Hydronomy of Tamil rivers (Re: Again, SANSKRIT broadcasts)

[Periannan Chandrasekaran]

--- Lakshmi Srinivas <lsrinivas at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> --- Michael Witzel <witzel at FAS.HARVARD.EDU> wrote:
> > In answer to several messages listed under both
> > threads:
> >
> > Obviously, when trying to etymologize S. Indian
> > river names we have to try
> > all Dravidian possibilities, -- within the realm of
> > probability.
>
> Most rivers flowing in Tamilnadu do not seem to have
> clear/convincing Tamil etymologies. Names like vaiyai,
> koLLiTam are evidently phonetic Tamilization of alien
> sounds.

I am reminded of the conversation between Nanda Chandran and Kellner :-))
------
nanda chandran wrote:

..>isn't it strange that
> UdhayAna, if he came after Shankara would try to prove the existence of god
> on logical grounds?

To which Kellner responded:

Second: Even if it were admitted to be strange that Udayana should continue a
debate that SaGkara decided not to continue - which I personally would not
consider strange at all -, such "atmospheric" considerations are not a reliable
basis for establishing the relative chronology of Indian philosophers, nor do
they constitute sufficient evidence to call into question datings that are
otherwise firmly established.

--------

Laxmi your considerations may be deemed equally atmospheric.
What exactly is the basis for suspecting that these hydronyms are
of alien origin?
Given the classical nature of Tamil meanig that a whole lot of linguistic
elements would have fallen out of favor over the millenia, thse are alien wrt
modern Tamil or caGkam era tamil?
You at least have to show due diligence in asserting a priori that keDilam is
atypical caGkam or post-Cagkam Tamil.

koLLiDam: What is alien about its phonetics? with the doubled retroflex and -am
suffix,  it is as tamil as it gets. My Tamil teacher said it was a corruption
of
the verbal noun "koLLaDam" = koL + aDam where koL = to hold, contain; -aDam is
a verbal noun suffix which is out of active usage for constructing verbal
nouns,
though there are many words employing that suffix in use:
kaTTaDam (kaTtu + aDam) = building, book binding; note that this word is often
corrupted as kaTTiDam.
oRRaDam  (oRRu + adam) = fomentation
[some other examples not in currency:
cetukkaDam = gem polishing
karaVaDam = theft]


>Trying to look at the semantic content of the
> constituent syllables of these river names would lead
> to absurd conclusions. For example there is already a
> popular etymology for the river name vaiyai or rather
> its variant vaikai. "Vaikai" literally means "keep
> your hand" and on this basis an etymology has been
> developed for which poor Siva had to be pressed into
> service :-)

Not more absurd than the sthalapurANas spun around the Sanskritization of
taNporunai as tAmraparuni :-))
>
> Some others like keTilam seem phonetically alien.

Given Tamil words such as neTil, ceTi etc., what is alien about
the phonetics of keTilam?
Also change of word-initial short a- to e- is well attested in Dravidian.




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