[Re: Comparative linguistics]

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 3/26/2000 1:08:36 PM Central Standard Time,
Palaniappa at AOL.COM writes:

> AkamattoTu mantiragkaL amainta cagkata pagkamA
>  pAkatattoTu iraittu uraitta can2agkaL veTku uRu pakkamA
>  mA katakkari pOl tirintu purintu nin2Ru uNum mAcu cEr
>  Akatarkku eLiyEn2 alEn2 tiru AlavAy aran2 niRkavE.  (tEv. 3.39.2)

For the benefit of those who do not know Tamil, let me explain how this verse
is interesting from the point of view of linguistic attitudes and awareness.
Here the saint uses many tadbhava forms. For example,

Akamam = agama
mantiram = mantra
caGkata = saMskRta
pAkatam = prAkRta

So, we can infer that, it was agreeable to him that such transformations take
place when Sanskrit words are used in Tamil which is genetically-unrelated to
Sanskrit. But since he calls Prakrit as a deformation of Sanskrit, he does
not like such transformations within Indo-Aryan!

Regards
S. Palaniappan