Page:Tamil studies.djvu/163

136 When the accent falls on the first it means to 'die' and if it falls on the second it means to ‘kill', Intonation is of three kinds,—rising tone or எடுத்தல், falling tone or படுத்தல் and level tone or நலிதல். Of these, only the first two are in use. In நட when the accent falls on ட, that is when it is uttered in a rising tone, it denotes a command, and when the accent falls on ந or pronounced in a falling tone it becomes a simple root. In phrases and sentences, emphasis on particular words alters their meanings. Thus, the phrase அறிவிலாதவன் may mean either ‘a stupid man' or 'a man as intelligent as the sun'.

Concerning the origin of Tamil letters enough has been said in the Tolkapyam and Nannul, The Panniru-pattiyal —பன்னிருபாட்டியல்- a grammatical compilation, assigns a divine origin to all the letters except ஃ. It says the twelve vowels were created by Brahma and the eighteen consonants by Siva, Vishnu, Muruga, Indra, the Sun, the Moon, Kubera, Yama and Varuna at the rate of two each. This is a curious piece of information to a modern philologist. It shows that these were the only important deities known and worshipped by the Tamil Hindus of Poigaiyar's time i. e. about A. D. 500.

In Tamil the interchange of letters which have almost similar sounds is allowed. This is, perhaps, due to wrong pronunciation and defective hearing. It occurs mostly at the end of words, sometimes at the beginning and middle also. These letters are, — அ for ஐ as in அரயன் for அரையன் ; ஞ for ந as