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Revision as of 11:22, 4 May 2007 editSarvagnya (talk \| contribs)9,152 edits →Commentaries ← Previous edit		Revision as of 11:30, 4 May 2007 edit undoMGC22T (talk \| contribs)141 edits →Dating of the Tolkappiyam: puts the date of Iraiyanar Agapporul as 10/12th century AD , based on that it is edited to that date.Next edit →
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	The dating of the earliest ] grammatical treatise ] has been debated much and it is still imprecise and uncertain <ref name="zvelebil">Zvelebil, Kamil (1973)</ref><ref>''"The date of tolkappiyam has been variously proposed as lying between 5320 BC and 8th century AD"'', Takahashi, Takanobu (1995), p18</ref><ref name="bgls2">The Date of the Tolkappiyam: A Retrospect." Annals of Oriental Research (Madras), Silver Jubilee Volume: 292-317</ref> and has seen wide disagreements amongst scholars in the field.<ref name="bgls2" /> <ref name="takahashi" /><ref name="caldwell" /> It has been dated variously between 8000 BCE and 10th CE.<ref name="bgls2" /><ref name="takahashi" /><ref name="zvelebil" />		The dating of the earliest ] grammatical treatise ] has been debated much and it is still imprecise and uncertain <ref name="zvelebil">Zvelebil, Kamil (1973)</ref><ref>''"The date of tolkappiyam has been variously proposed as lying between 5320 BC and 8th century AD"'', Takahashi, Takanobu (1995), p18</ref><ref name="bgls2">The Date of the Tolkappiyam: A Retrospect." Annals of Oriental Research (Madras), Silver Jubilee Volume: 292-317</ref> and has seen wide disagreements amongst scholars in the field.<ref name="bgls2" /> <ref name="takahashi" /><ref name="caldwell" /> It has been dated variously between 8000 BCE and 10th CE.<ref name="bgls2" /><ref name="takahashi" /><ref name="zvelebil" />

	While most of the antediluvian datings which stem mostly from a descriptive commentary in an ~~8th~~ century work called ''Iraiyanar AgapporuL'', about the existence of three Tamil Academies, which have been rejected as being devoid of any evidence<ref name="takahashi" /><ref name="caldwell">Caldwell, Robert (1974)</ref>, the genuine disagreements now center around widely divergent dates lying between the third century ] and sixth century ].<ref name="zvelebil" /><ref name="takahashi" /> As the Tolkappiyam is often claimed as the earliest extant work of Tamil literature, the dating of Tolkappiyam is inherently tied to the dates ascribed to the birth and development of Tamil literature as a whole.		While most of the antediluvian datings which stem mostly from a descriptive commentary in an 10/12th century work called ''Iraiyanar AgapporuL'', about the existence of three Tamil Academies, which have been rejected as being devoid of any evidence<ref name="takahashi" /><ref name="caldwell">Caldwell, Robert (1974)</ref>, the genuine disagreements now center around widely divergent dates lying between the third century ] and sixth century ].<ref name="zvelebil" /><ref name="takahashi" /> As the Tolkappiyam is often claimed as the earliest extant work of Tamil literature, the dating of Tolkappiyam is inherently tied to the dates ascribed to the birth and development of Tamil literature as a whole.

	==Influence of Sanskrit==		==Influence of Sanskrit==

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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 variously 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 Tolkappiyam, deals with orthography, phonology, etymology, morphology, semantics, prosody and the subject matter of literature. The Tolkāppiyam classifies the Tamil language into "sentamil" and "kotuntamil". The former refers to the classical Tamil used almost exclusively in literary works and the latter refers to the dialectal Tamil, spoken by the people in the various regions of Tamil Nadu..

The Tolkappiyam classifies the alphabet into consonants and vowels by analysing the syllables. It starts by defining the alphabet for optimal writing, grammatises the use of words and syntaxes and moves into higher modes of language analysis. 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.

Chapters

The Tolkāppiyam consists of three books each of which is divided into 9 chapters. The books are called atikarams (Sanskrit:adhikara). The three books are

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.

Thokai Marabu