A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages c8.41

c8.41

A remarkable resemblance must have been noticed between the Sanskrit pañchan, five (in Tamil pañja) and the Tamil and Malayâḷam añju. It has already been mentioned that ei or eindu is the ordinary form of this word in Tamil. The shape in which the word is perhaps most commonly used in the colloquial dialect is añju, and this form of the word is occasionally, but rarely, used in the classics. So rare is its use in correct Tamil, that it is not given at all in the “Nannûl,” the classical Tamil grammar, or in any of the classical Tamil dictionaries. It is found, however, in the “Kural,” which is a clear proof of its right to a place in the language. The ordinary use of añju or añchu in Malayâḷam and colloquial Tamil, and its occasional use in poetical Tamil, have naturally led some to suppose that añju, not eindu, eidu, ei, was the original form of this numeral, and that it was derived from the Sanskrit pañchan by the easy process of the softening away of the first consonant. Instead, however, of this supposition being confirmed by a comparison of the various Dravidian idioms, and of the various forms under which this numeral appears, as would be the case if the analogy were real, it appears to me to be dissipated by comparison, like the apparent analogy which has already been observed between the Malayâḷam *onn*, one, and the English *one*.