Scripts KannaDa/Telegu/SinhAla

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

Tamil grammar from TolkAppiyam(3rd century BC?) only
has "ka" in the series of "ka, kha, ga, gha".
(This is not to say that Tamil lacks "ga" sound.)

All Indian writing, including Tamil, letters developed out
of Asokan Brahmi. Because Tamil does not have separate
letters for the aspirated or voiced sounds, Pallava grantha
script was developed during the Pallavan era. The primary
purpose was to write Sanskrit material. Even today,
Tamil brahmin priestly books are in the grantha script.
By the time Kannada and Telugu grammars were written,
the alphabetical list was the same as that of Sanskrit.
Hence the Pallava grantha was applied to write Kannada
and Telugu. Since Southeast coast had marine contacts
all over South East Asia, the same Pallava grantha
came to be used there too.

Regards,
SM


--- Balaji Hebbar <bhebbar at EROLS.COM> wrote:
> Dear  Sri  Madhuresan:
>
> Many  thanks  for  the  info.  Why  are  Tamil  and  MaLayAlam  scripts
> different  from  these?  or  are  they  not?  Perhaps  they  belong  to
> different  sub-group?  Kindly  let  me  know.  Also,  TuLu  once  had
> its  own  script  which  resembled  the  MaLayALam  script.  Today,  it
> is  just  a  spoken  language  and  we  write  to  each  other  in
> KannaDa  only.  Thanks.
>
> Regards,
> B.N.Hebbar
>

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