Tolkappiyam
Encyclopedia
The Tolkāppiyam is a work on the grammar
of the Tamil language
and the earliest extant work of Tamil literature
. It is written in the form of noorpaa or short formulaic compositions and comprises three books - the Ezhuttadikaram, the Solladikaram and the Poruladikaram. Each of these books is further divided into nine chapters each. While the exact date of the work is not known, based on linguistic and other evidence, it has been dated variously
between the third century BCE and the 10th century CE. Some modern scholars prefer to date it not as a single entity but in parts or layers. There is also no firm evidence to assign the authorship of this treatise to any one author.
Tolkappiyam, deals with orthography
, phonology
, morphology
, semantics
, prosody
and the subject matter of literature. The Tolkāppiyam classifies the Tamil language into sentamil and koduntamil. The former refers to the classical Tamil used almost exclusively in literary works and the latter refers to the dialectal Tamil, spoken by the people in the various regions of ancient Tamilagam.
Tolkappiyam catergorises alphabet into consonants and vowels by analysing the syllables. It grammatises the use of words and syntaxes and moves into higher modes of language analysis. The Tolkāppiyam formulated thirty phonemes and three dependent sounds for Tamil.
Derivation of Tolkāppiyam from root words as per the rules defined in Nannūl
verse 136.
grammatical treatise Tolkappiyam
has been debated much and it is still imprecise and uncertain and has seen wide disagreements amongst scholars in the field. It has been dated variously between 8000 BCE and 10th CE.
While most of the antediluvian datings which stem mostly from a descriptive commentary in an 8th century work called Iraiyanar AgapporuL, about the existence of three Tamil Academies, which have been rejected as being devoid of any evidence, the genuine disagreements now center around widely divergent dates lying between the third century BCE and 10th CE
. Some modern scholars prefer to date it not as a single entity but in parts or layers which are estimated as written between the third century BCE and the fifth century CE.
Many authors however, ascribe the work to Jaina
traditions and the earliest of the possibly many authors, who has been identified as Tolkappiyanaar to a heterodox Jaina order. S. Vaiyapuri Pillai has suggested that Tolkappiyanaar may have belonged to a heterodox Jaina grammatical tradition called aintiram(a view which other scholars like Burnell, Takanobu and Zvelebil share) and that he was a native of Tiruvatankotu in present day Southern Kerala
.
can be attributed in Tolkappiyam. Some scholars feel that influence of Sanskrit texts are more pronounced in Collathikaram. The eight feelings or meyppaadu mentioned in the Porulathikaram seem to agree with the eight rasas or the rasa theory of the Natyashastra.
The relationship between the Tolkappiyam and the various Sanskrit grammatical schools has also been debated. The preface to the Tolkāppiyam says that its author was well versed in aintiram. Burnell takes this to be a reference to the Aindra school of grammar
referred to by other Sanskrit grammarians. He suggests that this was a pre-Pāṇinian school, and argues that the first two books of the Tolkappiyam, the Vedic Pratisakhya
s, a Sanskrit grammar called the Katantra from the 3rd or 4th century, and Kaccayana's Pali
grammar show significant similarities in terms of their organisation and the terminology they use, suggesting that they all belong to the same school. Takahashi, citing the views of Zvelebil
and Vaiyapuri Pillai
, suggests that the Aindra school is a post-Pāṇinian school, of which the Katantra is an example. Rajam argues that these studies are methodologically
flawed and, after re-examining the question in relation to the first book of the Tolkappiyam, comes to the conclusion that whilst the Tolkappiyam does share characteristics with various Sanskrit works indicating a relationship, it also shows dissimilarities which are significant enough to make it unlikely that they share a common source. Instead, she suggests that these are best viewed as individual nodes within a manifold grammatical tradition.
followed. This commentary which can be dated to the 12th or 13th CE, if not later, frequently quotes from the Dandiyalankaram and Yapparunkalam, the former being a standard medieval rhetorica and the latter being a detailed treatise on Tamil prosody. Naccinarkiniyar's commentary, which can be dated to the 14th if not 15-16th century follows. Naccinarkiniyar, himself being a scholar of both Tamil and Sanskrit quotes from Parimelalakar's works. Teyvaccilaiyar's commentary follows in the 16th or 17th century. Finally, the latest available commentary, that of Kallatar comes to light. Of these commentaries, those of "Ilampooranar", "Deivachilaiyaaar" and "Natchinaarkiniyar" is regarded highly and the triumvarate are also called "Urai-asiriyargal".
Nuul Marabu - (the contents of the section) This section enumerates the characters of the language, organises them into consonants, vowels and diacritic symbols. The vowels are sub classified into short and long vowels based on duration of pronunciation. Similarly, the consonants are sub classified into three categories based on the stress.
Mozhi Marabu - (the contents of the section
) This section defines rules which specify where in a word can a letter not occur and which letter can not come after a particular letter. It also describes elision
, which is the reduction in the duration of sound of a phoneme
when preceded by or followed by certain other sounds. The rules are well-defined and unambiguous. They are categorised into 5 classes based on the phoneme which undergoes elision.
PiRappiyal (The content of the section) - This is a section on articulatory phonetics
. It talks about pronunciation methods of the phoneme
s at the level of diaphragm, larynx
, jaws, tongue position, teeth, lips and nose. The visual representation of the letters is also explained.
PuNaRiyal (The content of the section) The structural combination of words. (This section talks about the changes to words due to the following word i.e. it specifies rules that govern the transformations on the last phonem of a word (nilaimozhi iiRu) because of the first phonem of the following word (varumozhi muthal) when used in a sentence.)
Thokai Marabu - Combination of words based on meaning.
Urubiyal - Combination of words with case-ending along with euphony particles. (This section talks about the word modifiers that are added at the end of nouns and pronouns when they are used as an object as opposed to when they are used as subjects.)
Uyir Mayangial - Combination of words with an initial vowel-phonetic upon vowel-ending.
Pulli - Combination of words with an initial consonant-phonetic upon consonant-ending. (Pulli concept is one of the distinguishing feature among the Tamil characters. Although it is not unique and brahmi also has pulli. It is distinguished by placement. According to tolkappiam which talks about pulli and its position, that is on top of the alphabet instead of side as in Brahmi. This is also one of the characteristics of Tamil brahmi according to Mr. Mahadevan. The first inscription of this type of pulli is in Vallam by Pallvas dated 7-8th century AD by Mahendra Varman Pallava.)
KutriyalukarappunaRiyal - Combination of words with an initial vowel-phonetic upon the shortened 'u' vowel-ending.
The chapter Sollathigaaram is subdivided into the following 9 sections - KiLaviyaakkam, VEtRumaiyiyal, VEtrumaimayangial, ViLimaRabu, Peyariyal, Vinaiyiyal, Idaiyiyal, Uriyiyal and the Echchaviyal.
KiLaviyaakkam- KiLaviyaakkam literally translates to word formation. This section deals with syntax correlation between subject and predicate in gender
, number
, person
etc.
VEtRumaiyiyal - Role of case in syntax.
VEtrumaimayangial - some case-suffix denote other case-meaning
ViLimarabu - Formation of vocative case
Peyariyal - This section deals with noun
s.
Vinaiyiyal - This section deals with verb
s.
Idaiyiyal - Partial words of prefix and suffix and their formation in syntax.
Uriyiyal - This literally translates to the nature or science of qualifiers and deals with adjective
s and adverb
s.
Echchaviyal - Other points to be considered in syntax-formation.
AkaththiNaiyiyal - This section defines the modes of personal life i.e. life of couples.
PuRaththiNaiyiyal - This section defines the modes of one's public life.
KaLaviyal - Who and how expose the secret love
KaRpiyal - Behavior of the 'United couples'
PoruLiyal - How the couples expose themselves and how the kin and kith correlate with them.
Meyppaattiyal - Impact of feelings, a psychological views exposed in ancient literatures.
Uvamayiyal - The name Uvamayiyal literally translates to the nature or science of metaphor
s.
SeyyuLiyal - This section deals with a grammar for classical Tamil Poetry based on principles of prosody.
Marabiyal - Hereditary Tamil language
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of the Tamil language
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
and the earliest extant work of Tamil literature
Tamil literature
Tamil literature refers to the literature in the Tamil language. Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution...
. It is written in the form of noorpaa or short formulaic compositions and comprises three books - the Ezhuttadikaram, the Solladikaram and the Poruladikaram. Each of these books is further divided into nine chapters each. While the exact date of the work is not known, based on linguistic and other evidence, it has been dated variously
Date of the Tolkappiyam
The dating of the earliest Tamil grammatical treatise Tolkappiyam has been debated much and it is still imprecise and uncertain and has seen wide disagreements amongst scholars in the field...
between the third century BCE and the 10th century CE. Some modern scholars prefer to date it not as a single entity but in parts or layers. There is also no firm evidence to assign the authorship of this treatise to any one author.
Tolkappiyam, deals with orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
, phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
, semantics
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
, prosody
Prosody (linguistics)
In linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance ; the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of...
and the subject matter of literature. The Tolkāppiyam classifies the Tamil language into sentamil and koduntamil. The former refers to the classical Tamil used almost exclusively in literary works and the latter refers to the dialectal Tamil, spoken by the people in the various regions of ancient Tamilagam.
Tolkappiyam catergorises alphabet into consonants and vowels by analysing the syllables. It grammatises the use of words and syntaxes and moves into higher modes of language analysis. The Tolkāppiyam formulated thirty phonemes and three dependent sounds for Tamil.
Etymology of the name
The name Tolkāppiyam derived from the combination of the two words Tonmai and kāppiyam. Tonmai means ancientness and Kappiam means literature.Derivation of Tolkāppiyam from root words as per the rules defined in Nannūl
Nannul
Nannūl is a work on the grammar of the Tamil language derived from Tolkāppiyam. This was written by Pavananthi Munivar around 13th century....
verse 136.
ஈறு போதல் இடையுகரம் இய்யாதல் ஆதி நீடல் அடியகரம் ஐயாதல் தன்னொற் றிரட்டல் முன்னின்ற மெய்திரிதல் இனமிகல் இனையவும் பண்பிற் கியல்பே நன்னூல் - 136 |
தொன்மை + காப்பியம் "ஈறு போதல்" என்னும் விதிப்படி தொன் தொன் + காப்பியம் "முன்னின்ற மெய்திரிதல்" என்னும் விதிப்படி தொ தொல் + காப்பியம் |
Date
The dating of the earliest TamilTamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
grammatical treatise Tolkappiyam
Tolkappiyam
The Tolkāppiyam is a work on the grammar of the Tamil language and the earliest extant work of Tamil literature. It is written in the form of noorpaa or short formulaic compositions and comprises three books - the Ezhuttadikaram, the Solladikaram and the Poruladikaram. Each of these books is...
has been debated much and it is still imprecise and uncertain and has seen wide disagreements amongst scholars in the field. It has been dated variously between 8000 BCE and 10th CE.
While most of the antediluvian datings which stem mostly from a descriptive commentary in an 8th century work called Iraiyanar AgapporuL, about the existence of three Tamil Academies, which have been rejected as being devoid of any evidence, the genuine disagreements now center around widely divergent dates lying between the third century BCE and 10th CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
. Some modern scholars prefer to date it not as a single entity but in parts or layers which are estimated as written between the third century BCE and the fifth century CE.
Authorship
Not much is known about who the author was or when he lived. Traditionally, it was thought that there could have been only one author but given the fairly long time it seems to have taken for the final redaction of the book to become available, it is reasonable to ascribe the work to multiple authors. Zvelebil speculates that the final redaction may even have been the work of a systematised school of grammar than the work of individuals.Many authors however, ascribe the work to Jaina
Jainism
Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state...
traditions and the earliest of the possibly many authors, who has been identified as Tolkappiyanaar to a heterodox Jaina order. S. Vaiyapuri Pillai has suggested that Tolkappiyanaar may have belonged to a heterodox Jaina grammatical tradition called aintiram(a view which other scholars like Burnell, Takanobu and Zvelebil share) and that he was a native of Tiruvatankotu in present day Southern Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
.
Opinions on the influence of Sanskrit
According to a few scholars, the grammar expounded by the Tolkappiyam owes a great deal to Sanskrit. The influence or relationship of various Sanskrit works like Manavadharmashastra, Arthashastra, Natyashastra and grammarians like Pāṇini and PatanjaliPatañjali
Patañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
can be attributed in Tolkappiyam. Some scholars feel that influence of Sanskrit texts are more pronounced in Collathikaram. The eight feelings or meyppaadu mentioned in the Porulathikaram seem to agree with the eight rasas or the rasa theory of the Natyashastra.
The relationship between the Tolkappiyam and the various Sanskrit grammatical schools has also been debated. The preface to the Tolkāppiyam says that its author was well versed in aintiram. Burnell takes this to be a reference to the Aindra school of grammar
Aindra school of grammar
The Aindra school of Sanskrit grammar is one of the eleven schools of Sanskrit grammar mentioned in Pāṇini's Ashtadhyayi. It is named after Indra in allusion to Lord Indra, the king of Gods in Hindu mythology. Arthur Coke Burnell, a renowned orientologist, in his 1875 book, "On the Aindra school...
referred to by other Sanskrit grammarians. He suggests that this was a pre-Pāṇinian school, and argues that the first two books of the Tolkappiyam, the Vedic Pratisakhya
Pratisakhya
Pratisakhyas, collectively constituting four treatises, are works dealing with the phonetic aspects of the Sanskrit language used in Vedas. These works mainly pertain to euphonic permutation and combination of letters and special characteristics of their pronunciation as they prevailed in various...
s, a Sanskrit grammar called the Katantra from the 3rd or 4th century, and Kaccayana's Pali
Páli
- External links :* *...
grammar show significant similarities in terms of their organisation and the terminology they use, suggesting that they all belong to the same school. Takahashi, citing the views of Zvelebil
Kamil Zvelebil
Kamil Václav Zvelebil was a distinguished Czech scholar in Indian literature and linguistics, notably Tamil, Sanskrit, Dravidian linguistics and literature and philology.- Biography :...
and Vaiyapuri Pillai
Vaiyapuri Pillai
Rao Sahib S. Vaiyapuri Pillai was a renowned scholar and Professor of Tamil. An advocate by profession, he edited and published several Tamil classics from original manuscripts. He is best remembered as the editor of the Tamil lexicon published by the Madras University in the 1920s...
, suggests that the Aindra school is a post-Pāṇinian school, of which the Katantra is an example. Rajam argues that these studies are methodologically
Methodology
Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...
flawed and, after re-examining the question in relation to the first book of the Tolkappiyam, comes to the conclusion that whilst the Tolkappiyam does share characteristics with various Sanskrit works indicating a relationship, it also shows dissimilarities which are significant enough to make it unlikely that they share a common source. Instead, she suggests that these are best viewed as individual nodes within a manifold grammatical tradition.
Commentaries
Starting the 11th-12th CE, several commentaries came to light. Of these, the one by Ilampuranar dated to the 11th or 12th CE is considered one of the best and most comprehensive. This was followed by a commentary dateable to 1275 AD by Senavaraiyar which however, dealt only with the Sollathikaram. A commentary by Perasiriyar which is heavily indebted to the NannūlNannul
Nannūl is a work on the grammar of the Tamil language derived from Tolkāppiyam. This was written by Pavananthi Munivar around 13th century....
followed. This commentary which can be dated to the 12th or 13th CE, if not later, frequently quotes from the Dandiyalankaram and Yapparunkalam, the former being a standard medieval rhetorica and the latter being a detailed treatise on Tamil prosody. Naccinarkiniyar's commentary, which can be dated to the 14th if not 15-16th century follows. Naccinarkiniyar, himself being a scholar of both Tamil and Sanskrit quotes from Parimelalakar's works. Teyvaccilaiyar's commentary follows in the 16th or 17th century. Finally, the latest available commentary, that of Kallatar comes to light. Of these commentaries, those of "Ilampooranar", "Deivachilaiyaaar" and "Natchinaarkiniyar" is regarded highly and the triumvarate are also called "Urai-asiriyargal".
Chapters
The Tolkāppiyam consists of three books each of which is divided into 9 chapters. The books are called atikarams (Sanskrit:adhikara). The three books are- Ezhuththathigaaram - Formation of words and combination of words
- Sollathigaaram - Syntax
- Porulathigaaram - Conveying thoughts.
Ezhuththathigaaram
Ezhuththathigaaram is further subdivided into the following 9 sections - Nuul Marabu, Mozhi Marabu, PiRappiyal, PuNaRiyal, Thokai Marabu, Urubiyal, Uyir Mayangial, PuLLi Mayangial and the KutriyalukarappunaRiyal.Nuul Marabu - (the contents of the section) This section enumerates the characters of the language, organises them into consonants, vowels and diacritic symbols. The vowels are sub classified into short and long vowels based on duration of pronunciation. Similarly, the consonants are sub classified into three categories based on the stress.
Mozhi Marabu - (the contents of the section
Tolkappiyam chapter 1-2
Tolkāppiyam, the earliest available work in Tamil, is divided into three parts each into nine chapters. The first two parts deals with Tamil language and the third with its literature.The very first chapter deals with the arrangement of characters....
) This section defines rules which specify where in a word can a letter not occur and which letter can not come after a particular letter. It also describes elision
Elision
Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...
, which is the reduction in the duration of sound of a phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
when preceded by or followed by certain other sounds. The rules are well-defined and unambiguous. They are categorised into 5 classes based on the phoneme which undergoes elision.
- Kutriyalugaram - the (lip unrounded) vowel sound u
- Kutriyaligaram - the vowel sound i(as the vowel in 'lip')
- Aiykaarakkurukkam - the diphthongDiphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ai - Oukaarakkurukkam - the diphthong au
- Aaythakkurukkam - the special character (aaytham)
PiRappiyal (The content of the section) - This is a section on articulatory phonetics
Articulatory phonetics
The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics. In studying articulation, phoneticians explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological structures....
. It talks about pronunciation methods of the phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s at the level of diaphragm, larynx
Larynx
The larynx , commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the neck of amphibians, reptiles and mammals involved in breathing, sound production, and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. It manipulates pitch and volume...
, jaws, tongue position, teeth, lips and nose. The visual representation of the letters is also explained.
PuNaRiyal (The content of the section) The structural combination of words. (This section talks about the changes to words due to the following word i.e. it specifies rules that govern the transformations on the last phonem of a word (nilaimozhi iiRu) because of the first phonem of the following word (varumozhi muthal) when used in a sentence.)
Thokai Marabu - Combination of words based on meaning.
Urubiyal - Combination of words with case-ending along with euphony particles. (This section talks about the word modifiers that are added at the end of nouns and pronouns when they are used as an object as opposed to when they are used as subjects.)
Uyir Mayangial - Combination of words with an initial vowel-phonetic upon vowel-ending.
Pulli - Combination of words with an initial consonant-phonetic upon consonant-ending. (Pulli concept is one of the distinguishing feature among the Tamil characters. Although it is not unique and brahmi also has pulli. It is distinguished by placement. According to tolkappiam which talks about pulli and its position, that is on top of the alphabet instead of side as in Brahmi. This is also one of the characteristics of Tamil brahmi according to Mr. Mahadevan. The first inscription of this type of pulli is in Vallam by Pallvas dated 7-8th century AD by Mahendra Varman Pallava.)
KutriyalukarappunaRiyal - Combination of words with an initial vowel-phonetic upon the shortened 'u' vowel-ending.
Sollathigaaram
Sollathigaaram deals with words and parts of speech. It classifies Tamil words into four categories - iyar chol (words in common usage, thiri chol (words used in Tamil literature), vada chol (words borrowed from Sanskrit), thisai chol (words borrowed from other languages. There are certain rules to be adhered to in borrowing words from Sanskrit. The borrowed words need to strictly conform to the Tamil phonetic system and be written in the Tamil script.The chapter Sollathigaaram is subdivided into the following 9 sections - KiLaviyaakkam, VEtRumaiyiyal, VEtrumaimayangial, ViLimaRabu, Peyariyal, Vinaiyiyal, Idaiyiyal, Uriyiyal and the Echchaviyal.
KiLaviyaakkam- KiLaviyaakkam literally translates to word formation. This section deals with syntax correlation between subject and predicate in gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
, number
Number
A number is a mathematical object used to count and measure. In mathematics, the definition of number has been extended over the years to include such numbers as zero, negative numbers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and complex numbers....
, person
Person
A person is a human being, or an entity that has certain capacities or attributes strongly associated with being human , for example in a particular moral or legal context...
etc.
VEtRumaiyiyal - Role of case in syntax.
VEtrumaimayangial - some case-suffix denote other case-meaning
ViLimarabu - Formation of vocative case
Peyariyal - This section deals with noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s.
Vinaiyiyal - This section deals with verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s.
Idaiyiyal - Partial words of prefix and suffix and their formation in syntax.
Uriyiyal - This literally translates to the nature or science of qualifiers and deals with adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s and adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
s.
Echchaviyal - Other points to be considered in syntax-formation.
Porulathigaaram
The Porulathigaaram gives the classification of land types, and seasons and defines modes of life for each of the combinations of land types and seasons for different kinds of people. This chapter is subdivided into the following 9 sections - AkaththiNaiyiyal, PuRaththiNaiyiyal, KaLaviyal, KaRpiyal, PoruLiyal, Meyppaattiyal, Uvamayiyal, SeyyuLiyal and the Marabiyal.AkaththiNaiyiyal - This section defines the modes of personal life i.e. life of couples.
PuRaththiNaiyiyal - This section defines the modes of one's public life.
KaLaviyal - Who and how expose the secret love
KaRpiyal - Behavior of the 'United couples'
PoruLiyal - How the couples expose themselves and how the kin and kith correlate with them.
Meyppaattiyal - Impact of feelings, a psychological views exposed in ancient literatures.
Uvamayiyal - The name Uvamayiyal literally translates to the nature or science of metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
s.
SeyyuLiyal - This section deals with a grammar for classical Tamil Poetry based on principles of prosody.
Marabiyal - Hereditary Tamil language