Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil

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The Tamil language of Dravidian family has absorbed many loanwords from Indo-Aryan family, predominantly from Prakrit, Pali and Sanskrit, [1] ever since the early 1st millennium CE, when the Sangam period Chola kingdoms became influenced by spread of Jainism, Buddhism and early Hinduism. Many of these loans are obscured by adaptions to Tamil phonology. [2]

Contents

There are many words that are cognates in Sanskrit and Tamil, in both tatsama and tadbhava forms. This is an illustrative list of Tamil words of Indo-Aryan origin, classified based on type of borrowing. The words are transliterated according to IAST system. All words have been referenced with the Madras University Tamil Lexicon, which is used as the most authoritative and standard lexicon by mainstream scholars. [3] [4] In the examples below, the second word is from Tamil, and its original Indo-Aryan source is placed to the left.

Change of final retroflex to dental

Loss of initial s

Loss of initial complex consonant (retaining initial vowel)

Loss of initial complex consonant (introduction of vowel)

Loss of voicing

Loss of voiced aspiration

Tatsama borrowing

Change of final sibilant to semivowel

Change of medial sibilants to stops

Split of complex syllables

Others

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References

Notes

  1. Zvelebil, Kamil (2002). Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature. E.J. Brill Press. p. 143. ISBN   9004093656.
  2. Michael Witzel Archived 2008-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Harold Schiffman in his official website says of the Madras University Tamil Lexicon "most comprehensive and authoritative."
  4. Another source asserting the status of the Madras University Lexicon is this page where it is called "still the most comprehensive and authoritative Tamil dictionary."
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Madras University Tamil Lexicon
  6. Burrow, Thomas (1947), "Dravidian Studies VI - The loss of initial c/s in South Dravidian", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 12 (1), Cambridge University Press: 132–147, doi:10.1017/s0041977x00079969, JSTOR   608991, S2CID   162621555 at p. 133
  7. wiktionary:அகங்காரம்#Tamil
  8. "Learn Tamil Online-Best Tamil class online".

Bibliography