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	{{see also\|Aindra school of grammar}}		{{see also\|Aindra school of grammar}}
	''Tolkāppiyam '' is claimed to have been modelled on the ] grammar of the Aindra school.<ref>Burnell, A. C. (1875)</ref> The preface of Ilampuranar's twelfth century commentary of the Tolkappiyam, describes it as ''aindiram nirainda'' ('comprising aindra').<ref>K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, p. 130.</ref>. This annotation was interpreted by ] as alluding to the pre-Paninian '']'' mentioned in the '']''. To investigate his hunch, Burnell compared the ''Tolkappiyam'' with the non Paninian ''Katyantra'' grammar and concluded that the Tolkappiyam indeed exhibited a strong influence of the non Paninian school of grammar.<ref name="Trautmann">Trautmann, Thomas R. 2006. Languages and nations: the Dravidian proof in colonial Madras. Berkeley: University of California Press.</ref> However, this claim has also been met with skepticism from recent researchers.<ref>''"...it has been identified that Tolkappiyam and other Sanskrit grammar works share some charactersitics, but also show significant dissimilarities..."'' - Rajam, V. S. (1981), A comparative study of two ancient Indian grammatical traditions: The Tamil Tolkappiyam compared with the Sanskrit Rk-pratisakhya, Taittiriya-pratisakhya, Apisali siksa, and the Astadhyayi'' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania: 1981)</ref><ref name="takahashi">Takanobu Takahashi, ''Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics'' (1995) Brill Academic Publishers ISBN 9004100423 pp 26</ref>		''Tolkāppiyam '' is claimed to have been modelled on the ] grammar of the Aindra school.<ref>Burnell, A. C. (1875)</ref> The preface of Ilampuranar's twelfth century commentary of the Tolkappiyam, describes it as ''aindiram nirainda'' ('comprising aindra').<ref>K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, p. 130.</ref>. This annotation was interpreted by ] as alluding to the pre-Paninian '']'' mentioned in the '']''. To investigate his hunch, Burnell compared the ''Tolkappiyam'' with the non Paninian ''Katyantra'' grammar and concluded that the Tolkappiyam indeed exhibited a strong influence of the non Paninian school of grammar.<ref name="Trautmann">Trautmann, Thomas R. 2006. Languages and nations: the Dravidian proof in colonial Madras. Berkeley: University of California Press.</ref> However, this claim has also been met with skepticism from recent researchers.<ref>''"...it has been identified that Tolkappiyam and other Sanskrit grammar works share some charactersitics, but also show significant dissimilarities..."'' - Rajam, V. S. (1981), A comparative study of two ancient Indian grammatical traditions: The Tamil Tolkappiyam compared with the Sanskrit Rk-pratisakhya, Taittiriya-pratisakhya, Apisali siksa, and the Astadhyayi'' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania: 1981)</ref><ref name="takahashi">Takanobu Takahashi, ''Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics'' (1995) Brill Academic Publishers ISBN 9004100423 pp 26</ref>

			The issue of the Aindra school notwithstanding, the grammar expounded by the Tolkappiyam owes a great deal to Sanskrit.<ref>Hart</ref> The influence of various Sanskrit works like ''Manavadharmashastra'', ''Arthashastra'', ''Natyashastra'' and grammarians like ] and ] is evident in the Tolkappiyam.<ref>zvelebil</ref> Parts of the Collathikaram are, for instance, almost a direct translation of the Sanskrit texts.<ref>zvelebil</ref> The eight feelings mentioned in the Porulathikaram seem to be heavily inspired by the eight ''rasas'' or the ''rasa'' theory of the ''Natyashastra''.<ref>zvelebil</ref><ref>takahashi takanobu</ref>

	== Derived literature from Tolkāppiyam ==		== Derived literature from Tolkāppiyam ==

Revision as of 21:16, 1 May 2007

Topics in Sangam literature
Sangam literature
Agattiyam	Tolkāppiyam
Eighteen Greater Texts
Eight Anthologies
Aiṅkurunūṟu	Akanāṉūṟu
Puṟanāṉūṟu	Kalittokai
Kuṟuntokai	Natṟiṇai
Paripāṭal	Patiṟṟuppattu
Ten Idylls
Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai	Kuṟiñcippāṭṭu
Malaipaṭukaṭām	Maturaikkāñci
Mullaippāṭṭu	Neṭunalvāṭai
Paṭṭiṉappālai	Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai
Poruṇarāṟṟuppaṭai	Ciṟupāṇāṟṟuppaṭai
Related topics
Sangam	Sangam landscape
Tamil history from Sangam literature	Ancient Tamil music
Eighteen Lesser Texts
Nālaṭiyār	Nāṉmaṇikkaṭikai
Iṉṉā Nāṟpatu	Iṉiyavai Nāṟpatu
Kār Nāṟpatu	Kaḷavaḻi Nāṟpatu
Aintiṇai Aimpatu	Tiṉaimoḻi Aimpatu
Aintinai Eḻupatu	Tiṇaimālai Nūṟṟaimpatu
Tirukkuṟaḷ	Tirikaṭukam
Ācārakkōvai	Paḻamoḻi Nāṉūṟu
Ciṟupañcamūlam	Mutumoḻikkānci
Elāti	Kainnilai
Bhakti Literature
Naalayira Divya Prabandham	Ramavataram
Tevaram	Tirumuṟai
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The Tolkāppiyam (Template:Lang-ta) is a work on the grammar of the Tamil language. Written in the form of poems called sootirams (formulae), this ancient work attributed to Tolkāppiyar, is one of the world's oldest surviving grammars for any language. The name Tolkāppiyam derived from the combination of the two words Tonmai and kāppiyam. Tonmai means ancient and Kappiam means literature. While the exact date of the work is not known, based on linguistic and other evidence, it is dated between 1st BCE and 10th CE . There is also no firm evidence to assign the authorship of this treatise to any one author.

The Tolkāppiyam defines the syntax and poetic grammar to be used when writing poetry in Tamil. It also includes classification of habitats, animals, plants and human beings. The discussion on human emotions and interactions is particularly significant.

Overview

The Tolkāppiyam classifies the Tamil language into "senthamil" and "kotunthamil". The former refers to the classical Tamil used exclusively in literary works and the latter refers to the colloquial Tamil, spoken by the people. The book is based on the analysis of both spoken and written Tamil.

Scientific treatment to Natural Language Grammar

The classification of the alphabet into consonants and vowels by analysing the syllables was a scientific breakthrough. Grammatising this phenomenon was also an achievement of that time. The Tolkāppiyam starts by defining the alphabet for optimal writing, grammatises the use of words and syntaxes and moves into higher modes of language analysis. The style and structure of narration of these rules is similar to that of the Backus-Panini form, which was formalised only as recently as 1963. The Tolkāppiyam formulated thirty characters and three diacritic like symbols for Tamil. The 12 vowels combine with the 18 consonants bringing the total tally of characters to 247. The alphabet has evolved since then. For a detailed treatment of the alphabet see Tamil alphabet. Though the alphabet has evolved largely, the language as such has remained mostly intact earning the sobriquet, kannith thamil, which can mean ever-young Tamil or "virgin Tamil".

Chapters

The Tolkāppiyam is organised into the following three chapters each of which is sub divided into 9 sections.

Ezhuththathikaaram
Sollathikaaram
PoruLathikaaram

Ezhuththathikaaram

Ezhuththathikaaram is further subdivided into the following 9 sections.

Nuul Marabu
Mozhi Marabu
PiRappiyal
PuNaRiyal
Thokai Marabu
Urubiyal
Uyir Mayangial
PuLLi Mayangial
KutriyalukarappunaRiyal

Nuul Marabu

This section enumerates the characters of the language, organises them into consonants, vowels and diacritic symbols. The vowels are sub classified into short and long vowels based on duration of pronunciation. Similarly, the consonants are sub classified into three categories based on the stress.

Mozhi Marabu

This section defines rules which specify where in a word can a letter not occur and which letter can not come after a particular letter.

It also describes elision, which is the reduction in the duration of sound of a phoneme when preceded by or followed by certain other sounds. The rules are well-defined and unambiguous. They are categorised into 5 classes based on the phoneme which undergoes elision.

Kutriyalukaram - the (lip unrounded) vowel sound u
Kutriyalikaram - the vowel sound i(as the vowel in 'lip')
Aiykaarakkurukkam - the diphthong ai
Oukaarakkurukkam - the diphthong au
Aaythakkurukkam - the special character (aaytham)

PiRappiyal

Excerpt from the Tolkāppiyam showing the style of narration

Excerpt from the Tolkāppiyam on articulatory phonetics

This is a section on articulatory phonetics. It talks about pronunciation methods of the phonemes at the level of diaphragm, larynx, jaws, tongue position, teeth, lips and nose.

Also, the visual representation of the letters is explained.

PuNaRiyal

This section talks about the changes to words due to the following word i.e. it specifies rules that govern the transformations on the last phonem of a word (nilaimozhi iiRu) because of the first phonem of the following word (varumozhi muthal) when used in a sentence.