When did the gods become literate ?

[N. Ganesan]

GT>Thieme reconstructs the 'thrice-seven' as follows:
GT>a  i  u  R  e  o  ai  au
GT>y  r  l  v
GT>k  c  T  t  p
GT>z  S  s  h
[...]
GT>From this brief summary of Thieme's article it may appear that
GT>Thieme is forcing the data into the framework of the magical number
GT>21. But I think that he had good reasons to do so, as a detailed
GT>examination of his article would, I think, show. The number is
GT>certainly a magical one in the RV [cf. ref. to 21 secret names of
GT>the cow, etc.]


  This principle of contraction is at work all the time in tamil which
  has only 30 letters (12 vowels + 18 consonants) in tolkAppiyam or
  today. Earliest 2nd cent. BC inscriptions has 10 vowels (No ai or
  au) and, 18 consonants, these 28 syllabary is assumed in
  proto-dravidian (World's major languages, OUP).

  In Tamil, the magical 21 sounds will be:
  the 3 basic vowels, a, i, u (leaving out long vowels, diphthongs,
  and no liquid R exists) PLUS the 18 consonants (attested in writing
  from 2nd cntury BC). TolkAppiyam splits the 18 consonants to 3
  groups of 6 letters each:

  'hard' consonants=   k c T t p R  (their pronunciation being
                                     context-sensitive)
  'middle' consonants= y r l v z L
  'soft' consonants=   G J N n m n2

  We can arrive at the magical "thrice-seven" from three sets
  of one vowel out of a total 3 PLUS a group of 'hard'/'middle'/'soft'
  of 6 consonants each. That is,

         a + k c T t p R
         i + y r l v z L
         u + G J N n m n2

  Increasingly, English interacts with any Indian language much more
  than between any 2 Indian languages; Tamil literary discussion lists
  like www.tamil.net or agathiyar at egroups.com using bilingual fonts
  write g='k, j='c, D='T, d='t, b='p, f='v, h=aaytam, s=^c, S=~c.
  Extending the good old contraction principles, the RHS employs
  tamil letters for sanskrit or english g,j,D,d,b,f,h,s & S.

  Regards,
  N. Ganesan


PS: When Tamils started transliterating on the web few yrs ago, your
former teacher, George Hart wrote:From: George Hart
<ghart at socrates.berkeley.edu>

At the risk of sounding a bit sanctimonious, I'd like to put in a
strong word for a proper transliteration of Tamil.  That means the
transliteration of the Tamil Lexicon or something close to it.  One
of the great miracles of linguistic insight is the way in which the
Brahmi alphabet was adapted for Tamil about the third century BC.
Whoever did it realized that, given the phonological rules of Tamil,
the letters in kaa, akam, and aGku, though all pronounced
differently, are actually the same phoneme.  He or she accordingly
used the same Brahmi character for "k" in all these positions and
eliminated the kh, g, and gh that are in Prakrit/Sanskrit but not in
Tamil.  The genius of the Tamil language, and all its history, depend
on this insight, which is a truly awesome one.  Now we see people who
want a "phonetic" transcription of Tamil.  This is nonsense.  If we
start writing "kaa," "agam" and "angu," we have, purely and simply,
murdered the language.  If one is writing for people who know no
Tamil, then there may be some excuse for writing "kamban," but if one
writes for Tamilians, then PLEASE, let's keep "kampan" -- otherwise,
the entire morphology and structure of the language are lost.

It may be worth remarking that even Malayalam (which, like modern
Tamil, comes from old Tamil) keeps this system.  In fact, Malayalam
actually has two writing systems: one for native words and one for
Sanskrit borrowings.  The fact that Malayalis did not feel they could
adopt "phonetic" renderings for native words should suggest to all of
us that it is unwise, and indeed quite dangerous, to do for Tamil.

It has long been a complaint of people who speak other languages
(and, indeed, of some Tamilians) that Tamil is "inferior" because it
does not have all the sounds of Sanskrit.  This is nonsense.  The
Tamil alphabet is perfectly suited for the Tamil language.  Its only
lack is a way to produce the occasionally voiced initial in borrowed
words (bayam, fear) -- but this can be managed by somehow marking the
first letter (as is often done by italicization or other means).
-G. Hart



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