tamil is logically
superior to that followed by the Sanskrit based
languages, which were obliged to adopt that
scheme because of the aspirant sounds in their
alphabet (kha, chha, pha etc}.
Writing Geetha is certainly more logical than
Gita or Geeta, from the point of view of English
and Tamil, and to a large extent, even from the
point of view of Sanskrit. The current scheme was
proposed for Sanskrit, probably by the
missionaries, with a view to accommodating the
aspirant letters even there they woukd have done
better to keep t for � and th
for � .
The current scheme is not in accordance with
the natural sound pattern of Tamil, or English
and is not the best even from the Sanskrit point
of view. The Sanskrit-based languages use the
same letter, t for two different vargas or
categories, namely, for � and
for �. In any case, the
representation th as in think gives a sound more
akin to � than does the letter
t.
The Tamilians' writing of words such as
Dhivya, Dheepak, Ajith, Sumathi, Thaj is thought
by many North-Indians to be owing to ignorance,
but it is they who need to be enlightened.
Unfortunately we have accepted the representation
handed to us by those who formulated it for
Sanskrit and continue to write Tamil instead of
Thamil; is it too late to do anything about
it?
5. We Tamils need to have a clear
understanding of the way our language works. Most
of us go about it instinctively, but at times, it
leads to avoidable inconsistencies:
a) At the beginning of a word the hard
consonants are always hard, unless it is a word
from another language that starts with a soft
sound and is not yet fully naturalized into
Tamil: thittam (plan) should not be pronounced as
dhittam, nor kudhirai as gudhirai since they are
original Tamil words. While gunam or bayam may be
pronounced as such, since it is from the Sanskrit
word of that sound and has not yet fully
naturalized into kunam or payam.
b) When we represent Tamil words in English,
the Tamil rules of sound must be respected. For
instance, the letters க,
த, ட, unless preceded by a
வல்லினம்
மெய், is always
pronouned as ga, dha or da and not as ka, tha or
ta. So புதிய,
செந்தில்,
மகன் should always
be pudhiya, sendhil, and magan and not puthiya,
senthil or makan. One will not hear them normally
spoken thus, and the sound of the word must be
represented, not that of each letter.
c) The choice between நand ன shuld be clear. ந is used at the beginning of a
word and ன at other
places. There are 2 exceptions:
i) with the combination of ந்த,
ந்து etc.
(ii) when a word starting with ந takes a prefix to supplement
or reverse or modify its meaning. In these cases,
either ந or
ன may be used, ie.
either following the original rule or indicating
the root of the word. Therefore, we may write
அநீதி
or அனீதி,
விநாயகர்
or வினாயகர்,
அந்நியன்
or அன்னியன்
(This is from Sanskrit, niyam meaning self, or
one's own, anniyan being the antonym.). There is
a recent trend to write இயக்குநர்,
ஓட்டுநர்
etc., instead of இயக்குனர்,
ஓட்டுனர்.
The tendency should be discouraged.
6. A living language must change and grow in
order to survive and thrive, or else it will lose
usage and become extinct. Why is it that such a
logical, euphonic, ancient yet living language
with a rich literature is today facing the
ignominy of the elite of its own people
preferring to educate their children through an
alien medium? This is not so in Japan, Russia,
Germany or China.
The primary reasons are two.
i) The difficulty of articulating alien sounds
as outlined above. Though Tamil in itself may be
able to express most concepts without the aid of
other languages, in the present world, it is
increasingly necessary to communicate with people
of other languages, and consistent
representations of sounds unusual to Tamil is an
inevitable necessity.
This is easily attainable; we need a
discussion on this to arrive at the most
practical solutions. Tamil can weather these
minor modifications and take them in its stride.
The changes introduced into the Tamil script by
the European missionaries have not jeopardized
the language in any way; nor have the changes
introduced by Periyaar to achieve unifornity in
the representation of lai, nai, naa, raa etc.
ii) Coining of new words as necessary. Here a
few points are worth keeping in mind.
a) If there is an existing Tamil word that
would be naturally suitable for a new concept, we
should jump at it and use it.
b) If there are naturalized substitutes from
other languages already established in common
use, they should be readily accepted as a part of
the language, without any qualms such as those
felt by Thanithamil Iyakkamists. Tamil has the
capacity to absorb, digest and assimilate them
all without being lost in them. (Such willingness
and flexibility is the only reason why a
comparatively primitive language that English was
a thousand years ago, has now become a very rich
language.)
c) while coining new words, we need not always
follow the line on which the original word was
coined; if an innovative, short, apt Tamilic form
can be coined, that would be more acceptable even
if it is not a literal translation of the word
but represents the object better.
d) no need to make lengthy explanatory
descriptions instead of new words because of the
fear that people may not understand what thy
stand for. No need to underestimate people, they
are capable of arrving at the right target in due
course of time, quicker than we think, if the
coinage is apt. மென்பொருள்,
வலையம்,
கணினி are
some beautiful examples.
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