Etymology of 'iyer' and may be even that of 'iyenkAr'

[Hrid at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/17/97 9:49:17 AM, Palaniappa at aol.com wrote:

>Some Tamil scholars in the past with their love for Indo-Aryan, derived it
>from Sanskrit 'Arya' through  Pali 'ayya' without systematically looking at
>all available evidence. Following them, western scholars who depend on
>secondary sources have accepted their conclusion. Given the examples cited
>above, it is clear 'aiyar' is a perfectly Tamil word. 
	I appreciate the above, but am still not clear as to why the root ai cannot
possibly be an IA derivative, rather than a "perfectly Tamil word".
Sincerely,
Howard J. Resnick