correspond with the half anusvara of the Telugu..... The tendency to euphonise hard consonants by prefixing and combining nasals, .....is in full operation in Tamil. 4) Tamil makes no use of the aspirates and has not borrowed any of the aspirated consonants of Sanskrit.... 5) The Tamil alphabet is destitute of the Sanskrit sibilants ṡ, sh and s.”¹⁵

In this connection it is interesting to refer to the remarks of Beschi.¹⁶ Caldwell is echoing what Beschi said.¹⁷ As far as letter formation is concerned, one can supply as occasion demands, what one lacks.

Caldwell gives a list of the Tamil vowels and consonants.¹⁸ In the latter list, he has dropped ṉ since he feels ṉ is a “letter to which it is unnecessary to affix any distinctive mark, the difference between it and the n of the dental varga being one of form rather than sound.”¹⁹ We are not in a position to accept the above statement. It is evident that there is a sound difference in anta and aṉṟa. Let us take for illustration the pair of words annāy and aṉṉāy. There is remarkable obvious difference! n is a phoneme. Beschi has also given a list and it includes ṉ in it.²⁰ Rhenius has also included it.²¹ In support of this argument, we may draw the attention of the reader to the following statement of Rev. Beschi. “Hence it is an error to write சென்னெல், வென்னீர், என்னாடு, this last word thus written, would signify my country.......”²²

The sound system of Tamil, Caldwell observes varies from the Sanskrit and Indo-European languages. Sanskrit and Tamil are independent of each other. “The Dravidian phonetic system as

15. C. C. G. D. L; P. 130, 131

16. B. K. T. Rule 4

17. C. C. G. D. L; P. 131

18. Ibid. P. 132

19. Ibid. P. 131

20. B. K. T.; Rule 4

21. R. G. T. L.; P. 11

22. B. S.; Chapter 1 No. 9