Tamil words in English

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

At 09:31 AM 2/9/98 +0100, you wrote:
>DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA wrote:
>
>> >A. K. Ramanujan once told me Koel is from tamil kuyil.
>> >He uses the word Koel in his translations from Tamil too.
>>
>> Saying that all these words are from Tamil only may not be correct.
>> For example Koel can be from telugu "koyila". Telugu word is much
>> closer than "kuyil".
>
>
>Both forms and all the related names for the Koel or Eudynamis
>scolopaceus (Linn.) in modern Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages are of
>course derived from Sanskrit kokila, Prakrit kOila, *kOyila.
>
>Regards,
>
>Erik Seldeslachts
>Universiteit Gent
>Belgium
>
>

You are absolutely right. But here we are interested in how "kOel"
entered English. That I do not think is from sanskrit or prAkrit. It
can be from telugu "kOyila" or from north indian languages like Hindi
which have the word "kOyal".

regards,

sarma.