பக்கம் எண் :

8THE PRIMARY CLASSICAL LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD

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