Languages
  • I read somewhere that the number of sanskrit (or
    prakrit) words in tamil increased with time from 2 BC
    to 6 AD, found by comparing literary works in those
    periods, leading linguists to believe that tamil leads
    the collection of dravidian languages quite
    independent from aryan ones.

    Though there were sanskrit words even in early works,
    this influence did not involve just borrowing words,
    but such words were modified to suit our grammar and
    sometimes these words are almost unrecognizable. For
    example, the very first Kadavul Vazhthu in Kurunthogai
    (1 AD? i am not sure) , ends with "ulage", which is
    actually from sanskrit "lok"(for earth).

    p.s.: why wasn't hindi (or sanskrit) not influenced by
    tamil and only vice versa? not a topic to fight abt,
    only to discuss, please!

    -arul.
  • I am really sorry guys been a bit busy catching up with my work andsome presentations....

    The discussions were nice but no personal attacks please

    If sanskrit came out of Siva's Udukka natham why did he start Tamizh sangam?



    Sri
  • If sanskrit came out of Siva's Udukka natham why did he start Tamizh
    sangam?

    He created sanskrit and Tamil,as simple as that.In fact he created
    everything.Do you mean that if he created sanskrit he cannot create
    tamil or so?Is god a tamilian my friend?
  • Dear All

    Languages always go with the way of the valiant and ofcourse some really exceptional ones do fight their way against the current...

    Sanskrit moving south and influencing the dravidian languages is one such example...

    Amerikaans (I hate to call it English)is such a language which though has its roots from English has a amalgamation of spanish,Irish,French and predominant German influence..Their slurring of R is typical Irish...the K for C is german and so on and so forth.....



    Another good examle of language evolution is Afrikaans which is spoken in South africa which is an amalgamation of Dutch,english,german and malay....from the planataion worker during the Raj

    Malaysian language borrowed the english words for its written language

    so the language always has overpowered and taken over the native language

    ofcourse there are exceptionally good ones which travel against the current like catamaran...sixer....etc or some which still tell the world outside about our social segregation like brahmins and pariahs......
  • Dear Arul

    there are influence of dravidian languages even in rigveda sir
    If I may qoute this link
    The pervasive substratum influence of Dravidian on Old Indo-Aryan is also an important clue to the presence of Dravidian in the northwestern region from the earliest times. The presence of a few Dravidian loan-words in the Rigveda is now well recognised. The Rigveda has also phonological and syntactical features borrowed from Dravidian. Among the features listed by Parpola are the retroflex sounds, gerund, quotative and onomatopoeic constructions. The Prakrit dialects too underwent a radical simplification of the Indo-Aryan syllabic structure through assimilation of consonants and intrusive vowels, features which are best explained, as Parpola points out, as adjustment to the phonology of a Dravidian substratum.

    Survival of place-names is generally a good indicator of the linguistic pre-history of a region. Parpola points out several place-names in the northwestern region like nagara, palli, pattana and kotta with good Dravidian etymologies. I am not however convinced by his attempt to derive Meluhha (the name of the land of the Indus in the [Mesopotamian] cuneiform texts) from Dravidian mel-akam, 'High country', not actually attested, as Parpola himself points out, in any of the Dravidian languages.

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