linguistics (was: Tamil words in English)

[Rama Balasubramanian]

"Robert J. Zydenbos" <zydenbos at BLR.VSNL.NET.IN> writes:

>"similar to other north-Indian languages"? I hope there is a typo
>there. There are heaps of concrete evidence. I'll give only a few
>illustrations for the lesser informed on the list, just in case
>they are confused by the obscurantist statements that occasionally
>are made here. Some words:
>
>Tamil      Kannada         Sanskrit        Hindi
>-----      -------         --------        -----
>ira.n.tu   era.du          dvau            do
>muu_n_ru   muuru           trii.ni         tiin

I have seen lots of Kannada and Telugu people arguing that their
language is from Sanskrit and not of Dravidian origin because they
feel that somehow that makes them superior. This argument is based on
some common words between Sanskrit and these languages. I have tried
to point out that Malayalam which has much more Sanskrit words than
other South Indian languages is hardly of Sanskrit origin, but in
vain. It's more a political issue than anything else! Subhramanya
would do well to read some of the works of George Hart or Kamil
Zvelebil where he can find tonnes of references.

Rama.