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156 Sanskrit language; deducting these six we have 25 letters which are common to both; and Sanskrit has 24 letters the sounds of which are not represented by any letter in Tamil. The possession of peculiar sounds like ழ, ற, ன and ஃ exhibits the physiological characteristics of the Tamil people, differentiating their language from the Aryan tongues ; and the very fact that Tamil possesses and largely employs the short sounds எ and ஒ points to an origin, quite independent of Sanskrit. The short எ and ஒ are not peculiar to Tamil, which every language except Sanskrit posesses although Swaminatha Desikar and other native scholars, blindly following Sanskrit grammarians, seem to think otherwise, In Tamil sel is to go, and sêl is a kind of fish; mel is to chew and mêl is above; kol is to kill and kôl is a stick, tol is old and tôl is the skin, noy is softness and nôy is sickness; and so on.

Dr. Caldwell states that the diphthongs ஐ and ஔ had no place in the Dravidian languages and that they were placed in their alphabets solely in imitation of Sanskrit. He further asserts that in Tamil ஐ is a compound of எ and இ but not of அ and இ as in Sanskrit, and that it is an equivalent of a in Malayalam and of எ in Kanarese. As for ஔ he believes that it has no place in the Tamil alphabet except for pronouncing Sanskrit derivatives only. As against these observe what Tolkapyar says. —

அகர இகர மைகாரமாகும்.--I. 54.

அகர உகர மௌகாரமாகும்.–I. 55.

பன்னீருயிரு மொழி முதலாகும்.—I. 59.