Page:Tamil studies.djvu/305

278 like puso (to cause to behave); infinitives in fwi as in தரீஇயர் (to give), imperatives in மோ as in சென்மோ and மின் as in உண்மின் have all gone out of use along with L67, 686, Cu 6 and LCTM which were the adverbs of quality greatly used by the early Tamil poets.

As in most works of this period the metre used here is agaval.

Tolkapyar and Pavanandi have provided rules for the going out of the old and the coming in of new forms and words, so long as the language continues to have life and growth. Ignoring this important principle Tamil poets of all ages have slavishly adopted obsolete terms and expressions in their compositions. This is the chief cause for the great difference between the language of poetry and the colloquial dialect. We are not concerned here with the obsolete words and forms as they have been fully explained by the old commentators and in the glossaries appended to those classical works. We give below only such words as are current now but have undergone change in meaning by the influence of the psychological principles of contiguity, resemblance and contrast. yQ meant 'victory' from @ to kill, now it means a' sheep' or 'an animal that frisks' ; 306074 meant 'strength' and now it means 'front'; Duchowi meant the 'people', now it means the 'green or fertile land;' gosso meant “thinking', now restricted only to 'measuring'; Quy meant 'withering or dying,' now it means that in