Page:History Of Tamil Lexicography.pdf/12

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precedes the letter ‘ef’ (Ni) in the Tamil Alphabet and hence the word ‘2’ (Aatu) should come before the word ‘aif’.

The book wherein the words are arranged in the way described above considering the 3rd, fourth, Sth and subse- quent letters and their meanings are also given is called a dictionary.

The word ‘a7 7 8’ (Akaraathi) is a combination of the two words wayib+ 48 (Akaram+Aathi), ‘saya’ (Akaram) means ‘a’ (a). ‘ag’ (Karam) in wari (Akaram) is augment. ‘4’ (‘Aathi’) means the first. As we begin this with the letter ‘2’ (a) this is called as ‘Akaraathi’ in Tamil. It is even called by the name of ‘Akara Series’ or ay aflame (Akara Varisai). As the words are arranged in the order 2 (a), % (aa), @ (i), (ii) with ‘sy’ (a) as the first it is called as ‘Akara Varisai’ or Akara Series in Tamil.

In English we call this as the Alphabetical order. This word originated from the Greek. ‘Alpha’ is a word; ‘Beta’ is another word. Alpha begins with letter ‘A’ and Beta with ‘B’. ‘A’ is the first letter in Greek and ‘B’ is the second letter in it: Latin letters originated from Greek. Some European languages like English, French and German are written with Latin letters. So in those languages instead of calling it as the ABCD order they call it as Alphabet by combining the words ‘Alpha’ and ‘Beta’. It is just like saying ‘4 aed BQ aiens’—Annil Aatu varisai (series) instead of 4, & eufiengs (A, Aa order). Is it due to the fact that we use the words Alpha and Beta to introduce the letters ‘A’ and ‘B’, we are introducing sjexfled, 244 (Annil, Aatu) in the first