Page:Tamil studies.djvu/192

Rh (4) Tamil has no relative pronouns. The existence of two pronouns of the 1st person plural, one of which includes and the other excludes the person addressed, is a peculiarity of Tamil, affiliating it to Turkic and other agglutinating tongues and differentiating it from Sanskrit.

(5) There are six tenses and four moods in Sanskrit, while Tamil has only three tenses and three moods. The existence of a negative and a passive voice in the verbal system is peculiar to Tamil, the latter being expressed by auxiliary verbs signifying to 'suffer'. The subjunctive and the optative moods are expressed by means of suffixed particles, and the other three tenses by means of auxiliary verbs. There is no benedictive mood in Tamil. The structure of the verb is strictly agglutinative, the second person singular of the imperative being an exception. The view of Senavaraiyar and Sivagnana-mnuni that—ஆ யென்னும் விகுதிகுன்றி கடவா உண் தின் என நின்றன வல்லது முதனிலைகளே யோசைவேறு பாட்டானவ்வாறு நின்றன வென்பது படாது—does not seem to be acceptable.

(6) In Sanskrit, adjectives are declined like nouns, which they qualify in gender, number, and case. In Tamil, adjectives which are only nouns of quality (உரிச்சொல்), have none. In Sanskrit the adjectives have degrees of comparison, while those of Tainil have none at all. The Sanskrit adjective priya is positive, and its comparative and superlative are priyas and preshta.