“பழையன கழிதலும் புதியன புகுதலும் வழுவல கால வகையினானே”
This simple classic Tamil saying has profound meanings in many contexts, on how life around us has changed in family relationships and mutual obligations, our ideas of social groups, in our social relationships. And how and where we work, and in interpersonal interactions at work and in society, and how every facet of life has radically changed in the last century all over the world. Can you guess in what context this declaration was first given?
In the wake of the Dravidian Movement in Tamil Nadu, one of its leaders, E V Ramasami Naicker (1879–1973) is credited to have reformed tamil scripts. Naicker was not a native tamil, since Naicker is the Tamil morphing of the caste name Nayak, who are from today’s Andhra-Karnataka region of Vijayanagar empire. According to one website, “E.V. Ramasami Naicker, known as periyar [for his adoring admirers] initiated reforms to the Tamil script in the 20th century to simplify the language, enhance mechanical efficiency for printing, and reduce the number of redundant characters. His proposals were a major part of the wider Dravidian movement’s efforts to promote Tamil identity and modernize the language.” Emphasis is mine.
As this statement says, Naicker’s goal was to enhance mechanical efficiency for printing. Reforming the script for the Tamil language to accommodate vocal sounds that had already become well-integrated into the Tamil spoken even in his time was not his consideration. That is, a purely commercial need. This is understandable in the context of low literacy rates among the Tamil population in his time.
The study of the changing nature of sounds in languages goes with the high sounding term morphophonology. It is also known as morphophonemics. In simple tamil, it is மொழிகளில் பரிணாம ஒலி மாற்றங்கள் (I hope the Tamil purists will pardon me for using பரிணாமம் a Sanskrit word). We can talk about the second part, namely, reduce the number of redundant characters, further down.
I will try to show in the following paragraphs that we need to go exactly in the opposite direction of Naicker in reforming Tamil script. With the enormous changes already in place in software typesetting without the need for any hardware, this is easily doable today. Recall பழையன கழிதலும் புதியன புகுதலும் வழுவல…,
I apologize to readers who are well-grounded in Tamil for what follows simply because this is only too obvious to them. But I am trying to reach a wider audience and so I need this basic information for readers who may not be familiar with the Tamil language.
In this write up, I make my case for adding more vowels and more consonants to the Tamil script to truly reflect how the Tamil language is spoken today.
Tamil language, like many Asian languages except Mandarin and its dialects, are made up of vowels called உயிரெழுத்து in Tamil (short and long) and consonants மெய்யெழுத்து in Tamil. The choice of these Tamil terms is quite nuanced. உயிர் and மெய் in Tamil literally mean life, and physical body. So, the combination of உயிர் and மெய் gives the “living” body, the Tamil language.
உயிரெழுத்து: அ ஆ இ ஈ உ ஊ எ ஏ ஆ ஐ ஒ ஓ ஒள
மெய்யெழுத்து: க் ச் ட் ப் ற் ய் ர் ல் வ் ழ் ள் ங் ஞ் ண் ந் ம் ன்
உயிர்மெய்யெழுத்து in the அ family :
க ச ட த ப ற ய ர ல வ ழ ள ங ஞ ண ந ம ன
The logical combination of all the உயிரெழுத்து’s (vowels, short and long) and all the மெய்யெழுத்து’s (consonants) gives all the combinations of sounds needed for Tamil as the language existed when the scripts came into general use.
Several centuries ago, to accommodate other vocalized sounds that have become common with Sanskrit influence, Tamil added these additional consonants shown in bold:
க ங ச ஜ ஞ ட ண த ந ன ம ய ர ற ல ள ழ வ ஶ ஷ ஸ ஹ.
With the Dravidian Movement having strong anti-Brahmin and anti-Sanskrit streak — I use these phrases only as historical fact and not in any prejudicial way one way or other — Naicker’s reformed script got rid of these additional consonants ஜ ஶ ஷ ஸ ஹ on the rationale of simplifying the script. But they retained the two na’s ந ன; and the two ra’s ர ற. They tried to get rid of ஐ with அய் and ஒள with அவ். But did not succeed.
One cardinal rule in tamil writing has been that you will never start any word with any மெய்யெழுத்து like க் ச் ட் ப் ற்.
It was easy to apply this rule for all Sanskrit words. So, no த்வாதசி, but only துவாதசி.
And they ended up, much to their chagrin, violating their own two rules in one word — starting with மெய்யெழுத்து and the much-disliked Sanskrit consonant ஸ in மு.க. ஸ்டாலின்.
If you apply the reformed script of Naicker, they will end up with சுடாலின் or ஸுடாலின், which is even worse. They themselves felt awkward. I am not the first person to make this point. Very many others have said this with comic effect, much to the chagrin of Tamil puritans.
This is where my enquiry began.
I am not a traditional linguist. But I have a working familiarity with Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, and Sanskrit, and am fairly good in Tamil (பொதுத்தமிழ் and சிறப்புத்தமிழ் in school) and English. But common sense told me that scripts for any language came centuries after languages came into existence for communicating among members of cohesive social groups to convey messages to others in the group who were far away. And the scripts in every languages themselves have been evolving. Here is the example of how Tamil scripts have been evolving (source Internet):
Tamil Grantha script in Sanskrit family of phonetics like ka kha ga gha nja:
Here is the Tamil script I took randomly from the Web from one of the temple inscriptions. I wonder how many of you can even identify all the letters in the tablet and their corresponding phonetical sound.
Now consider the following:
A guy had a hearty laughter. When you write it with the traditional script, it will be ஹ-ஹ்ஹ-ஹ்ஹா என்று அவன் சிரித்தான்.
But if you want to use the Naicker’s “reformed” script, without the use of the Sanskrit ஹ, it will be awkwardly — and also phonetically incorrectly — written as அ-அ-ஆ என்று சிரித்தான். In the early days of tamil typewriter, they did not have ஹ. So, they used உ and ற and hilariously typed உற உற உற என்று சிரித்தான்!!
We earlier saw த்வாதசி written as துவாதசி
And now this: the awkward அரிகரன் அரிஅரன் for ஹரிஹரன்
And the atrocious மகாபாரதம் for மஹாபாரதம்
Then, how will you write ஸ்ரீதரன் using the Naicker script? The atrocious சிறிதரன் சிறீதரன் or சிரிதரன். Will a guy named ஸ்ரீதரன் accept these spellings in Tamil?
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Vowels:
As we will see below, today’s Tamil vowels are inadequate for today’s needs of how we use the tamil language. Remember, Tamil language, despite what the purists claim, and want others to believe, has absorbed words not only from the reviled Sanskrit, but also from Portuguese (ஜன்னல்), Dutch (கக்கூஸ்), Arabic and Persian (வக்கீல், கச்சேரி வாயிதா, ஜில்லா, தாலுக்கா, தாசில்தார்), French (குசினி), and thousands of English words in normal conversation. These words have become integral to today’s tamil language used in communication and conversation among all sections of society. While the Tamils feel good about a original Tamil word getting into Oxford dictionary, they also need to recognize that thousands of foreign words have been integrated into Tamil. This is the characteristic of all living languages.
Let me start with the statement: Today’s Tamil vowels are inadequate for today’s needs.
Take அ as in mud, but. And ஆ as in art, mart
எ as in get, bet. ஏ as in mate, gate
In today’s Tamil alphabet, there is no உயிரெழுத்து (vowel) for the ஒலி (phonetic sound) between ஆ and ஏ, as in English words like batch, match, sandwich, pant, grant, apple… These English words have become part of the Tamil lexicon in conversation and even in written Tamil communication today.
Just imagine that you are the editor of any Tamil magazine or a Tamil book or for teaching kids all over the world, including in Tamil Nadu. If you want to write in Tamil, the English word match, it will be
Match: மேட்ச் மாட்ச்
Band: பேண்ட் பாண்ட்
Grand: க்ராண்ட் க்ரேண்ட்
Apple: ஆப்பிள் ஏப்பிள்
Similarly, in Tamil alphabet, there is no உயிரெழுத்து (vowel) for the phonetic sound ஒலி between ஆ and ஓ as in Bond, Pond
Bond: பாண்ட் போண்ட்
Pond also the same: பாண்ட் போண்ட்
Coffee: காபி கோபி
So, my thesis is that we need new Tamil vowels, one between ஆ and ஏ, and another between ஆ and ஓ, to accommodate the hundreds of new words that have become part of the Tamil language, both written and spoken.
Consonants
The tamil உயிர்மெய்யெழுத்து ச is used for all these four phonetic sounds ஷ ஸ ச ஶ.
சண்முகம் it should be ஷண்முகம்
சரஸ்வதி (Naicker script சரச்வதி), but it should be ஸரஸ்வதி, which is not acceptable to the Naicker’s Tamil. But ஸ்டாலின் is OK.
சாந்தி and ஷாந்தி are phonetically not correct, but correctly it is ஶπந்தி
சஷ்டி and ஷஷ்டி also are phonetically incorrect; it should be ஶஷ்டி
சரணம் ஷரணம் are both incorrect phonetically for surrender; but correctly ஶரணம்
Take சுவாமியே சரணம்
It should be ஸ்வாமியே ஶரணம் and not சுவாமியே சரணம்; not சுவாமியே ஷரணம்; not சுவாமியே ஸரணம்,
And consider the words fashion and fan that have become part of Tamil language today. When you write it in Tamil
Fashion: பேஷன், பாஷன் பேஷண்
Fan: பேன் பான்
Christians and Muslims together today in Tamil Nadu, are around 15% of the population. The names George, Jamaluddin, Jamina, Jacob, Philomina and Fiona, Francis, Frederick, Fukruddin, Phillips, Zubair, Zeenat, Zoya, and Zachariah are common among young Tamil Christians and Muslims. How will you write their names in Tamil official government records?
George ஜார்ஜ் or சார்ச்
Jamaluddin: ஜமாலுதீன் or சமாலுதீன்
Jacob: ஜேக்கப் or சேக்கப்
Jamina: ஜமீனா or சமீனா
Zeenat: சீனத் or ஜீனத் Both are phonetically incorrect for Z.
Will Tamil Christians and Muslims accept the Naicker script for their names in official records?
Try writing in Naicker’s Tamil script these common words to phonetically reproduce them correctly: Film, Photography, Foreign, Scan, Plan, Frederick, Stephen, Philomena, Zafar, Zakir Hussain
So, I make my case that we need additional consonants in Tamil for F and Z, in addition to reviving ஶ ஷ ஸ ஹ.
And as said before, For today’s Tamil society, we need two new Tamil vowels between ஆ and ஏ. And another between ஆ and ஓ.
Now let me go back to where I started:
“பழையன கழிதலும் புதியன புகுதலும் வழுவல கால வகையினானே”
This simple declaration that had profound meanings for all situations in life, is from நன்னூல், a later book on Tamil Grammar by Jain monks in the 13th century.
So Tamil grammarians themselves anticipated changes both in the vowels & consonant needs in the future Tamil language, and have given us license to reform the Tamil script.
In this new reform, we need to accommodate new consonants and vowels that have become standard in today’s spoken Tamil, and therefore, has become necessary in written Tamil to reach the diaspora scattered in many parts of the world..
So, to acdcommodate these changes, we need to go in the OPPOSITTE DIRECTION of Ramasami Naicker’s reformed Tamil script, by adding new consonants and vowels. We need to take advantage of the infinite capability of modern software and typesetting tools for this. ∎