TAMIḺMOḺI ILAKKAṆAC CIṞAPPUKAḶ ŌR ĀYVU [NUANCES OF GRAMMAR IN TAMIL LANGUAGE]

There is no book that states the grammatical attribute of tamizh literature more elegantly than Tolkāppiyam. Tolkāppiyam is one of the oldest Tamil literature which was written in the third century by Tolkāppiyar. Tolkāppiyar divided Tolkāppiyam into three chapters: letters (Eḻuttu), word (Col), and meaning (Poruḷ). The first chapter is letters (Eḻuttu). The noun (Eḻuttu) is made out of the verb (ezhu). Even though the word ezhu can come with various meanings, in this case it indicates something that has taken shape. Tolkāppiyar has divided the grammar of letters into two different types: The First (Muthal) and The Dependant (Charpu). The First type letters can be divided into two more types which are vowels (Uyir) and consonants (Mei). The vowels (Uyir eḻuttu) also can be divided into two types called (kuril) which produce short sounds and (nedil) which produce long sounds. The consonants have their own types, which are (Valliṉam), (Melliṉam) and (Iṭaiyiṉam). Valliṉam letters produce hard sound while melliṉam consonants produce soft sound and iṭaiyiṉam consonants produce medium sound. Moving on from the The First letters type, The Dependant type letters can be divided in three types: (Kuṟṟiyalukaram), (Kuṟṟiyalikaram), (Āyutam). Besides Tolkāppiyar, Agathiyar also have described the grammar of tamizh literature very precisely. Agathiyam which written by Agathiyar describes grammatical features of letters (Eḻuttu), word (Col), meaning (Poruḷ), consecration (Yaappu), team (Ani).