Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s3.t1: 3.3.1 Phonology: presence of non-Tamil sounds
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c22.s3.t1
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3.3.1 Phonology: presence of non-Tamil sounds
c22.s3.t1.1
Only two non-Tamil sounds (*dh* and *s*) occur marginally in loanwords in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions.² It is significant that these are confined only to the Early Tamil-Brāhmī Period (ca. 2nd century B.C. to 1st century A.D.). Actually, the number and relative frequency of non-Tamil characters in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions are far less than those of Grantha letters in the later Tamil inscriptions.
c22.s3.t1.2
² See section 5.5 for details. The rarity of non-Tamil sounds in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions is by itself a sufficient ground to call into question the earlier theory of a predominant Indo-Aryan element in them.