Lavanya Sankaran

BA Linguistics
Essay 3: A grammatical comparison of English and Tamil
Tamil is one of the oldest languages in the world and has been in eistence for more than
two thousand years! "t is spoken mainly in South "ndia and is in fact the official language
of the Tamil #adu state! Tamil is also spoken in northwestern Sri Lanka$ but the kind of
Tamil spoken there is slightly different from the kind used in South "ndia! Although it is
not a language constituting of a number of dialects like %hinese$ there are differences in
the variety of Tamil spoken in the different cities$ among the different castes of people!
Two basic forms of Tamil are &centamil$ a formal variety$ and kotchaitamil$ an informal
variety! "n this essay$ " will be concentrating on the modern central dialect spoken in the
main cities of Tamil #adu!
"n simple sentence constructions$ Tamil's basic word order is of the subject-object-verb
pattern! "n English however$ simple sentences are of the subject-verb-object pattern!
Eample (a)*:
A v a l p a l a t h a i u n d a a l
S h e f r u i t a t e
S h e a t e f r u i t
n v : f #
o
s
There are of course variations in the word order in Tamil +or instance$ the sentence
Eample (b)*:
# a a n a v a l a i p a a r t h a i n
" h e r s a w
" s a w h e r
n , : f n
o
s
can be written as-
Eample (c)*:
A v a l a i n a a n p a a r t h a i n
. e r " s a w
" s a w h e r
n , : f n
o
s
-where the sub/ect and ob/ect have echanged places! This echange however makes no
difference to the meaning of the sentence! "n English$ although word order can differ$
sub/ect and ob/ect positions can never echange places if a sentence is to retain it's
original meaning and still be well formed!
Eample (d)*:
" s a w h e r 0 w e l l f o r m e d 1
. e r s a w " 0 i l l * f o r m e d 1
s
o
o
Nouns
Tamil has an etensive case system! 2oot nouns can assume eight different
morphological shapes depending on their roles in a sentence! Singular and plural forms
are also distinguished through inflections! Suffies are attached to a noun's stem as
shown in the table below!
Singular penn / girl maram/tree
3bli4ue stem penn* marath*
#ominative stem penn maram
Accusative stem penn*ai marath*ai
5ative stem penn*ukku marath*ukku
Sociative stem penn*odu marath*odu
6enitive stem penn*udaiya marath*udaiya
"nstrumental stem penn*aal marath*aal
Locative stem penn*idam marath*il
Ablative stem penn*idamirunthu marath*ilirunthu
,ocative stem penn*e marath *e
Plural penngal / girls marangal / trees
3bli4ue stem penngal* marangal*
#ominative stem penngal marangal
Accusative stem penngal*ai marangal*ai
5ative stem penngal*ukku marangal*ukku
Sociative stem penngal*odu marangal*odu
6enitive stem penngal*udaiya marangal*udaiya
"nstrumental stem penngal*aal marangal*aal
Locative stem penngal*idam marangal*il
Ablative stem penngal*idamirunthu marangal*ilirunthu
,ocative stem penngal*e marangal*e
7 gal is added to the singular form of nouns to make them plural 7
Suffies differ in locative and ablative cases in Tamil because gender is taken into
consideration! The two basic genders$ &uyarthinai' (human) and &akrinai' (non*human)$
are distinguished by case*markers using 8idam9 for humans and 8il9 for non*humans!
Another unusual feature in Tamil is that it does not make use of clitics! :hile in English$
the clitic$ 8s9 is used in the genetive case for the noun 8girl9$ Tamil uses the inflection
8udaiya9! 3ther clitics in English such as &m' in 8"'m9$ &ll' in 8"'ll9 etc-do not have
similar cliticised forms in Tamil!
An interesting contrast between English and Tamil is that English nouns use no suffies
whereas Tamil nouns have eight kinds of different suffies! "n English$ it is probable that
the eistence of preposition has made noun inflections$ there are post*positions and they
are derived from nouns or from verbs!
Eample (e)*: to see 0noki1
A v a n v e e t a i n o k i n a d a n t h a a n
. e h o u s e t o w a r d s w a l k e d
. e w a l k e d t o w a r d s t h e h o u s e
n , : f ; n #
s
s
Compound Nouns
#ouns occur in various compound forms as well! They can be made up of several units
where each unit epresses a particular grammatical meaning! The Tamil noun$
8paadikkondirunthavanai9$ which translates as$ 8the male who was singing9$ give
information on tense$ number$ gender$ person and case! This noun is actually derived
from the full non*infinite verb$ 8paagikkondu9$ which means$ 8singing9! "n English$
deriving nouns from verbs is seen too! The full finite verb$ 8sing9$ for instance could be
changed into a noun by adding the suffi 8er9 to it's stem$ so that it becomes 8singer9!
But$ while Tamil is an agglutinating language$ English is not!
3ther noun compounds in Tamil combine ad/ectives and nouns< verbs and nouns< two
nouns together-etc-
Eample (f)*: Ad/ective = #oun
,ennmai = #ilaa > ,ennilaa
:hite = ?oon> :hite ?oon
Eample (g)*: ,erb = #oun
;aayum = Singam > ;aaysingam
;ouncing = Lion > ;ouncing Lion
Eample (h)*: #oun = #oun
,aasal = ;adi > ,aasappadi
;orch = Step > ;orch step
Echo compounds also feature whenever people are reluctant to go into specifications
regarding a noun! +or instance$ 8pens and such9 would translate into the compound noun$
8penagkinaa9!
5eictic pronouns are compound nouns too$ in that$ 8that man9$ 8this man9 and 8which
man9 translate as 8avan9$ 8ivan9 and 8evan9 respectively in Tamil! Tamil however does
not make use of particles such as 8a9 and 8the9 like English does!
Verbs
Tamil verbs are either full or auiliary! They also eist in finite and non*finite forms /ust
as in English! Tamil finite verbs however give much more grammatical information than
English finite verbs do$ in that they mark mood$ tense$ number$ person$ gender$ case etc-
"n the table below$ you can observe the different finite morphological construction for the
verb 8pidi9 0hold1!
Past Present Future Future-Neg
@sg! ;idi*thain ;idi*kkirain ;idi*ppain ;idi* kkamaattain
Asg! ;idi*thaay ;idi*kkirai ;idi*ppaay ;idi*kkamaattai
3sg!m ;idi*thaan ;idi*kkiraam ;idi*ppaan ;idi*kkamaattan
3sg!f ;idi*thaal ;idi*kkiraal ;idi*ppaal ;idi*kkamaattal
3sh!hon ;idi*thaar ;idi*kkiraar ;idi*ppaar ;idi*kkamaattar
3sg!inan ;idi*thathu ;idi*kkirathu ;idi*kkum ;idi*kkaathu
@pl! ;idi*thom ;idi*kkirom ;idi*ppom ;idi*kkamaattom
Apl! ;idi*theergal ;idi*kkireergal ;idi*ppeergal ;idi*
kkamaatteergal
3pl!an ;idi*thaargal ;idi*kkiraargal ;idi*ppaargal ;idi*
kkamaattargal
3pl!inan ;idi*thana ;idi*kkirana ;idi*kkum ;idi*kkaathu
7non*future negative: pidi*kkavillai (all persons$ numbers and genders)7
The subse4uent table will illustrate non*finite forms of the verb$ 8pidi9 0hold1
%on/unctive ;idi*thu
"nfinitive ;idi*kka
#eg! verbal participle ;idi*kkaamal
%onditional ;idi*thaal
#eg! conditional ;idi*kkaanittaal
#eg! relative
participle
;idi*kkaatha
#eg! verbal noun ;idi*kkaathathu
5everbal nouns ;idi*thal< pidi*ppu< pidi*
kkai

6enerally$ a simple sentence in Tamil consists of only one finite verb which occurs at the
etreme right of the sentence!
Eample (i)*:
# a a n p a d a t h a i p a a r a a t i n a i n
" p i c t u r e p r a i s e d
" p r a i s e d t h e p i c t u r e
n , : f n #
o
s
o
Compound Verbs
+ull verbs almost always precede auiliary verbs in Tamil! "n English however$ auiliary
verbs usually precede full verbs!
The eample below illustrates a leical verbal compound!
Eample (/)*:
# e i l o d i v i l u n t h a a n
# e i l r u n n i n g f e l l
# e i l f e l l r u n n i n g
n # , : f , : n
s
r
%ompound auiliary verbs are 4uite fleible in Tamil in that they can be used 4uite
simply in sentence constructions< in phrases to epress negation (solla-villai.say not)$<
or to epress an imperative order (seyya-vendummust make)! Eample (k) depicts an
auiliary compound verb in a simple sentence construction!
Eample (k)*:
A v a l a i ( p a a d a v e k k a ) p e t r o a r m u y a r c h i s e y t h a n a r
. e r s i n g t o p a r e n t s t r i e d m a k e
T h e p a r e n t s t r i e d t o m a k e h e r s i n g
s
r
o
r r o
r
Co-ordination
The coordination of sentences in Tamil is sometimes done by attaching a suffi to two
nouns! The suffi used to coordinate the sentence 8?ala and 5ave danced9$ is 8uum9
replaces the coordinator 8and9!
Eample (l)*:
B 0 ? a l a v u u m 1 0 d a v e * u u m 1 C a a d i n a a r g a l
? a l a 5 a v e d a n c e d
B 0 ? a l a 1 0 a n d 5 a v e 1 C d a n c e d
n # % n # , : f
s
Tamil also uses non*finite verb forms to mark coordination! "n the eample below$ the
non*finite verb 8sendru90wentwhich happens to be a finite verb in English1 takes on the
role of a con/unction!
Eample (m)*:
A v a r g a l s a n t h a i k k u s e n d r u v e e d u t h i r u m b i n a r
T h e y m a r k e t w e n t h o m e r e t u r n e d
T h e y B 0 w e n t t o t h e m a r k e t 1 0 a n d r e t u r n e d h o m e 1 C
n , : f ; n # % , : f #
r
s
o
s
Embedded clauses
"n Tamil$ complement clauses precede main clauses$ whereas in English$ it is usually the
case that main clauses precede complement clauses! %on/unctive non*finite verbs like
8endru9 0saying1 are used to embed clauses in Tamil$ as in eample (n)! This use of non*
finite verbs is not needed in English as English uses other words (such as the
complementiser$ 8that9) to subordinate clauses!
Eample (n)*:
A v a n k e t t a v a n e n d r u 2 a d h a t h e r i v a t h a a l
. e b a d ! m a n s a y i n g 2 a d h a d e c l a r e d
2 a d h a d e c l a r e d t h a t h e i s a b a d m a n
n # , : f t n v : f n D #
s
Similarly$ the conditional$ 8aanaal90but1$ embeds 8Avai saapida maattain9 in eample (o)!
Eample (o)*:
E n a k k u B 0 m i t t a i p i d i k k u m 1 0 a a n a a l a v a i s a a p i d a m a a t t a i n 1 C
" s w e e t s l i k e b u t t h e m e a t n o t
" B 0 l i k e s w e e t s 1 0 b u t d o n o t e a t t h e m 1 C
n , : f # % v : f A , : n n
s
s o
o
,erbs also attach particles such as 8o9 and 8aa9 to their stems$ to subordinate clauses in
comple sentences!
Eample (p)*:
? a r a n p a l l i k k u p o r a a n a a e n a k k u t h e r i y a v i l l a i
? a r a n t o ! s c h o o l g o i n g " d o ! n o t ! k n o w
" d o n o t k n o w i f ? a r a h i s g o i n g t o s c h o o l
n v : f A , : n ; n # v : f , : n ; #
s
r
s
r
Although " have been over some of the main grammatical properties in Tamil$ it should
be made clear at this point that there is no hard and fast rule concerning the language
structure! "n conclusion$ " must mention that a comparison between two comple
languages such as Tamil and English$ has been a very stimulating eperience and one that
" have learnt a lot from!
Bibliography*:
Bright$ :illiam ed! @EEA! "nternational Encyclopedia of Linguistics! 3ford: 3ford
Fniversity ;ress
%rystal$ 5avid! @EEG! %ambridge Encyclopedia of Language$ A
nd
sdition! %ambridge:
%ambridge Fniversity ;ress
+romkin 2odman @EEH! An "ntroduction to Language$ I
th
edition! .arcourt Brace %ollege
;ublishers
?y own Tamil grammar notes that " used for my 6%SE eams