Tamil language

Grammar

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Much of Tamil grammar is extensively described in the oldest available grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam. Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam, with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu, col, porul, yāppu, aṇi. Of these, the last two are mostly applicable in poetry.

Related Topics:
Grammar - Tolkāppiyam

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Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, is an agglutinative language. Tamil words consist of a lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. In written Tamil, the morphemes that make up individual words are usually easily separable and analysable.

Related Topics:
Agglutinative language - Lexical root - Affix - Morpheme

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Most Tamil affixes are suffixes. Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person, number, mood, tense, etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination, which can lead to long words with a large number of suffixes, which would require several words or a sentence in English.

Related Topics:
Suffix - Derivational - Inflection - Person - Number - Mood - Tense - Agglutination

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Parts of speech

The first category of words in Tamil is peyarcol or "name-words", a broad classification which includes all nouns, numerals, pronouns and some adjectives. The peyarcol are divided into two classes (tiṇai) - the "rational" (uyartiṇai), and the "irrational" (aḵṟiṇai), each of which has its own sub-classes. Humans and deities are normally classified as "rational", and animals, objects and everything else as irrational. However, these classifications are not absolute - the irrational form can be used contemptuously for humans. The collective form for rational nouns is also used as an honorific, and a gender-neutral singular form. The "many" form of irrational nouns - which technically ought to serve as a plural - is rarely used in speech or writing. Person, number (singular and plural) and gender are often indicated through suffixes.

Related Topics:
Noun - Numeral - Pronoun - Adjective - Rational - Irrational - Human - Deities - Animal - Object - Contemptuously - Honorific

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Suffixes are also used to perform the functions of cases or postpositions. Traditional grammars tried to group the various suffixes into 8 cases corresponding to the cases used in Sanskrit. These were the nominative, accusative, dative, sociative, genitive, instrumental, locative, and ablative. Modern grammarians, however, argue that this classification is artificial, and that Tamil usage is best understood if each suffix or combination of suffixes is seen as marking a separate case. (Schiffman, 1999). Tamil nouns can also take one of four prefixes, i, a, u and e which are functionally equivalent to demonstratives in English.

Related Topics:
Case - Postposition - Sanskrit - Nominative - Accusative - Dative - Sociative - Genitive - Instrumental - Locative - Ablative - Prefix

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Like Tamil nouns, Tamil verbs are also inflected through the use of suffixes. A typical Tamil verb form will have a number of suffixes, which show person, number, mood, tense and voice.

Related Topics:
Verb - Suffix

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• Person and number are indicated by suffixing the oblique case of the relevant pronoun (ēn in the above example). The suffixes to indicate tenses and voice are formed from grammatical particles, which are added to the stem.
• Tamil has two voices. The first indicates that the subject of the sentence undergoes or is the object of the action named by the verb stem, and the second indicates that the subject of the sentence directs the action referred to by the verb stem.
• Tamil has three simple tenses - past, present, and future - indicated by simple suffixes, and a series of perfects, indicated by compound suffixes. Mood is implicit in Tamil, and is normally reflected by the same morphemes which mark tense categories.

Tamil has no articles. Definiteness and indefiniteness are either indicated by special grammatical devices, such as using the number "one" as an indefinite article, or by the context. In the first person plural, Tamil makes a distinction between inclusive pronouns that include the listener and exclusive pronouns that do not. Tamil does not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs - both fall under the category uriccol.

Related Topics:
Article - Inclusive - Exclusive - Adjective - Adverb

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Verb auxiliaries are used to indicate attitude, a grammatical category which shows the state of mind of the speaker, and his attitude about the event spoken of in the verb. Common attitudes include pejorative opinion, antipathy, relief felt at the conclusion of an unpleasant event or period, and unhappiness at or apprehension about the eventual result of a past or continuing event.

Related Topics:
Verb auxiliaries - Attitude - State of mind - Pejorative opinion - Antipathy

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Sentence structure

Word order in Tamil is rather rigid. Except in poetry, the subject must precede the object, and the verb must conclude the sentence. In a standard sentence, therefore, the order is usually Subject Object Verb (SOV).

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Tamil is a null subject language. Not all Tamil sentences have subjects, verbs and objects. It is possible to construct valid sentences that have only a verb - such as muṭintuviṭṭatu ("It is completed") - or only a subject and object, such as atu eṉ vīṭu ("That is my house"). The elements that are present, however, must follow the SOV order. Tamil does not have an equivalent for the word is and the word is included in the translations only to convey the meaning.

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