Tamil grammar

Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu, sol, poruḷ, yāppu and aṇi. Of these, the last two are mostly applicable in poetry. The following table gives additional information about these parts. Eḻuttu (writing) defines and describes the letters of the Tamil alphabet and their classification. It describes the nature of phonemes and their changes with respect to different conditions and locations in the text. Sol defines the types of the words based on their meaning and the origin. It defines the gender, number, cases, tenses, classes, harmony etc. This chapter also provides rules for compounding the words. Porul defines the contents of poetry. It gives guidance on which topic to choose for poetry based on certain conditions like the nature of the land or time or the people. It gives a distinction between Agam (internal / love life) and Puram (external / worldly life). Yāppu defines rules for composing Traditional poetry. It defines the basic building block Asai and describes how asai should be joined to form a sīr, joining sīr for an adi. Aṇi defines techniques used for comparing, praising and criticizing the taken topics. ==Letters==

The script of Tamil Language consists of 247 letters. The script falls under the category Abugida, in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as a unit. The grammar classifies the letters into two major categories. • Prime Letters – • Dependent Letters – Prime letters 12 vowels and 18 consonants are classified as the prime letters. • The vowels ( ): அ (a), ஆ (ā), இ (i), ஈ( ī), உ (u), ஊ (ū), எ (e), ஏ (ē), ஐ (ai), ஒ (o), ஓ (ō), ஔ (au) • The consonants ( ): க், ங், ச், ஞ், ட், ண், த், ந், ப், ம், ய், ர், ல், வ், ழ், ள், ற், ன் The vowels are called uyir, meaning soul, in Tamil. The consonants are known as mey, meaning body. When the alphasyllabary is formed, the letter shall be taking the form of the consonants, that is the body, and the sound shall be that of the corresponding vowel, that is the soul. The vowels are categorized based on the length, as short (kuril) and long(nedil). The short vowels are pronounced for a duration 1 unit, while the long vowels take two units. Based on the duration of the sound, the vowels form 5 pairs. The other two vowels ஐ(ai) and ஔ(au) are diphthongs formed by joining the letters அ(a)+இ(i) and அ(a)+உ(u). Since these two are a combination two short letters, their pronunciation takes 2 units of time, that is they fall under nedil category. ஐ(ai) and ஔ(au) can also be spelt அய் and அவ். This form is known as eḻuttuppōli and is generally not recommended. The consonants are categorised into three groups, (hard), (soft) and (medium), based on the nature of the sound. வல்லினம் are various non-nasal consonants, மெல்லினம் are the nasal versions of the corresponding வல்லினம் consonant, and இடையினம் are other non-nasal consonants. Most often, when there is a nasal sound preceding a வல்லினம் consonant, it is the corresponding மெல்லினம் consonant of the said வல்லினம் consonant. From the 30 prime letters, the dependent letters are formed. Dependent letters Tamil grammar defines 10 categories of Dependent letters. • Alphasyllabic letters • Aidam • Elongated vowel • Elongated consonant • Shortened u • Shortened i • Shortened ai • Shortened au • Shortened m • Shortened Aidam The alphasyllabic letters – 216 in total – are formed by combining the consonants and the vowels. The duration of the sound is that of the vowel attached to the consonant (or the inherent vowel, in case of the pure consonants). For example, the table below shows the formation of க் based letters. Aidam is also known as (stand alone). The aidam is always preceded by a single short letter ( ) and followed by a hard alphasyllabic letter ( ). It takes half unit time for pronunciation. () and () are formed by elongating the duration of pronunciation of a letter to satisfy certain grammatical rules while composing poetry. In Uyiralapetai, the intrinsic vowel of the letter that is elongated is written next to it, to indicate that the letter now is pronounced for 3 units of time. In Kutriyalukaram, the duration of the short 'u' letters of vallinam category (கு, சு, டு, து, பு, று) is reduced to half units, when the letter is found at the end of the word, preceded by multiple letters or a single nedil(long) letter. If a word with kutriyalikaram is followed by a word with 'ய'(ya) as the first letter, the u sound is corrupted to i sound and takes a half unit of time for pronunciation. In Aikarakurukkam and Aukarakurukkam, the duration of the letters ஐ and ஔ are reduced to 1 1/2 units if they are the first letters of the word. If situated elsewhere it is reduced to 1 unit. ==Vanjiyar==

In Tamil, a single letter standing alone or multiple letters combined form a word. Tamil is an agglutinative language – words consist of a lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes. These can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person, number, mood, tense, etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination, which can lead to long words with a large number of suffixes, which would require several words or a sentence in English. To give an example, the word () means "for the sake of those who cannot go", and consists of the following morphemes: Words formed as a result of the agglutinative process are often difficult to translate. Today Translations, a British translation service, ranks the Tamil word (, meaning a certain type of truancy) as number 8 in their The Most Untranslatable Word In The World list. In Tamil, words are classified into four categories namely, • Nouns Peyarsol • Verbs Vinaisol • Particles and Pre-/Postpositions Idaisol • Adjective and Adverbs Urisol All categories of nouns are declinable. Verbs are conjugated to indicate person, tense, gender, number and mood. The other two classes are indeclinable. ==Nouns==

Noun Nouns are inflected based on number and grammatical case, of which there are 9: nominative case, accusative case, dative case, instrumental case, sociative case, locative case, ablative case, genitive case, and vocative case. If the plural is used, the noun is inflected by suffixing the noun stem with first the plural marker -kaḷ, and then with the case suffix, if any. Otherwise, if the singular is used, the noun is instead inflected by suffixing either the noun stem with the case suffix, or the oblique stem with the case suffix. An optional euphonic increment -iṉ or -aṉ can occur before the case suffix. Nominative case The nominative case is used for the subject of an intransitive verb, the agent of a transitive verb, the predicate of a nominal sentence, and subject and object complements. It is the base form of the noun with no suffix. It can also be used to mark the direct object when it is indefinite and irrational. Accusative case The accusative case marks the direct object of a transitive verb. It is marked by the suffix -ai. It is required when the direct object is rational. When used with irrational nouns, the accusative must be used when the direct object is definite. When an irrational direct object is indefinite, the nominative is used instead, unless there is an explicit indefinite determiner present, in which case either the nominative or accusative may be used. Dative case The dative case is marked with -ukku, -kku, or -ku. It expresses an indirect object, a goal of motion, a purpose, or an experiencer. Instrumental case The instrumental case is shown with -āl. It marks the instrument, means, source, or reason by which an action occurs. It also marks the agent in passive constructions. Sociative case The sociative case is marked with either -ōṭu or -uṭaṉ. The latter is almost only used in poetic and written Tamil. It shows that the noun it modifies is involved in the action of the sentence. Locative case The locative case is marked with either -il or -iṭam. -il occurs with inanimate nouns and plural animate nouns, while iṭam occurs with animate nouns in both numbers. It shows location. The locative also has -kkul, which is a deeper sense of being within something. Vocative case The vocative case is marked with multiple suffixes. The two main ones are ē and ā. The ē ending can be used for any word. The ā ending can only be used for words ending with -an or -am (keep in mind that these words that can use the ā ending can still use the ē ending). Along with this, many times, people use other rules to turn words into the vocative case. The word often stays the same or gets stress or an elongated vowel at the end of the word. In colloquial speech and slang, the vocative is often paired with Ey! Ablative case The ablative case is expressed through the suffix -iliruntu added onto the locative of a noun. This directly translates to, "after being in/at". It marks motion away from something or getting something from somewhere. This case loosely translates to "from" in English. Oblique stems The oblique stem of a noun is used before adding case suffixes, as a modifier in genitive function before a head noun, as the first element of a compound, and before postpositions. Genders and number The grammatical gender of Tamil nouns corresponds to their natural sex. Nouns in Tamil have two numbers, singular and plural. Grammatical gender, known as in Tamil, encompasses both the concepts of gender and number, thus is highly predictable. Masculine and feminine genders are only applicable to "higher class" nouns. Even though the genders of animals are marked in a sentence (e.g.: "female, dog"), grammatically they are handled as a neuter noun. Thus there are five genders in Tamil, namely, masculine singular ( ), feminine singular ( ), high-class plural ( ), lower-class singular ( ), lower-class plural ( ). These are summarized in the table below. ==Pronouns==

Demonstratives and interrogatives In Tamil, the demonstrative particles are a- (அ), i- (இ), and u- (உ) (archaic and has fallen out of use, except in Sri Lankan dialects). These demonstrative particles display deictic properties. i- (இ) is a near deixis form, which demonstrates the objects around/near the first person, while a- (அ) has distant deixis form, which demonstrates things near the 3rd person. u- (உ) was used to indicate objects near the second person, but has gradually fallen out of use. In modern Tamil i- (இ) indicates objects nearer and a- (அ) indicates objects in a distance. Using these particles demonstrative pronouns are derived. The same set of pronouns is also used as personal pronouns in 3rd person. e.g. avan (he), atu (that object/being), anta (that) e- (எ) and yā- யா are the two important interrogative particles in Tamil. e- (எ) is used for deriving the interrogative pronouns. e.g. evaṉ (which one, 3rd person singular masculine), enta (which), etaṟku (for what?) Personal pronouns First person plural pronouns in Tamil distinguish between inclusive and exclusive we. In Tamil, plural terminators are used for honorific addressing. It could be noted in both 2nd and 3rd persons. There are unique personal pronouns available for first and second persons while demonstrative pronouns are used in place of personal pronouns as well. ==Verbs==

Like Tamil nouns, Tamil verbs are also inflected through the use of suffixes. A typical Tamil verb form will have a number of suffixes, which show person, number, mood, tense and voice, as is shown by the following example aḻintukkoṇṭiruntēṉ (அழிந்துக்கொண்டிருந்தேன்) "(I) was being destroyed": Person and number are indicated by suffixing the oblique case of the relevant pronoun (ēṉ in the above example). The suffixes to indicate tenses and voice are formed from grammatical particles, which are added to the stem. The chart below outlines the most common set of suffixes used to conjugate for person and tense, but different groups of Tamil verbs may use other sets of suffixes or have irregularities. 1The infix -kiṟ- is a shortening of the infix -kiṉṟ-, which is also sometimes used. Tamil has two voices. The first - used in the example above - indicates that the subject of the sentence undergoes or is the object of the action named by the verb stem, and the second indicates that the subject of the sentence directs the action referred to by the verb stem. These voices are not equivalent to the notions of transitivity or causation, or to the active-passive or reflexive-nonreflexive division of voices found in Indo-European languages. Auxiliaries Tamil has no articles. Definiteness and indefiniteness are indicated either by context or by special grammatical devices, such as using the number "one" as an indefinite article. In the first person plural, Tamil makes a distinction between inclusive pronouns that include the listener and exclusive pronouns that do not. Tamil does not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs – both fall under the category uriccol. Conjunctions are called iṭaiccol. Verb auxiliaries are used to indicate attitude, a grammatical category which shows the state of mind of the speaker, and his attitude about the event spoken of in the verb. Common attitudes include pejorative opinion, antipathy, relief felt at the conclusion of an unpleasant event or period, and unhappiness at or apprehension about the eventual result of a past or continuing event. ==Sentence structure==

Except in poetry, the subject precedes the object, and the verb concludes the sentence. In a standard sentence, therefore, the order is usually subject–object–verb (SOV), but object–subject–verb is also common. Tamil is a null-subject language. Not all Tamil sentences have subjects, verbs, and objects. It is possible to construct valid sentences that have only a verb, such as muṭintuviṭṭatu (முடிந்துவிட்டது, "It is completed"), or only a subject and object, such as atu eṉ vīṭu (அது என் வீடு, "That is my house"). The elements that are present, however, must follow the SOV order. Tamil does not have an equivalent for the existential verb to be; it is included in the translations only to convey the meaning. The negative existential verb, to be not, however, does exist in the form of illai (இல்லை) and goes at the end of the sentence (and does not change with number, gender, or tense). The verb to have in the meaning "to possess" is not translated directly, either. To say "I have a horse" in Tamil, a construction equivalent to "There is a horse to me" or "There exists a horse to me", is used. Tamil lacks relative pronouns, but their meaning is conveyed by relative participle constructions, built using agglutination. For example, the English sentence "Call the boy who learned the lesson" is said in Tamil like "That-lesson-learned-boy call". ==Example==

A sample passage in Tamil script with transliteration. {{fs interlinear|lang=tam|indent=2 {{fs interlinear|lang=tam|indent=2 {{fs interlinear|lang=tam|indent=2 {{fs interlinear|lang=tam|indent=2 ==Bibliography==