Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Why only Tamil deserves classical language status

I am a student of the study of languages and the views expressed here are based on research done till date. My research shows:

1. Prakrit is older than Sanskrit.
The etymology proves this. The prefix 'pra' means natural, crude (in a positive manner meaning natural but not unrefined), first, original. Therefore prakrit means 'that, which was created or formed first; naturally formed). The prefix 'sam' means composite, refined (meaning evolved but not superior), by a process of amalgamation. Therefore samskrit means 'that, which was created by a process of evolution and refinement'. Therefore Prakrits are not 'apabhramsha' variants of Sanskrit.

2. Tamil shows Prakrit characteristics
Tamil is the only language in India that does not have distinct voiceless, voiceless-aspirate, voiced and voiced-aspirate sound variants under the consonants (velar/gutturals, palatals, retroflex/cerebrals, dentals and labials). The proper pronounciation depends on the location of the consonant in a word. This indicates that when Tamil as a language was created, the primitive (archaic but not uncultured) tongue had its limitations in phonetics.

3. Tamil is closer to the Harappan language, which is older than Sanskrit
The Russian scholar Yuri Knorozov, who is known for his decisive contributions to the decipherment of the Mayan script opined that the Harappan symbols represent a logosyllabic script with a Dravidian language as the linguistic base.

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