ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY ON
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TAMIL
LANGUAGE AND THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY OF
LANGUAGES.
A Project of universal significance on Tamil Language
Dr. G. John Samuel
1/3
Up to 18th century Tamil language was
defined in the non-Tamil academic circles as a vernacular language spoken in
South India and Sri Lanka and it was derived from the so-called divine language
namely Sanskrit, which is identified by modern linguists as one of the ancient
languages of the Indo-Aryan, a substratum of the wider Indo-European family of
languages. It was also believed by earlier philologists that Sanskrit was the
only classical language of India from which all the present Indian languages
were derived. Consequently, Indology was wrongly identified with
Sanskritology and it was also believed that a thorough grasp of Sanskrit
literature and the culture of the priestly class, which promoted Sanskrit
learning, are enough to have a good understanding of Indian culture as a whole.
Although Tamil scholars
starting from the ancient grammarian Tholkappiyar and others raised their voice
against this linguistic narrow – mindedness, their clarion calls have become
mere voices in the wilderness.
It is curious to mention
that such similar misconceptions existed among the ancient scholars of Europe
who also came up with the wrong explanation that all languages of the western
world including the classical language Latin were descendants of the Greek
language. All such false superiority about linguistic antiquity were
questioned in due course by Rask, Bopp, Grim and others who identified
different families of languages basing on their genetic relationship and shared
innovations and even on geographical distribution
In the year 1816 it was well
explained that Indo-European languages sprouted into some eight or nine
substratum namely.
1. Indo
- Iranian
2. Indo
- Aryan
3. Armenian
4. Balto
- slavic
5. Albanean
6. Hellenic
7. Italic
8. Celtic
9. Germanic
and others
This great discovery has
changed the existing view of the philologists about linguistic history and all the
wrong beliefs about the so-called Divine tongues. It was still believed in
India and Europe that Tamil and other languages of the Indian soil originated
from Sanskrit which belongs to Indo-Aryan, a substratum of the wider
Indo-European family.
The year 1856 marked an
epoch - making event in the annals of the linguistic history of the Tamil
people. It was the year of the publication of Bishop Caldwell’s great
book Comparative
grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Languages in London which declared on the basis of well
founded data and with objective perspective that Tamil and other eight
languages spoken mainly in South India belong to a different Indian family of
languages namely the Dravidian. In the second edition of this book
published in 1875 Caldwell added three more languages and established his firm
view that Tamil and other Dravidian languages are spoken not only in South
India but also all over India and they have close affinities with other
language families of the world such as the Semitic languages, comprising of
Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic; the Scythian languages comprising of the languages of
Iran and central Asia; Sumerian languages, languages of central African region;
the languages of Ural - Altaic family comprising of Hungarian, Japanese and
Korean and the Mangoloid languages.
Before Caldwell, F.W.
Ellis, the Governor of Madras Presidency, informed in his preface to the book A Grammar of Teloogoo language
written by A.D. Campel in 1816
that the four languages of South India namely Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and
Malayalam formed a separate entity and they did not belong to the Sanskrit
group. Lot of works have been done on South Indian languages both by
European Missionaries, Civil servants and foreign academicians from the period
1816 till 1856, the year in which Caldwell’s book came to be published.
In 1894, the linguistic
survey of India under the leadership of Sten Konow and G.A. Grierson added two
more languages Kolami and Naiki under the Dravidian family and now in the
present age of well trained linguists, we have around 35 languages in the
Dravidian family centred around Tamil.
The Dravidian Etymological
Dictionary prepared by Prof. Thomas Burrow and Prof. M.B. Emeneau and published
by Oxford University in 1961 has now become the basic source material for any
advanced research on the etymological study of Tamil language.
The greatness and uniqueness
of Tamil was well established by the Christian Missionaries, the civil servants
and academicians all over the world who evinced active interest in Tamilology. In
2010, the Institute of Asian Studies published a detailed Directory consisting
of the lives and achievements of around 350 such scholars of non - Tamil origin
who have contributed enormously to Tamil research at a wider global perspective.
Even in the earlier stages,
the borders of the Tamil speaking area mentioned in the prologue to Tolkappiyam
as a wider territory extending from the Northern Venkata hills to the Southern
Cape Comorin, was expanded to a very wider global level by the ancient Tamil
traders who settled in many parts of South East Asia, East Asia and even in the
western countries and they carried with them not only the commodities of Tamil
Nadu but also the cultural heritage of their land. The ancient Tamils were
basically a seafaring race, unlike their North Indian counter parts, and Tamil
language and culture spread all over the world due to their
circumnavigation.
[To
be continued]
