Page:Tamil studies.djvu/394

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THE ORIGIN OF MALAYALAM
367
செய்ய + வேண்டும் =செய்யேண்டு, அங்கு + நின்று + அங்ஙந்து, போக + வேண்டும் =போகனம் and so on.

Most of the differences between Tamil and modern Malayalam as regards grammatical endings and formation of words are attributable to this principle of laziness or phonetic decay ; and the dropping of personal suffixes in finite verbs is partly due to this cause and partly to their redundancy. In the Tanıil sentence anco 24 36 461, either 6760 Or 100 in அடி த்தேன் may be safely omitted without impairing the idea expressed by that sentence. Thus, Malayalam may be said to be passing through, like Engl ish, the analytical stage. In Malayalam 2469 will be vague without the nominative which should be made explicit.

From the early Malayalam literature, which extended down to the sixteenth century, we find that verbs were inflected, and that the pronominal terminations disappear in the succeeding two hundred years. In a Malayalam sale deed of 1756 A. D. expressions like 66.350 #rQ jsoat and 64.355@str Lars were freely used. In the Tamil of the infant and the illiterate the idea of 'I beat' is expressed even to this day by 6060 2456$ (Cor. 942 SG Soot), ' you beatif 2436# (Cor. 245sow), and he beat' gjat அடிச்சா (Cor. அடித்தான்). Thus, the subjects நான், நீ and gaucot are clearly given out and the personal endings ஏன், ஆய் and ஆன் are, as a rule, contracted or dropped. In the East coast, however, this Tamil of the populace has been constantly subjected to corrections