Page:Tamil studies.djvu/184

Rh It is thus unsafe to accept Dr. Caldwell's view in violation of the above rules, as there are pure Tami word in ஐ and ஔ, as ஐவனம், ஔவியம், தையல், தௌவை, வைதல், பௌவம், &c. The Tamil ஐ becomes அ but not ஏ in Malayalam; compare தலை and தல, கரை and கர, நிலை and நில, &c.

WORD FORMATION:—The peculiarities of structure of Tamil words may be briefly noticed here. in the last essay something has been said of the initial, middle and final letters in words. That will doubtless help the reader to settle for himself which words are native, and which foreign. The following additional rules are worth his careful consideration.

(1). Double consonants at the beginning, and triple consonants of different Vargas or classes in any position are not allowed in a Tamil word. Compare Sanskrit trayi, vaktram and vastram.

(2) In the middle of a word double consonants of different classes are not, as a rule, allowed; words with ல்ய, வ்ய, ண்ய, ந்ய,. ம்ய. ம்வ, &c., do not occur.

(3). The doubling of the same consonant is very common in Tamil, but not so in Sanskrit. In Tamil we have akka, attai, annan, attan, appan, ammai, &c.

(4) No !Tamil word can begin with ச, சை, and சௌ; but Sanskrit allows these initial letters as in சம்பு, சைன்யம் and சௌர்யம். The Tamil words சட்டி and சமழ்தல் are a later introduction.

(5) Only the long யா can come at the beginning of a Tamil word, while others do not. In Sanskrit we have யவனர், யுக்தி, யூபம், யோகம் and யௌனம்.