Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil

The Tamil language has absorbed a large number of Indo-Aryan loanwords ever since the early 1st millenium CE. Michael Witzel mentions that in Tamil, the a lot of words derived from sanskrit are found "disguised" [Of course, the South Asian languages also share a lot of common cultural vocabulary derived from Sanskrit (sometimes effectively disguised by the development of the language in question, especially in Tamil), just as European languages, whether IE, Uralic, Basque or even Turkish sharemany Greek and Latin words of culture and science, and more recently, of technology". see http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/ejvs0501/ejvs0501a.txt] . One of the main sources of Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil is Sanskrit [http://www.southasia.upenn.edu/tamil/abo.html] .

This is an illustrative list of Tamil words of Indo-Aryan origin, classified based on type of borrowing. The words are transliterated according to Harvard-Kyoto system. All words have been referenced with the Madras University Tamil Lexicon, which is used as the most authoritative and standard lexicon by mainstream scholars. [ [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/ Harold Schiffman] in his [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/tamilweb/node17.html official website] says of the Madras University Tamil Lexicon "most comprehensive and authoritative."] [Another source asserting the status of the Madras University Lexicon is [http://davidgodman.org/asaints/kvallalan1.shtml this] page where it is called "still the most comprehensive and authoritative Tamil dictionary."] In the examples below, the first word is from tamil, and its original Indo-Aryan source is placed next.

=Change of final retroflex to dental=

ampala - ambara Madras University Tamil Lexicon]

Loss of simple aspiration

akam - aham

Loss of initial s

amaiyam - samaya [Citation | last=Burrow | first=Thomas | author-link=Thomas Burrow | title=Dravidian Studies VI - The loss of initial c/s in South Dravidian | journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies | volume=12 | issue=1 | year=1947 | pages=132-147 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/608991 at p. 133]

avai - sabhA

Loss of initial complex consonant (retaining initial vowel)

AvaNi - zrAvaNa

Loss of initial complex consonant (introduction of vowel)

idaya - hRdaya

=Loss of voicing=

akati - agati

Loss of voiced aspiration

atikAra - adhikAra
atika - adhika

Tatsama borrowing

aNu - aNu
nIti - nIti

Change in final sibilant to semivowel

AkAya - AkAza

=Change of medial sibilants to stops=

acuttam - azuddha

implification of complex consonants

ilakkaNam - lakSaNa
ilakkiyam - lakSya

plit of complex syllables

akkini - agni (gni to kini, also note loss of voicing)

Others

aracan - rAjan

akankAram - ahaMkAram

akattiya - agastya

akampAvam - ahambhAva

AvaNi - zrAvaNa

ADi - ASADha

Arampam - Arambha

AkAyam - AkAza

kAppiyam - kAvya

kArttikai - kArttika

cuvAcam - zvAsa

cani - zani

cittirai - chitra

putan - budha

pankuni - phalguna

maNi - maNi

manatu - manas

mArkazhi - mArgazIrSa

mAci - mAgha

vaikAci - vaizAkha

References

Notes

Bibliography

*S Vaidyanathan, "Indo-Aryan loanwords in old Tamil", Rajan Publishers (1971), ASIN B0000CQQI3 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/600365]
*Chandran Tucker, "A dictionary of English loan-words in modern Tamil: Contributions towards a modern Tamil-English dictionary ", Biblia Impex (1986), ISBN-10: 8185012148
*R Wallden, "Hidden Indo-European and/or Indo-Aryan "Loanwords" in Old Tamil?", Orientalia Suecana Uppsala 1980, vol. 29, pp. 140-156 - [http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=12315673]

External links

* [http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/tamil-lex/ Madras University Tamil lexicon]