older
books have been rendered obsolete by the researches of Indian scholars
and by the investigations of the Government Archaeological Departments.”
The Sangam classics which were unknown even to Tamil scholars during the
time of Dr.Caldwell, and in some of which, the tradition “which speaks
of a large continent which once existed contiguous to Southern India,
and which was submerged by the ocean during a certain inundation not far
removed from human recollection” is recorded, were brought to light only
after his time. Recent researches in Dravidian philology show, that the
relation of Tamil to the Dravidian languages is that of parent and not
that of sister, as is ordinarily held by Western philologists. Hence,
the distinction between Tamil and its allied languages is fully justified.
TAMIL,
THE BEST REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DRAVIDIAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES
|
|
(I) The Primitive
Nature of the Dravidian form of Speech best preserved in Tamil |
(i) |
Phonological
simplicity of Tamil |
Though Tamil is a classical language of
the first order, its phonology consists of only thirty primary and three
secondary sounds, most of them so simple as to be easily pronounced by
infants, invalids and the decripit, as well as by valiant adults. Even
this number can be reduced to 31, if two of the secondary sounds are taken
to be mere allophones of the vowels ‘i’ and ‘u’, as they ought to be.
Thus, it will be seen, that Tamil, phonologically speaking, is the simplest
of the classical languages of the world.
(ii)
|
Purity
of the Tamil vocabulary |
“The ancient or classical dialect of the
Tamil language, called Shen-Tamil (Sen-Damir) or correct Tamil, in which
nearly all the literature has been written, contains exceedingly little
Sanskrit; and differs from the colloquial dialect, or the language of
prose, chiefly in the sedulous and jealous care with which it has rejected
1.R.A.T.P.3
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