Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s2.t3: 3.2.3 Grammatical elements

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s2.t3

Language: English

3.2.3 Grammatical elements

c22.s2.t3.1

(i) *Pronouns* (e.g.) Personal pronouns: *em* 'our' (exclusive). Demonstrative pronominal bases: *a-* 'that'; *i-* 'this'. Numeral pronouns: *iruvar* 'two persons'.

c22.s2.t3.2

(ii) *Numerals* (e.g.) *iru-* 'two'; *patiṉ-* 'ten' (oblique); *nūṟu* 'hundred'.

c22.s2.t3.3

(iii) *Interjections* (e.g.) *ītā* 'lo, behold!'

c22.s2.t3.4

(iv) *Particles* (e.g.) *-um* 'also, too'; *-ē* 'emphatic particle'

There are about 38 types of grammatical morphemes in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions including pronominal (PNG) suffixes, suffix of the oblique case, case-endings, causative suffixes, tense markers, suffixes of the participial and verbal nouns, suffixes of the adjectival participles and suffix of the infinitive.¹

c22.s2.t3.7

¹ See section 7.38 and Appendix VII (Index to Grammatical Morphemes) for details.

c22.s2.t3.8

(vi) *Rare grammatical usages*

c22.s2.t3.9

(a) *Absence of finite verbs:*

c22.s2.t3.10

A remarkable feature of the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions is the absence of finite verbs, their place being taken by participial nouns or adjectival participles. (e.g.) *antuvaṉ koṭupitavaṉ* 'Antuvaṉ caused to be given'. *(i)ḷaṅkō ceypita paḷi-i* 'hermitage caused to be made by (I)ḷaṅkō'.

c22.s2.t3.11

(b) *Absence of present tense:*

c22.s2.t3.12

The Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions have only two tenses, the past and the non-past, and no present tense, agreeing in this respect with Old Tamil. The present tense in Tamil is a later development.

c22.s2.t3.13

(c) *Rare grammatical morphemes:* *-a* occurs as the accusative case suffix in *itta* 'this' (LT *ittai*). *-a* is the most common genitive suffix in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions. (e.g., *ciḻivaṉ-a*, *tiṭi-il-a*, etc.). This suffix occurs only rarely in Old Tamil. *-ā* occurs as a genitive case suffix. (e.g.) *nalliy-ūr-ā* 'of Nalliyūr'.

c22.s2.t3.14

This morpheme is not attested elsewhere in Tamil. However, it occurs as a genitive suffix in Old Kannada inscriptions.

c22.s2.t3.15

*-ā* occurs as an adjectival suffix in *mutā*/*mūtā* (*mutu*/*mūtu*+*ā*) 'senior, elder'. This morpheme is also not attested in Tamil.