Tamil grammar
Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th century grammar Naṉṉūl, which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam with some modifications.
Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu, sol, poruḷ, yāppu and aṇi.
Eḻuttu (writing) defines and describes the letters of the Tamil alphabet and their classification.
It describes the nature of phonemes and their changes with respect to different conditions and locations in the text.
Sol defines the types of the words based on their meaning and the origin.
It gives guidance on which topic to choose for poetry based on certain conditions like the nature of the land or time or the people.
The script falls under the category Abugida, in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as a unit.
The vowels are categorized based on the length, as short (kuril) and long(nedil).
Since these two are a combination two short letters, their pronunciation takes 2 units of time, that is they fall under nedil category.
The consonants are categorised into three groups, வல்லினம் valliṉam (hard), மெல்லினம் melliṉam (soft) and இடையினம் iṭaiyiṉam (medium), based on the nature of the sound.
Uyiraḷapeṭai (உயிரளபெடை) and Oṟṟaḷapeṭai (ஒற்றளபெடை) are formed by elongating the duration of pronunciation of a letter to satisfy certain grammatical rules while composing poetry.
Tamil is an agglutinative language – words consist of a lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached.
Today Translations,[5] a British translation service, ranks the Tamil word செல்லாதிருப்பவர் (sellātiruppavar, meaning a certain type of truancy) as number 8 in their The Most Untranslatable Word In The World list.
The nouns stand for the names of objects both animate and inanimate, and abstract concepts.
The grammatical gender of Tamil nouns corresponds to their natural sex.
Even though the genders of animals are marked in a sentence (e.g.: பெண் நாய் peṇ nāy "female, dog"), grammatically they are handled as a neuter noun.
In Tamil, the demonstrative particles are a- (அ), i- (இ), and u- (உ) (archaic and has fallen out of use, except in Sri Lankan dialects).
e.g. avan (he), atu (that object/being), anta (that) e- (எ) and yā- யா are the two important interrogative particles in Tamil.
First person plural pronouns in Tamil, distinguish between inclusive and exclusive we.
The suffixes to indicate tenses and voice are formed from grammatical particles, which are added to the stem.
In the future, -um is added directly to the root of verbs in Classes I through VIII, whereas -um replaces the -iṟ- in the present stem to form the future of verbs in Classes IX through XIII (and no termination is added afterwards).
Mood is implicit in Tamil, and is normally reflected by the same morphemes which mark tense categories.
Tamil verbs also mark evidentiality, through the addition of the hearsay clitic ām.
The first - used in the example above - indicates that the subject of the sentence undergoes or is the object of the action named by the verb stem, and the second indicates that the subject of the sentence directs the action referred to by the verb stem.
Tamil does not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs – both fall under the category uriccol.
Common attitudes include pejorative opinion, antipathy, relief felt at the conclusion of an unpleasant event or period, and unhappiness at or apprehension about the eventual result of a past or continuing event.
It is possible to construct valid sentences that have only a verb, such as muṭintuviṭṭatu (முடிந்துவிட்டது, "It is completed"), or only a subject and object, such as atu eṉ vīṭu (அது என் வீடு, "That is my house").
Tamil does not have an equivalent for the existential verb to be; it is included in the translations only to convey the meaning.
The negative existential verb, to be not, however, does exist in the form of illai (இல்லை) and goes at the end of the sentence (and does not change with number, gender, or tense).
ஆசிரியர்Āciriyarவகுப்புக்குள்vakuppukkuḷநுழைந்தார்.nuḻaintār.ஆசிரியர் வகுப்புக்குள் நுழைந்தார்.Āciriyar vakuppukkuḷ nuḻaintār.The teacher entered the classroom.அவர்Avarஉள்ளேuḷḷēநுழைந்தவுடன்nuḻaintavuṭaṉமாணவர்கள்māṇavarkaḷஎழுந்தனர்.eḻuntaṉar.அவர் உள்ளே நுழைந்தவுடன் மாணவர்கள் எழுந்தனர்.Avar uḷḷē nuḻaintavuṭaṉ māṇavarkaḷ eḻuntaṉar.As soon as he entered, the students got up.வளவன்Vaḷavaṉமட்டும்maṭṭumதன்taṉஅருகில்arukilநின்றுniṉṟuகொண்டிருந்தkoṇṭiruntaமாணவிmāṇaviகனிமொழியுடன்Kaṉimoḻiyuṭaṉபேசிக்pēcikகொண்டிருந்தான்.koṇṭiruntāṉ.வளவன் மட்டும் தன் அருகில் நின்று கொண்டிருந்த மாணவி கனிமொழியுடன் பேசிக் கொண்டிருந்தான்.Vaḷavaṉ maṭṭum taṉ arukil niṉṟu koṇṭirunta māṇavi Kaṉimoḻiyuṭaṉ pēcik koṇṭiruntāṉ.Only Vaḷavaṉ was talking to Kaṉimoḻi who was standing next to him.நான்Nāṉஅவனைavaṉaiஎச்சரித்தேன்.eccarittēṉ.நான் அவனை எச்சரித்தேன்.Nāṉ avaṉai eccarittēṉ.I warned him.Schiffman, Harold F. (1998).
