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TAMIL : ITS ASSETS AND CURRENT NEEDS
- Dr. R. Jegannath |
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"...Interestingly, the Tamil word for vowels,
Uyir means life, and the word for consonants, Mey means both body and
reality. Neither life nor body can exist without the other. .."
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1. Tamil is a more logical language than most other
languages. For instance,
a) there is no arbitrary assignment of gender to inanimate things as in Latin,
French or the Sanskrit-based languages. Just imagine having to memorize
whether a stone or a book is masculine or feminine!
b) declination of verbs: the verb-ending in Tamil depends on the number,
gender and person, invariably. The middle depends on the tense. In most other
languages there are too many categories of verb-endings, which one simply has
to memorize. (English, of course, has hardly a method to its madness in this
matter _ and rightly dubbed as one of the most illogical of languages by
Bernard Shaw)
c) all case- endings follow similar sets of rules; eg: when the word is only
two-letters-long and starts with a short letter, it inserts a vowel or doubles
the consonant in all case- endings, so that the identity of the word is not
lost. Eg: Avan becomes avanai or avanaal, but Kan, instead of becoming kanai
or kanaal, becomes kannai or kannaal.
d) common alteration of vowels and consonants leads to an ease of production
by the vocal apparatus and to a euphonic sound. Consonant clusters such as
seen in the Scandinavian languages are clumsy and call for a bit of gymnastics
by the vocal apparatus. The Japanese language is very particular about this,
always alternating the vowels and the consonants. Even when it borrows words
from other languages, it naturalizes them suitably: eg. Pikkunikku (the cn
calls for an awkward jump), domokurashy . Tamil too generally does this,
avoiding the gymnastics of Prakriti, naturalizing it into Pirakiruti.
Interestingly, the Tamil word for vowels, Uyir means life, and the word for
consonants, Mey means both body and reality. Neither life nor body can exist
without the other. Uyir by itself, such as aeoui, will be all ethereal, with
no solidity, while consonant clusters such as brkjtp will be all hard and
lifeless as stones without the enlivening vowels. So the logical need for
their alternation.
e) not ending a word with a plosive consonant (like k,ch,t,p etc) which would
entail the effort of a sudden break .and stiffness. (Even languages which
allow it often add a vowel at the end while singing, which promotes
relaxation: Dost dost na raha becomes Dostu dostu na raha)
f) avoiding insertion of plosive sounds in the middle of a word _ for
instance, the normal tendency of the language will be to pronounce ê as Sedhu
rather than as Sethu.
Nasal consonants are followed by the corresponding consonant that originates
at the same location in the vocal apparatus: nga (back of the throat -
guttural), nja (palatal), nda (tongue bent on palate), mba (bilabial-both
lips) and so on, again generally avoiding the need for vocal gymnastics.
(These four tendencies of the language given in d, e, f and g give the
euphonic sound to it.)
g) Tamil has perhaps the most extensive, scientific and intricate system of
prosody. While the Sanskrit prosody is much more extensive and intricate than
that of English, it pales in comparison to that of Tamil.
2. In spite of being spoken by a whole race of people including the illiterate
among them, Tamil has maintained such a continuity and uniformity that
literature written 2000 years ago can be understood by the educated readers of
the present. This is unusual. Languages spoken by the common man generally
undergo a great deal of change from region to region and with the passage of
time. For instance, English changed so much in a thousand years that the works
such as those of Chaucer's need to be almost rewritten in order to be
understood by the readers of today. This is not applicable to Latin and
Sanskrit, since they have always been languages of the court and scholars only
and not of daily usage by the people. In this respect, Tamil has managed to
keep the cake and eat it too, by keeping the written form unchanged while the
spoken has been changing with time, and in addition has variations based on
region and community. The result is a spoken language markedly distinct from
the written. This is a source of great trouble for non-Tamils who wish to
learn to speak and read Tamil, but can be overcome by learning the written
form and then the general lines and principles on which it is distorted when
spoken. However, the aforesaid great advantage remains, namely, the written
form does not change too much with time.
3. The great difficulty faced by those who do most of their learning through
the medium of Tamil _ the difficulty in consistently representing certain
alien sounds in Tamil. It is not unusual to hear some of them say Bagisdhan
for Pakisthan or gaali when they actually want to say kaali (empty), a word
naturalized into Tamil. The unfortunate thing is that to use B or G at the
beginning of a word is entirely alien to the Tamil language, yet many Tamils
whose learning of these words is through the medium of Tamil, make such errors
because of confusion. The word Pakisthan illustrates their plight: written in
Tamil, the first consonant could be B or P, the second G or K, and the third
Th or Dh, leading to eight possibilities in pronouncing the word written in
Tamil.
When our Tamil medium students need to communicate with those of other
languages in later life, they frequently encounter such pitfalls as Bagisdhan
for Pakisthan. Thus, they are exposed to ridicule by others and lose all self-
confidence and start getting a feeling that their language is in some way
inferior. In this age when we are constantly in contact with matters
pertaining to the whole world, if we do not address this great difficulty,
those who learn in Tamil medium will face a great disadvantage. In due course
of time, when the Tamil parents realize this, they will not want to send their
children to Tamil medium schools; the language will languish. That would be a
pity, since Tamil is such a wonderful language and can be practically
effective in the present world too if it overcomes this limitation.
A simple scheme and some guidelines are proposed in this connection and I hope
that it will lead to a wider discussion and action in this matter. (sorry, not
yet written down)
4. The representation of Tamil through the English alphabet: It can be shown
that the representation naturally followed by a Tamil is logically superior to
that followed by the Sanskrit based languages, which were obliged to adopt
that scheme because of the aspirant sounds in their alphabet (kha, chha, pha
etc}. Writing Geetha is certainly more logical than Gita or Geeta, from the
point of view of English and Tamil, and to a large extent, even from the point
of view of Sanskrit. The current scheme was proposed for Sanskrit, probably by
the missionaries, with a view to accommodating the aspirant letters even there
they would have done better to keep t for ì and th for î . The current scheme
is not in accordance with the natural sound pattern of Tamil, or English and
is not the best even from the Sanskrit point of view. The Sanskrit-based
languages use the same letter, t for two different vargas or categories,
namely, for î and for ì. In any case, the representation th as in think gives
a sound more akin to î than does the letter t. The Tamilians' writing of wods
such as Dhivya, Dheepak, Ajith, Sumathi, Thaj is thought by many North-Indians
to be owing to ignorance, but it is they who need to be enlightened.
Unfortunately we have accepted the representation handed to us by those who
formulated it for Sanskrit and continue to write Tamil instead of Thamil; is
it too late to do anything about it?
5. We Tamils need to have a clear understanding of the way our language works.
Most of us go about it instinctively, but at times, it leads to avoidable
inconsistencies:
a) At the beginning of a word the hard consonants are always hard, unless it
is a word from another language that starts with a soft sound and is not yet
fully naturalized into Tamil: thittam (plan) should not be pronounced as
dhittam, nor kudhirai as gudhirai since they are original Tamil words. While
gunam or bayam may be pronounced as such, since it is from the Sanskrit word
of that sound and has not yet fully naturalized into kunam or payam.
b) When we represent Tamil words in English, the Tamil rules of sound must be
respected. For instance, the letters ¸, ¾, ¼ unless
preceded by ÅøÄ¢Éõ ¦Áö is always pronounced as ga,
dha or da and not as ka, tha or ta. So Ò¾¢Â, ¦ºó¾¢ø, Á¸ý
should always be pudhiya, sendhil, and magan and not puthiya, senthil or makan.
One will not hear them normally spoken thus, and the sound of the word must
be represented, not that of each letter.
c) The choice between
¿ and
É should be clear.
¿ is used at the beginning of a word and
É at other places. There are 2 exceptions:
i) with the combination of
ó¾, óÐ etc
(ii) when a word starting with
¿ takes a prefix to supplement or reverse or modify
its meaning. In these cases, either
¿ or
É may be used, ie. either following the original
rule or indicating the root of the word. Therefore, we may write
«¿£¾¢ or
«É£¾¢,
Å¢¿¡Â¸÷ or
Ţɡ¸÷,
«ó¿¢Âý or
«ýÉ¢Âý (This is from Sanskrit, niyam meaning self,
or one's own, anniyan being the antonym.). There is a recent trend to write
þÂìÌ¿÷, µðο÷ etc., instead of
þÂìÌÉ÷, µðÎÉ÷. The tendency should be discouraged.
6. A living language must change and grow in order to survive and thrive, or
else it will lose usage and become extinct. Why is it that such a logical,
euphonic, ancient yet living language with a rich literature is today facing
the ignominy of the elite of its own people preferring to educate their
children through an alien medium? This is not so in Japan, Russia, Germany or
China.
The primary reasons are two.
i) The difficulty of articulating alien sounds as outlined above. Though Tamil
in itself may be able to express most concepts without the aid of other
languages, in the present world, it is increasingly necessary to communicate
with people of other languages, and consistent representations of sounds
unusual to Tamil is an inevitable necessity. This is easily attainable; we
need a discussion on this to arrive at the most practical solutions. Tamil can
weather these minor modifications and take them in its stride. The changes
introduced into the Tamil script by the European missionaries have not
jeopardized the language in any way; nor have the changes introduced by
Periyaar to achieve uniformity in the representation of lai, nai, naa, raa
etc.
ii) Coining of new words as necessary. Here a few points are worth keeping in
mind.
a) If there is an existing Tamil word that would be naturally suitable for a
new concept, we should jump at it and use it.
b) If there are naturalized substitutes from other languages already
established in common use, they should be readily accepted as a part of the
language, without any qualms such as those felt by Thanithamil Iyakkamists.
Tamil has the capacity to absorb, digest and assimilate them all without being
lost in them. (Such willingness and flexibility is the only reason why a
comparatively primitive language that English was a thousand years ago, has
now become a very rich language.)
c) while coining new words, we need not always follow the line on which the
original word was coined; if an innovative, short, apt Tamilic form can be
coined, that would be more acceptable even if it is not a literal translation
of the word but represents the object better.
d) no need to make lengthy explanatory descriptions instead of new words
because of the fear that people may not understand what thy stand for. No need
to underestimate people, they are capable of arrving at the right target in
due course of time, quicker than we think, if the coinage is apt.
¦Áý¦À¡Õû, ŨÄÂõ, ¸½¢É¢ are some beautiful examples.
