Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s15.t2: 6.15.2 Empirical rules for the special usage of u- vowels
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s15.t2
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6.15.2 Empirical rules for the special usage of u- vowels
c26.s15.t2.1
The clue to the understanding of this special usage comes from the TB-I notation with which it is closely associated as may be seen from the word list above. The TB-I notation attempted to distinguish three medial vowel-lengths viz., *-ā*, *-a* and Ø, but provided for only two as it employed the same marker for both *-ā* and *-a*. On this analogy, we may formulate the following empirical rules for the special usage relating to the *u-* vowels:
c26.s15.t2.2
(a) The symbols for *ū* (initial and medial) stand for the sounds *ū* (long) or *u* (short).
(b) The symbols for *u* (initial and medial) stand for the sounds *u* (short) or *u* (shortened).
c26.s15.t2.3
Let us examine the words in the list given above in the light of these empirical rules.
c26.s15.t2.4
**Rule (a): *ū* to be read as *u***
c26.s15.t2.5
9 initial occurrences of *ū-* have to be read as *u-* (items 4 to 9, 17-19); 6 medial occurrences of *-ū-* have also to be read as *-u-* (items 1 to 3, 11 to 13).
c26.s15.t2.6
The situation is less clear in respect of the final occurrences of *-ū* which have to be read as *-u* according to rule (a). Items 15 and 16 may be read respectively as *paracu* and *piṇa(v)u* probably with the short *-u* finally as required by the rule. However, as item 15 is a personal name and item 16 is not attested elsewhere, one cannot be sure about the length of the final *-u* in these cases. Items 10 and 14 have to be emended respectively as *kuṉṟa(t)tu* and *nikama(t)tu* as in Literary Tamil; one should then expect the shortened *-u* in the final position in these cases and not the short *-u* as required by this rule.
c26.s15.t2.7
**Rule (b): *-u* to be read as shortened *-u***
c26.s15.t2.8
The diagnostic word in the list (item 8) is **ū pu** to be read as *u(p)pu* (with short and shortened *u* at either end) according to this rule: Apparently the shifting of the long *ū* symbol to represent the short *u* was for the purpose of leaving the short *u* symbol to represent the shortened *-u* in word-final positions. There are, however, no other such clear instances in the word list to confirm this hypothesis.
c26.s15.t2.9
On the whole, the evidence from the word list supports the empirical rules formulated above governing the usage of the *u-* vowels in the Early Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions. But, as in the case of the TB-I notation, this system is also defective as it provides for only two symbols (*ū* and *u*) to represent three sounds (*ū*, *u* and shortened *u*). This is almost certainly the reason why this orthographic experiment failed. While the TB-I notation was replaced by better systems, the special usage governing the *u-* vowels disappeared without any replacement, thus ending an interesting, though short-lived, attempt to depict the shortened *u* graphically in the Tamil-Brāhmī script.