Topic started by Tamilan (@ 202.142.94.228) on Sat Jun 23 03:48:37 .
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Tamil is the oldest language in the world.(more than 5000 years)Tamil is the only language in the world which is both classical & western in style.
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- From: x (@ 63.70.255.242)
on: Wed Jul 25 17:06:26
Hi all,
This is totally ridiculous.
First define the word 'BEST'
Best in what ?
1. The number of people to speak
2. The number of vowels and consonants
3. The sounds you have
4. The number of literates in the language
5. The number of literatary documents
6. For music
7. For sweetness
8. For expression
9. For easily adopting into technology
...
and so on
What really qualifies 'Tamil' as the best language? If you take a point from above there is always a number of lanuguages to compete.
I would say, every language has got its own qualities and deficits. You should not be so fanatic about your mother tongue or to any other language.
- From: R.Josephine Celina (@ dialpool-210-214-99-253.maa.sify.net)
on: Mon Aug 13 02:31:57
UNLIKE SO MANY OTHER ANCIENT LANGUAGES,TAMIL IS A LIVING LANGUAGE AND SERVES THE PURPOSE OF LITERATURE AS WELL AS COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVELY.
As I am a Tamil and know NI language also as I had been in North India,I can easily distinguish the greatness of Tamil.I invite the non-Tamils to learn Tamil to taste its sweetness and greatness.To be the best language,one should be simple in the number of vowels and consonents,the formation of words and vast & accurate root words for creating new scientific & other terms.TAMIL FULFILS ALL THESE REQUIREMENTS.
Among all the spoken languages of India, Tamil is the only language that
has literature of more than two thousand years of antiquity.
Tamil, the mother - tongue of the Tamils or Dravidians is a spiritual
language. Because of the spiritual thoughtfulness of the Tamil people, the
Tamil alphabets had been named as ‘Uyir ezhuththu’ -Uyir = life - (Vowels),
‘Mei ezhuththu’ - mei = the body (consonants),
‘Uyir mei ezhuththu’ - Uyir mei = combination of life and body.
By way of naming the Tamil alphabets such as ‘Uyir ezhuthtu’, ‘Mei
ezhuththu’ and ‘Uyir mei ezhuththu’ the Tamils had explained spiritualism
through the means of grammar.
I want to quote:
There are twelve vowels in Tamil consisting of five short vowels, a, i, u, e, and o («, –, ¯, ±, ´); their corresponding five long vowels, aa, ii, uu, ee and oo (¬, ®, °, 2, µ) and two letters ai and au (3, ´Ç) for the prevention of hiatus. There are eighteen consonants made up of six surds k. c, T, t, p, and R (ì, î, ð, ò, ô, ü) and their corresponding six sonants g, j, N, n, m, n2 (í, ï, ñ, ó, õ, ý) and six medials y, r, l, v, z and L ( ö, ÷, ø, ù, ú, û) . The two short vowels e and o (±, ´) which are not in Devanagari are essential to Tamil and other languages of the Dravidian family. There is a world of difference in meaning between the words eTu and ETu (±Î, 2Î); koTu and kOTu (|¸¡Î, §¸¡Î), teL and tEL (|*û, §*û ); as well as koL and kOl (|¸¡û, §¸¡ø). It is therefore, needless to emphasise the importance of short and long vowels like e and ee/E (±, 2); as well as o and O (´, µ ) in Tamil. There are no aspirated consonants like gha or cha in Tamil. Likewise the letter h ( Ý ) is also absent in Tamil. But a corresponding leter k (· ), known as aytam is used to soften the surds in Tamil. The trilled consonant R (ü) is quite different from r (÷).The consonant n (ý ) has a nasal sound and it is different from other dentals. The consonant l ( ø ) is equally essential like that of the consonant L ( û ). These two different l's exist both in Telugu and in Kannada. The consonant z (ú) is found only in Tamil and Malayalam. It had existed in old Kannada but not now. The two vowels ru ( Õ ) and lu ( Ö), which are there in Devanagari, are not there in Tarr.ih The short-nature u (¯) and i ( – ) sounds are in Tamil, but there are no letters to indicate them.
If the letters ka, ca, Ta, ta, pa (¸, º, *, *, À) appear at the beginning of a word, after hard vowel consonants. and after doubling they will be pronounced like surds. In other places they will be pronounced like sonants. Although there are no distinct letters for surds and sonants in Tamil, the vowel consonants themselves are pronounced like surds and sonants depending on the place in which they appear. Therefore the one Tamil consonant ka (k) is pronounced like gha depending upon its placement in a word. Likewise other hard vowel consonants ta (* ), ca (º), Ta (*) and pa (À) are pronounced differently like ( dha, cha, tha, bha) respectively according to the place where they appear in a word. There are no sibilants like sa, sha, Sa in Tamil.
There are distinct letters in Tamil to indicate numerals and fractions. There are evidences to show that the present roman numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 originated from Tamil.
Particles have no meaning of their own but acquire meaning when added to other words and help to differentiate their meanings too. Even meaningless words are regarded as particles.
Most of the words in Tamil are agglutinative in character, i.e. case indicators, time and gender markers are affixed to root words. As a result, the formation of words become clear. Even the words in the classical literature are agglutinative in character. There is no distinction between the roots that were. used in ancient classics and those which are now in vogue. The root word which was used to mean 'food' in ancient classics was una. The one used in medieval period was either uN or uNTi. Whereas the modern word for food is uNavu. In all these words whether ancient, mediaeval or modern, the root word un is clear. Only the suffixes differ. Therefore, the Tamil of ancient poetry too begins to seem familiar after a while if one reads the ancient classical poetry for a time. This is the reason why the Tamils of this century find little difficulty in understanding the Cankam classics. It also accounts for the continuity that exists in Tamil literary growth. One finds it used in the poems of the hymnodists and Kampan, composed in the seventh century and the twelfth century respectively.
There is little difference in syntax between ancient and modern Tamil. Although over a period of time word forms have changed the formation of syntax remains intact in all the Dravidian languages. In this respect there exist similarity between the languages of the South and the North, though they fall under a different category known as Indo-European languages. The fact that syntax changes very little, while other aspects of a language do, is brought out in the similarity one finds in the formation of syntax between the Dravidian languages of the South and the languages of the North of India. This explains why syntactical differences exist between the languages of North India on the one hand and Sanskrit, Greek and Latin on the other; and why there exists similarity between north and south Indian languages. This unity in syntactical formation becomes obvious if one analyses all the four major Dravidian languages of South India. If one analyses the continuos growth of Tamil language the perceivable truth is that there is little change in the formation of syntax both in the classical Tamil and the Tamil used in modern short stories.
I want to present something from the articles I read.
Tamil, the Primary Classical Language
of the World
- G.DEVANEYAN, M.A. (B.O.L.)
The Point in dispute regarding Tamil is that which relates to its place of origin. History is the bedrock and backbone of every art and science, provided it is written by competent hands free from prejudices against and predilection for the subject they deal with. The history of Tamil civilisation and culture has been commenced by the historians at the wrong end so far and so the conclusion has been preposterous.
India proper in the South:
The attempt to find the basic element of Hindu civilisation by a study of Sanskrit and the history of Sanskrit in Upper India is to begin the problem at its worst and most complicated point. India, south of the Vindhyas still continues to be India proper. Here the bulk of the people continue to retain the distinct pre-Aryan social institutions. Even here, the process of Aryanisation has gone too far to make it easy for the historian to distinguish the native warp from the foreign woof. But if there is anywhere any chance of such successful disentanglement it is in the South; and the farther South we go the better are the chances.
"The scientific historian of India then ought to begin his study in the basin of the Krishna, of the Cauvery, of the Vaigai, rather than in the Gangetic Plain, as it has been the fashion so far
Tamil, a Lamurian Language
All the Tamulic (Tamil and Dravidian) languages are confined to India; those who speak Tamil or a Dravidian language as mother tongue on foreign soil are only emigrants.
The hill-tribes that speak Dravidian languages or dialects all over India, are only the descendants of those who once migrated to the hills from the plains for various reasons.
Even within Tamilnad, Tamil improves as we go farther and farther South, and the Tirunelvelian vocabulary and pronounciation are the most copious and tolerably pure respectively.
Of all the highly cultivated or classical languages of the world, Tamil is the simplest in phonology.
The Tamil surds are not exact equivalents of Aryan stop-mutes. They are neither hard as the Aryan surds nor voiced, when single and separate. They become semi-voiced by position, voiced by combination, and hardened as the Aryan stops when doubled. The transliteration system adopted in the Madras University lexicon is unscientific and misguiding. Combinations like nk, ne, nt, nth, mp and mt are quite foreign to Tamil.
The Tamil words found in large numbers in Aryan languages, are only isolated corruptions clearly pointing to their originals in tamil.
There are unmistakable references in ancient Tamil literature to the submerged southern continent, as the original home of the Tamils, and as the land where the first two of the three ancient Tamil acadamies of literary fame existed.
The otter and the black swan frequently described in ancient Tamil poems are said to be found in Tasmania, which once formed a part of Lemuria.
*Tamil, the representative language of the Tamulic family
Tamil is the earliest cultivated language of the Tamulic family.
The period of its cultivation belongs to the pre-historic past.
Tamil best represents the primitive condition of the Tamulic form of speech, by preserving its phonological simplicity and the primitive forms of its roots.
It is the most copious of the family abounding in synonyms.
Evidences as to the original home of the Tamulic race are found only in Tamil.
Time was, when the whole of the Tamulic family was considered to be a single language under the name of Tamil or Dravidan. The Dravidian languages branched off from Tamil subsequently one after another.
Morph(ologically, Tamil was distinguished as the standard dialect while all the Dravidian languages were dubbed deviated dialects, in prechristian times.
Tamil alone is written in the script invented by the forbears of the Tamulic race, while all the Dravidian languages are Aryanised in script.
Tamil is considered to have inherited many of the characteristics of its Lemurian parent, by reason of its area having once been contiguous to the submerged continent the birth place of Homo Tamulica.
*The Tamulic substratum of the north-Indian languages
Here, Hindi is taken as a typical north-Indian language.
Basic Hindi words such as amma (ammai), ho (agu), Ham (am), itna (ittanai), cal (sal-sel), dekh (nokku) and der (neram) are Tamil corrupted or uncorrupted.
Some suffixes and particles are common to Tamil and Hindi.
Eg. a the preterite verbal suffix, and maru or mare an adverbial particle of cause or reason.
Reduplication of words in Hindi fully corresponds with that of words in Tamil.
The order of words in a sentence is the same in Hindi as in Tamil.
There are many Tamil proverbs having their parallels in Hindi.
Glossarial Affinity between Tamil and the west Aryan languages :
Hundreds of basic west Aryan words are undoubtedly Tamil. Here, the word mel is chosen for illustration.
T. Mel (soft or smooth)
T. mel, a (soft); v. tr. to masticate, chew (lit to make soft by masticating) K. mellu
T. melgu v.i. To become soft or tender
T. meli v.i. To become soft or thin to become emaciated: v.tr. to soften, to nasalize, n.nasal
T. melukku n. Tenderness, exquisiteness.
T. mella, mella adv.gently, slowly
Te. mellaga K.mellane
T. melli. n.woman, as of tender nature.
E.mellow. a soft OE melu, melw
GK. melakos, a soft E.melacoderm
E.mild. a gentie; OE milde, OS mildi
OHG milt, ON mildr, Goth milds
L.Mollis, a soft; molluscus, soft bodied animal; mollusca, sub-kingdom of soft bodied animals.
F.mollusque E.mollusc
ME, E mollify make soft. f.F.mollifier
f.L. mollificare.
M.E.E. moil Vi. Drudge OF moillier, moisten.
f. Rom molliare f.L. molles soft
E.melt Vi. and tr. Becom or make soft by liquifying by heat, OE meltan, mieltan, ON melta (digest)
E. molten (melted)
E.smelt Vt. Extract metal from ore by melting
f.MDu or MLG smelten.
E.malt, OE mealt, OS malt
OHG malz, ON malt cog. w-melt
E.malm n.soft chalky rock, ot mealm
cog.w. OS. OHG. melm dust.
ON malmr ore, Goth malma, sand f. mel grind
E.meal OE melu OS, OHG, melo
ON mjol, cog. w.L. molere grind.
E. mill n.Building fitted with machinery for grinding corn,
OE mylen, OS mulin. OHG muli (n)
f, LL. molinum, L. mila, mill
f. (mole) grind.
E.molar, n. Grinder (mammal's back teeth serving to grind) f.L. molaris (mela, millstone).
E.mull (Sc) a.Snuffbox (var of mill) box originally having a grinder.
E.muller, n.Tool used for grinding powders etc. on slab.
M.E.mol, mulour f.mul grind.
E.mullock (Austral) n.Refuse from which gold has been extracted, f.dial mull, dust, rel. to OE mgl dust, MDu mul, mol f. Gme root mul grind ock.
E.multure, n.Toll of grain or flour paid to miller :
M.E.of OF milture, f med L.molitura f.molere. grind.
T.mel>,a smooth, soft K.medu
medu>meduru n. smoothness, softness, mildness, slowness.
Meduru>medugu>merugu n.smoothness, glitter, lustre, polish.
medugu - medukku.n.Boiled rice
medu>mettu - metterevu. Expr.
Signifying (a) being smooth or soft (b) being mild or gentle; (c) being slow; (d) being dull.
mettu>mettai, n.soft bed, cushion, quilt stuffed with cotton.
Te. metta, k.mette
E.Smooth, OE Smooth (once, usu, smethe whence dial smeeth),
Teutonic, the western most Aryan Branch closest to Tamil :
Many of the basic Teutonic words are akin or allied to Tamil.
E.g. ku, kuru - coo; karai - cry, crow, ul, ulai-howl, kanai - neigh.
uraru - roar, piliru - blare;
ella, elta - hallo
tala + attu (to rock) -
talattu talattu - E.lull, lullaby,
Sw. lulla, Du lullan
Sappu - Sup, sip, tur - dine,
Vikku - hiccup, tippu - spit;
in - ean; pirandai - birth
Kuruttu - thrust, mun (nu) - munn(an)
an - you, andu - yond, idal - hider,
edal - whilder, ida - lo;
Many of the Teutonic prefixes and suffixes have affinity with their Tamil equivalents.
Eg. Prefixes.
al (neg) - an - un;
al>a -a
an - on
il - in, il (neg) - in
umbar - ut, uber, ufar, over
Suffixes : nominal - au - au, eu, ou
ar - ar, er, or
Verbal : adu> du -ed >d, et>t
ti - t, as in art (end person sing).
Doubling of single consonant ending a short syllable when combined with the following vowel, is a common feature in English as in Tamil.
Eg. dig - digged; sit - sitting, thin - thinner.
The seat of accent is the first syllable in nominal forms and simple verbs, in the Teutonic languages, as in Tamil.
The Aryan Dual of the noun is not found in Teutonic.
The preterite of the weak verbs in d(love, loved) is peculiar to the Teutonic languages.
Many verbal nouns are formed by lengthening of the root - vowel in English as in Tamil. Eg. Sit - seat, conduct - conduct.
The four forms of each of the three tenses are common to both Tamil and English.
The noun-infinitive can be the subject of a sentence in Tamil also as in English.
Absolute construction of subordinate clauses is present in Tamil also.
The English subtantive verb and many of its auxiliaries are derived from Tamil words.
Eg.iru - are (northern form) is (southern form).
padi> Vadi (to dwell) - Vas (Skt) - was
pu - E be. Skt bhu.
Vil> Vel (to intend) - will.
Progressive corruption of the Aryan languages.
Some Tamil words met with in the west Aryan are not found in the East Aryan. Eg. attan (father), ear, ar (plough).
Sanskrit is not the Vedic language but was evolved out of the dead vedic Aryan and the then regional languages of India called Prakrits which included Tamil and Dravidian. The term Prakrit means 'previously created' and Sanskrit means 'perfectly created', thus the very name Sanskrit suggests its posteriority to the Prakrits in origin. A study of Tolkappiam and Paninis' Astadhyayi shows that Tolkappiam is anterior to Paniniam by 2 or 3 centuries.
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Ancient Sumerian language is believed by the linguistic scholars to be archaic Tamil.
I want to quote from the conversations in Meikandar group
Months in the OLD TESTAMENT
Thanks for the information on the Isralite calender that retains their
Babylonian origins. In fact the Babylonian sciences -agriculture astronomy
etc - were in fact Sumerian, the inventors of agriculture as such and
because of which they started stable setllements that led to the building
of cities etc and hence civilisation as such. Their interest in
agriculture by taming the river by building dams etc also led them to
investigate astronomy to detrmine the various seasons of the year.
The names you for the months or seasons seems to be
SumeroTamil and I propose the following meanings
Nisan: the fall or winter. cf Tamil : nisi as in "nadu nisi: middle of the
night. "nisi" means "night" or "darkeness". May be realted to "nasi"
meaning "to destroy" -- the destruction of daylight?
Iyyar: Prabably derived from "ii" meaning a stream on its own or "ii-aaRu"
a stream with running waters? This may simply mean "the rainy season"
Siwan: This is certainly Tamil Sivan derived from "si" a variant of "su"
from which we have "suur" "suun" 'suul" meaning a very hot and dry spell
where the sun shines intensely with plenty of heat. So probably it means
"summer season", the season of Siva
Tammuz: This is the Akkadian rendering of Sumerian "Dumuzi" the God who
dies and gets resurrected every year, probably an ancient mamathan and
hence time for fertility celebrations. And hence the season for marriage etc.
Ab: this is Sumerian meaning either a cow or a furrow or whole (Ta. aappu).
May be it signifies the season for furoowing the fields and planting the seeds
Elul. This may be a variant of Enlil where "lil" means "wind" and which is
retainted in Tamil as liilai ( Play: mistakenly taken as Sanskrit). may the
season is the season of winds, windy season
Tishri. May a variant of Sumerian "ti-si" or "til-si" meaning full growth.
It may refer to a season where the plants are ready to be harvested.
Markeshwan: Sounds very much like Maheswaran , he who is full of riches.
may it marks the months where the harvest is sold and farmers are rich .
Kisleu: May be a variant of Kis-lu where ir meanings the singers ( gis,
kis: Ta. kiiccu) may be time for offering prayers by way of thanking the
gods for the good harvest etc.
Tebet. May be a variant of Sumerian "ti-bad" i.e "til-padu" meaning
ceasing from active living or toiling. A month of Rest?
Shebat: May be a variant of Sumerian "zi-bad", the cessation of life
force or active living. In Sumerian"zi-zi" means "toiling" "working hard"
and being alert etc. May be the word "sabbath" and English " sabbatical"
are ultimately a variant of this Sumerian term
Adar: Probabaly related to "adu" meaning the Tamil aadu: to dance and
rejoice. may the spring season when the the world of vegaetation wakes up
and dances.
There are just too manythings linking the ancient Isralites to the Sumerian Tamils .
- From: t (@ 202.142.94.228)
on: Tue Aug 28 06:04:55
Anyone who knows more than 10 good languages including tamil will defly agree that tamil is the best lang. there is no wrong in saying the truth.if u know tamil is the best then say it dont afraid as tamils are all over the world knowing lots of langs of their region when comparison to other langs they know tamil is the best.
- From: tamil (@ 202.71.151.21)
on: Wed Sep 5 04:17:41
There is nothing wrong in saying tamil is the best language as 30 million tamils living outside tamil nadu know how good is tamil compared to other languages.
- From: tamil (@ 202.71.151.21)
on: Wed Sep 5 04:32:11
Tamil is def'ly best language in the world.
Only if u know more than 10 good languages to
read write and speak then only you will agree this.
There are many good languges in this world which are unique in their own way but there should be one which is best.
Tamil is the only language which is both classical and western in its style, oldest (more than 5000 years) and highly structered.
In sanskrit language there are many terms like shabdalaalityam, padalaalityam, arthalaalityam........and.....,
which means the combination of words available in a language such that they are best in order (and the way the letters are joined) and meaning which arises from these combinations ......
Put in a simple way...
letters words their meanings & how they are pronounced to produce a speak it all makes a language good to sound....
There are many things which cannot be explained
because for understanding them you need to know many languages. I know more than 10 languages to read write and speak like tulu , konkani, tamil, telugu, kannada, hindi, malayalam,sanskrit, kodava, bengali and also knowledge of chinese and european languages.
According to my knowledge and impartial observation I can say strongly with 100 % confidence after well analysing that Tamil is the best language in the world . Sanskrit is the second best.
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