Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c27.s32: 7.29 Tense
Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c27.s32
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Contents
- c27.s32.t1 7.29.1 Past tense — 3 parts
- c27.s32.t2 7.29.2 Non-past (present-future) tense — 3 parts
- c27.s32.t3 7.29.3 Absence of finite verbs — 1 part
7.29 Tense
c27.s32.1
Modern Tamil has three tenses, past, present and future. Old Tamil distinguished only two tenses, past and non-past (present-future). The Corpus reflects the pattern of tense in Old Tamil. Specifically, the present tense suffixes *-kir-* and *-kiṉṟ-* are absent from the Corpus.
7.29.1 Past tense
c27.s32.t1.1
Verbs in the past tense may be classified on the basis of the past tense markers, *-t-*, *-tt-*, *-nt-* and *i* (~ *-iṉ-*, *-y-*):
c27.s32.t1.2
| *-t-* | *-tt-* | *-nt-* | *-i-* (~ *-iṉ-*, *-y-*): |
| *cey* / *ceyi* / *cē* | *aṟu* | *ama* | *ā* / *āku* |
| *toṭu* (> *to(ṭ)ṭ-*) | *ī* | *āru* | *āṭu* |
| | *koṭu* / *kuṭu* | *tā* (> *tant-*) | *karu(v)u* / *karu(k)ku* |
| | *tai* | *piṟa* | *koṭṭu* |
| | *nōl* (> *nōṟṟ-*) | | *ēvu* |
| | *puṇaru* | | *ko(ṟ)ṟu* |
| | *muṭi* | | *cē* (variant of *cey*) |
| | *ve* / *vai* | | |
c27.s32.t1.3
The distribution is as in LT except for *cē* (a variant of *cey* attested only in inscriptions) taking not only the past tense marker *-t-* as in *cētavar* 'they who made' (35.3), but also *-i-* as in *cē-i-ya* 'which was made ' (2.10) and *-y-* as in *cē-y-a* 'which was made' (31.2). See Commentary (2.10, 31.2) for discussion.
7.29.2 Non-past (present-future) tense
c27.s32.t2.1
There is only one occurrence of a verb form in the non-past tense in the Corpus:
c27.s32.t2.2
*ve(p)pōṉ* (LT *vaippōṉ*) 'he who has endowed' (13.4)
c27.s32.t2.3
The non-past suffix here is *-(p)p-* (not doubled in the original).
7.29.3 Absence of finite verbs
c27.s32.t3.1
A remarkable feature of the inscriptions in the Corpus is the absence of finite verb forms. Their place is taken by participial nouns and adjectival participles.