Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s12.t3.2

c25.s12.t3.2

The Dravidian sound *ṟ* (<PDr *\* ṯ*) was originally an alveolar stop which later developed into a trill in Tamil (except in the Jaffna dialect).⁶ It has become almost indistinguishable from *r* in modern spoken Tamil. However, it is described as a *valliṉam* (stop) in Tamil grammatical tradition (*Tol. Eḻu.* 19) and, like other stops (and unlike *r*), cannot occur word-finally.