Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s12.t4.3

c25.s12.t4.3

Dravidian linguists are not agreed on the question whether the dental nasal *n* and the alveolar nasal *ṉ* are two different phonemes or merely allophones of one phoneme. These are, however, treated as different sounds in Tamil grammatical tradition (*Tol. Eḻu.* 20). The fact that those responsible for the invention of the Tamil-Brāhmī script fashioned a separate character for *ṉ* by modifying *n* is clear evidence that there must have been a distinction in sound between the two letters in the language at that time. The retention of two sounds (but represented by one letter) in Malayalam even at present corroborates the view that the alveolar nasal *ṉ* was a distinct phoneme in Old Tamil. However, even in the cave inscriptions there are instances of *ṉ* being written as *n* (e.g., No. 59).