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Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c27.s7: 7.6 Distribution of consonant-vowels

Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c27.s7

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7.6 Distribution of consonant-vowels

7.6.1 In the Corpus

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The Tamil script is an alpha-syllabic writing system in which not only vowels and consonants but also consonant-vowels (*uyirmey*), open syllables of the CV type, are graphically represented as single letters (*Tol. Eḻu.* 17-18). In theory, 216 consonant-vowels are possible by the combination of 18 consonants with 12 vowels. However, the actual number is less as some of the combinations do not occur in the language.

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101 consonant-vowels are attested in the Corpus out of a possible total of 198 (combinations of 18 consonants with 11 vowels). The distribution of consonant-vowels in the Corpus is summarised in Table 7.2.

7.6.2 Comparison with Tolkāppiyam

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7.6.2.1 *Initial

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(i) The 5 consonants *k t n p* and *m* may be followed by any of the 12 vowels initially (*Tol. Eḻu.* 61).

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Only 36 out of these 60 consonant-vowels occur initially in the Corpus (See Etymological Index: Dravidian in Appendix IV). The smaller number appears to be due to the limited size of the Corpus, apart from the absence of the vowel *au*.

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(ii) *ca*, *cai* and *cau* do not occur initially (*Tol. Eḻu.* 62).

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The following exceptions are found in the Corpus:

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***caṭikaṉ*** 'a personal name' (2.7.b, 2.9). The name is not attested elsewhere.

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***caliyaṉ*** 'part of a personal name' as in ***neṭiñ-caliyaṉ*** (2.5) and ***neṭuñ-caliyaṉ*** '(1.5). The corresponding LT form is ***ceḻiyaṉ***.

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*cam*- 'good, beautiful' as in *cam-pokal* (105.1) and *cam-poykai-pēṭu* (101.1)' place names'. The corresponding LT form *cem*- also occurs as in *ceṅkāyapaṉ* (61.4), *ceṅkuviraṉ* (22.1) and *cēntaṉṟaṉ* (109.1) 'personal names'.

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*caiy-aḷaṉ* (*caiyaḷaṉ*) 'a personal name' (57.2), probably a loanword. See Commentary for discussion.

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(iii) *ñ*- occurs initially only with *-ā* *-e* and *-o* (*Tol. Eḻu.* 64).

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*ñ*- does not occur word-initially in the Corpus. However, *nāḷal* 'place named after a flowering tree' (77.1) is a variant of LT *ñāḻal* (-*ḷ* error for -*l*).

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(iv) *y*- can occur initially only with *-ā* (*Tol. Eḻu*.65).

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This restriction is observed in the Corpus. Cf. *yāṟṟu* (62.3) and *yāṟṟūr* (61.3) 'place names'.

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(v) *v*- does not occur initially with *-u* *-ū* *-o* and *-ō* (*Tol. Eḻu.* 63).

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There are no examples to the contrary in the Corpus.

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7.6.2.2 Final

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(i) No consonant-vowel ending in *-e* or *-o* can occur finally except *-no* (*Tol. Eḻu.* 71-72).

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(ii) -*ñē* / -*ñō* and -*nu*/-*nū* do not occur finally (*Tol. Eḻu.* 73-74).

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There are no examples to the contrary in the Corpus except *kaccavanu*'a personal name' (119.2.a) in an Early Vaṭṭeḻuttu inscription where -*nu* is an error for -*ṉu*.

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(iii) -*vu* / -*vū* do not occur finally (*Tol. Eḻu.* 74).

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There are no examples to the contrary in the Corpus. -*u* is added directly to the stems without the glide -*v*- in *piṇa-u* 'cleft (cave)' (3.8) and *muḻa-u-kai*'cave' (17.3.b).

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(iv) -*cu* occurs finally only in 2 words (*Tol. Eḻu.* 75), which are identified as *ucu* and *mucu* in the commentaries.

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-*cu* occurs word-finally in the Corpus once in *par-acu* (*paracu*) 'a personal name' (9.2), probably derived from *paracu* 'to praise'. See Commentary for discussion.

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(v) -*pu* occurs finally in only one word with active or causative meaning (*Tol. Eḻu.* 76).

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The commentators identify the word as *tapu* 'to die, destroy'. From the examples in the commentaries, it appears that the rule relates only to words of more than one syllable and ending in short -*u*.

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The common word *u(p)pu*'salt' (39.1.a) occurs in the Corpus. This word is monosyllabic, ending in the shortened -*u* and hence presumably does not contradict the rule in *Tolkāppiyam*.

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