Page:Tamil studies.djvu/185

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158
TAMIL STUDIES

(6) No Tamil words will end in க், ச், ட், த், and ப். But in Sanskrit there are words like pritak, vach, rat, pat, and yup.

As in Sanskrit, Tamil words are either simple or compound. Simple words are formed from roots, which are either nominal or verbal, by the addition of formative particles, like கு, சு, டு, து, பு and று, அ, அம், அர், அல், அன், ஆ, ஆல், ஆன், இ, இல், உ, ஊ, உம், ஐ, கை, சி, தி, ப, மை, வி, வை and றி, and காடு, பாடு, அரவு and ஆனை. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, might be formed in this way. To prevent hiattis அ, ம் or ன் is sometimes added. From the verbal root நில், to stand, the following words are formed,-நிலை, நிலம், நிலவு &c ; from √ அட், to kill, we have அடு, ஆடு, அடவி, அடுப்பு, அட்டு, அடம், அடல், அடங்கு, &c; from √ அற், to cut, we get அறு, அறை, அறுவை, அறம், அறுப்பு, அற்றம், அறுதி, அறல், &c ; and from √ நட், to walk or dance, are derived நட, நடத்தல், நடப்பு, நடை, நடக்கை , நட்டம், &c. The nominal root கண் (the eye) becomes காண், to see, by lengthening the vowel.

In Tamil, roots are always monosyllabic, ending in long vowels, or in a short vowel and a consonant. There are 42 single-letter words, which must essentially be monosyllabic, and these are either verbs or nouns. There are other monosyllabic nouns like சொல், கல், மண், மான், &c. Compound words are made up of simple words; for example, பரி-மா (horse) is a compound of பரி=to run, and மா=a beast, கடுவாய் (tiger) from கடு=rough or cruel, and வாய்=mouth. Mostly such compounds are epithets or metaphors.