Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s16: 6.16 Dual values of the letters e and o
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c26.s16
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6.16 Dual values of the letters e and o
c26.s16.1
The length of *e* and *o* (initial and medial) is not indicated in the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions of the Early Period,¹ and only sporadically in the Late Period and in the Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscriptions with the addition of the *puḷḷi* ('dot'). There is, however, no doubt that the respective short and long vowels existed in the language. This is proved by the following contrasting pairs of words in the Corpus.
c26.s16.2
¹ See sections 5.10 & 5.13 (*e/o*).
c26.s16.3
| *teṉ-* | 'southern' (49.5.a) | *tēṉ-* | '(pleasing as) honey' (73.2.a) |
| *peru(m)-* | 'great' (83.1.a) | *pēr-* | 'great' (13.2.a) |
| *veḷ-* | 'white' (3.3.a) | *vēḷ* | 'a clan name' (32.1.c) |
| *koṭu-* | 'to give' (3.9) | *-kōṭu* | 'mountain' (120.1.b) |
| *poṉ* | 'gold' (36.2.a) | *-pōṉ* as in | *vep(p)ōṉ* (*vaippōṉ*) 'he who has endowed' (13.4) |