Lavanya SankaranBA Linguistics

Essay 3: A grammatical comparison of English and Tamil

Tamil is one of the oldest languages in the world and has been in existence for more than two thousand years. It is spoken mainly in South India and is in fact the official language of the Tamil Nadu state. Tamil is also spoken in northwestern Sri Lanka, but the kind of Tamil spoken there is slightly different from the kind used in South India. Although it is not a language constituting of a number of dialects like Chinese, there are differences in the variety of Tamil spoken in the different cities, among the different castes of people. Two basic forms of Tamil are ‘centamil’, a formal variety, and ‘kotchaitamil’, an informal variety. In this essay, I will be concentrating on the modern central dialect spoken in the main cities of Tamil Nadu.

In simple sentence constructions, Tamil’s basic word order is of the subject-object-verb pattern. In English however, simple sentences are of the subject-verb-object pattern.

Example (a)-:

Aval palathai undaal S he f ru it ate

S he ate f ru it n v :f N

os

There are of course variations in the word order in Tamil For instance, the sentence

Example (b)-:

N aan avalai paar thain I her s aw

I s aw hern V:f n

os

s o

can be written as…

Example (c)-:

Avalai naan paar thainHer I s aw

I s aw hern V:f n

so

s o

…where the subject and object have exchanged places. This exchange however makes no difference to the meaning of the sentence. In English, although word order can differ, subject and object positions can never exchange places if a sentence is to retain it’s original meaning and still be well formed.

Example (d)-:

I s aw her [w ell form ed]

Her s aw I [ ill- form ed]

s o

o s

Nouns

Tamil has an extensive case system. Root nouns can assume eight different morphological shapes depending on their roles in a sentence. Singular and plural forms are also distinguished through inflections. Suffixes are attached to a noun’s stem as shown in the table below.

Singular penn / girl maram/treeOblique stem penn- marath-Nominative stem penn maramAccusative stem penn-ai marath-aiDative stem penn-ukku marath-ukkuSociative stem penn-odu marath-oduGenitive stem penn-udaiya marath-udaiyaInstrumental stem penn-aal marath-aalLocative stem penn-idam marath-ilAblative stem penn-idamirunthu marath-ilirunthuVocative stem penn-e marath -ePlural penngal / girls marangal / treesOblique stem penngal- marangal-

Nominative stem penngal marangalAccusative stem penngal-ai marangal-aiDative stem penngal-ukku marangal-ukkuSociative stem penngal-odu marangal-oduGenitive stem penngal-udaiya marangal-udaiyaInstrumental stem penngal-aal marangal-aalLocative stem penngal-idam marangal-ilAblative stem penngal-idamirunthu marangal-ilirunthuVocative stem penngal-e marangal-e* ‘gal’ is added to the singular form of nouns to make them plural *

Suffixes differ in locative and ablative cases in Tamil because gender is taken into consideration. The two basic genders, ‘uyarthinai’ (human) and ‘akrinai’ (non-human), are distinguished by case-markers using “idam” for humans and “il” for non-humans.

Another unusual feature in Tamil is that it does not make use of clitics. While in English, the clitic, “s” is used in the genetive case for the noun “girl”, Tamil uses the inflection “udaiya”. Other clitics in English such as ‘m’ in “I’m”, ‘ll’ in “I’ll” etc…do not have similar cliticised forms in Tamil.

An interesting contrast between English and Tamil is that English nouns use no suffixes whereas Tamil nouns have eight kinds of different suffixes. In English, it is probable that the existence of preposition has made noun inflections, there are post-positions and they are derived from nouns or from verbs.

Example (e)-: to see [noki]

Avan veetai noki nadanthaan He hous e tow ards w alked

He w alked tow ards the hous e n V:f P n N

s

s

Compound Nouns

Nouns occur in various compound forms as well. They can be made up of several units where each unit expresses a particular grammatical meaning. The Tamil noun, “paadikkondirunthavanai”, which translates as, “the male who was singing”, give information on tense, number, gender, person and case. This noun is actually derived from the full non-infinite verb, “paagikkondu”, which means, “singing”. In English, deriving nouns from verbs is seen too. The full finite verb, “sing”, for instance could be

changed into a noun by adding the suffix “er” to it’s stem, so that it becomes “singer”. But, while Tamil is an agglutinating language, English is not.

Other noun compounds in Tamil combine adjectives and nouns; verbs and nouns; two nouns together…etc…

Example (f)-: Adjective + Noun

Vennmai + Nilaa = Vennilaa White + Moon= White Moon

Example (g)-: Verb + Noun

Paayum + Singam = PaaysingamPouncing + Lion = Pouncing Lion

Example (h)-: Noun + Noun

Vaasal + Padi = VaasappadiPorch + Step = Porch step

Echo compounds also feature whenever people are reluctant to go into specifications regarding a noun. For instance, “pens and such” would translate into the compound noun, “penagkinaa”.

Deictic pronouns are compound nouns too, in that, “that man”, “this man” and “which man” translate as “avan”, “ivan” and “evan” respectively in Tamil. Tamil however does not make use of particles such as “a” and “the” like English does.

Verbs

Tamil verbs are either full or auxiliary. They also exist in finite and non-finite forms just as in English. Tamil finite verbs however give much more grammatical information than English finite verbs do, in that they mark mood, tense, number, person, gender, case etc…In the table below, you can observe the different finite morphological construction for the verb “pidi” [hold].

Past Present Future Future-Neg1sg. Pidi-thain Pidi-kkirain Pidi-ppain Pidi- kkamaattain

2sg. Pidi-thaay Pidi-kkirai Pidi-ppaay Pidi-kkamaattai

3sg.m Pidi-thaan Pidi-kkiraam Pidi-ppaan Pidi-kkamaattan3sg.f Pidi-thaal Pidi-kkiraal Pidi-ppaal Pidi-kkamaattal3sh.hon Pidi-thaar Pidi-kkiraar Pidi-ppaar Pidi-kkamaattar3sg.inan Pidi-thathu Pidi-kkirathu Pidi-kkum Pidi-kkaathu1pl. Pidi-thom Pidi-kkirom Pidi-ppom Pidi-kkamaattom2pl. Pidi-theergal Pidi-kkireergal Pidi-ppeergal Pidi-

kkamaatteergal3pl.an Pidi-thaargal Pidi-kkiraargal Pidi-ppaargal Pidi-

kkamaattargal3pl.inan Pidi-thana Pidi-kkirana Pidi-kkum Pidi-kkaathu*non-future negative: pidi-kkavillai (all persons, numbers and genders)*

The subsequent table will illustrate non-finite forms of the verb, “pidi” [hold]

Conjunctive Pidi-thuInfinitive Pidi-kkaNeg. verbal participle Pidi-kkaamalConditional Pidi-thaalNeg. conditional Pidi-kkaanittaalNeg. relative participle

Pidi-kkaatha

Neg. verbal noun Pidi-kkaathathuDeverbal nouns Pidi-thal; pidi-ppu; pidi-

kkai Generally, a simple sentence in Tamil consists of only one finite verb which occurs at the extreme right of the sentence.

Example (i)-:

N aan padathai paaraatinain I p ic ture p rais ed

I p rais ed the p ic ture n V:f n N

os

s o

Compound Verbs

Full verbs almost always precede auxiliary verbs in Tamil. In English however, auxiliary verbs usually precede full verbs.

The example below illustrates a lexical verbal compound.

Example (j)-:

N eil odi v ilunthaanN eil running fell

N eil fell running nN V:f V:n

s

s r

Compound auxiliary verbs are quite flexible in Tamil in that they can be used quite simply in sentence constructions; in phrases to express negation (solla-villai….say not),; or to express an imperative order (seyya-vendum…must make). Example (k) depicts an auxiliary compound verb in a simple sentence construction.

Example (k)-:

Avalai (paada vekka) petroar m uyarc hi s eythanar Her s ing to parents tr ied m ake

T he parents tr ied to m ake her s ing

s

r

o

s

r r or

Co-ordination

The coordination of sentences in Tamil is sometimes done by attaching a suffix to two nouns. The suffix used to coordinate the sentence “Mala and Dave danced”, is “uum” replaces the coordinator “and”.

Example (l)-:

{ [M alavuum ] [dave-uum ]} aadinaargal M ala D ave danc ed

{ [M ala] [and D ave]} danc ed nN C nN V:f

s

s

Tamil also uses non-finite verb forms to mark coordination. In the example below, the non-finite verb “sendru”[went…which happens to be a finite verb in English] takes on the role of a conjunction.

Example (m)-:

Avargal s an thaikku s endru veedu th irum binar T hey m arket w ent hom e returned

T hey { [ w ent to the m arket] [and returned hom e]} n V:f P n N C V:f N

or

o

s

os

Embedded clauses

In Tamil, complement clauses precede main clauses, whereas in English, it is usually the case that main clauses precede complement clauses. Conjunctive non-finite verbs like “endru” [saying] are used to embed clauses in Tamil, as in example (n). This use of non-finite verbs is not needed in English as English uses other words (such as the complementiser, “that”) to subordinate clauses.

Example (n)-:

Avan kettavan endru Radha ther ivathaal He bad .m an s aying Radha dec lared

Radha dec lared that he is a bad m an nN V:f t n v :f n J N

s

s

Similarly, the conditional, “aanaal”[but], embeds “Avai saapida maattain” in example (o).

Example (o)-:

Enakku { [m ittai p id ikkum ] [aanaal avai s aapida m aattain]} I s w eets like bu t them eat no t

I { [ like s w eets ] [but do no t eat them ]} n V:f N C v :f A V:n n

os

o

s o o

Verbs also attach particles such as “o” and “aa” to their stems, to subordinate clauses in complex sentences.Example (p)-:

M aran pallikku poraanaa enakku ther iyavillaiM aran to .s c hool go ing I do .not.know

I do no t know if M arah is go ing to s c hooln v :f A V:n P nN v :f V:n P N

so

sr o s r

Although I have been over some of the main grammatical properties in Tamil, it should be made clear at this point that there is no hard and fast rule concerning the language structure. In conclusion, I must mention that a comparison between two complex languages such as Tamil and English, has been a very stimulating experience and one that I have learnt a lot from.

Bibliography-:

Bright, William ed. 1992. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Crystal, David. 1997. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 2nd sdition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Fromkin Rodman 1998. An Introduction to Language, 6th edition. Harcourt Brace College Publishers

My own Tamil grammar notes that I used for my GCSE exams