Much of Tamil grammar is extensively described in the oldest available grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam (dated between 300 BCE and 300 CE). Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th century grammar Naṉṉūl, which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam with some modifications.
Parts of Tamil grammar Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu, sol, poruḷ, yāppu and aṇi. Of these, the last two are mostly applicable in poetry. The following table gives additional information about these parts.
Eḻuttu (writing) defines and describes the letters of the Tamil alphabet and their classification. It describes the nature of phonemes and their changes with respect to different conditions and locations in the text. Sol defines the types of the words based on their meaning and the origin. It defines the gender, number, cases, tenses, classes, harmony etc. This chapter also provides rules for compounding the words. Porul defines the contents of poetry. It gives guidance on which topic to choose for poetry based on certain conditions like the nature of the land or time or the people. It gives a distinction between Agam (internal / love life) and Puram (external / worldly life). Yāppu defines rules for composing Traditional poetry. It defines the basic building block Asai and describes how asai should be joined to form a sīr, joining sīr for an adi. Aṇi defines techniques used for comparing, praising and criticizing the taken topics.
Letters The script of Tamil Language consists of 247 letters. The script falls under the category Abugida, in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as a unit. The grammar classifies the letters into two major categories.
Prime Letters – முதலெழுத்து mutaleḻuttu Dependent Letters – சார்பெழுத்து sārpeḻuttu
Prime letters 12 vowels and 18 consonants are classified as the prime letters.
The vowels (உயிரெழுத்துகள் uyireḻuttukaḷ): அ (a), ஆ (ā), இ (i), ஈ( ī), உ (u), ஊ (ū), எ (e), ஏ (ē), ஐ (ai), ஒ (o), ஓ (ō), ஔ (au) The consonants (மெய்யெழுத்துகள் meyyeḻuttukaḷ): க், ங், ச், ஞ், ட், ண், த், ந், ப், ம், ய், ர், ல், வ், ழ், ள், ற், ன் The vowels are called uyir, meaning soul, in Tamil. The consonants are known as mey, meaning body. When the alphasyllabary is formed, the letter shall be taking the form of the consonants, that is the body, and the sound shall be that of the corresponding vowel, that is the soul. The vowels are categorized based on the length, as short (kuril) and long(nedil). The short vowels are pronounced for a duration 1 unit, while the long vowels take two units. Based on the duration of the sound, the vowels form 5 pairs. The other two vowels ஐ(ai) and ஔ(au) are diphthongs formed by joining the letters அ(a)+இ(i) and அ(a)+உ(u). Since these two are a combination two short letters, their pronunciation takes 2 units of time, that is they fall under nedil category. ஐ(ai) and ஔ(au) can also be spelt அய் and அவ். This form is known as eḻuttuppōli and is generally not recommended. The consonants are categorised into three groups, வல்லினம் valliṉam (hard), மெல்லினம் melliṉam (soft) and இடையினம் iṭaiyiṉam (medium), based on the nature of the sound. வல்லினம் are various non-nasal consonants, மெல்லினம் are the nasal versions of the corresponding வல்லினம் consonant, and இடையினம் are other non-nasal consonants. Most often, when there is a nasal sound preceding a வல்லினம் consonant, it is the corresponding மெல்லினம் consonant of the said வல்லினம் consonant.
From the 30 prime letters, the dependent letters are formed.
Dependent letters Tamil grammar defines 10 categories of Dependent letters.
Alphasyllabic letters உயிர்மெய் எழுத்து uyirmey eḻuttu Aidam ஆய்த எழுத்து āyta eḻuttu Elongated vowel உயிரளபெடை uyiraḷapeṭai Elongated consonant ஒற்றளபெடை oṟṟaḷapeṭai Shortened u குற்றியலுகரம் kuṟṟiyalukaram Shortened i குற்றியலிகரம் kuṟṟiyalikaram Shortened ai ஐகாரக் குறுக்கம் aikārak kuṟukkam Shortened au ஔகாரக் குறுக்கம் aukārak kuṟukkam Shortened m மகரக்குறுக்கம் makarakkuṟukkam Shortened Aidam ஆய்தக்குறுக்கம் āytakkuṟukkam The alphasyllabic letters – 216 in total – are formed by combining the consonants and the vowels. The duration of the sound is that of the vowel attached to the consonant (or the inherent vowel, in case of the pure consonants). For example, the table below shows the formation of க் based letters.
Aidam is also known as தனிநிலை taṉinilai (stand alone). The aidam is always preceded by a single short letter (தனிக்குறில் taṉikkuṟil) and followed by a hard alphasyllabic letter (வல்லின உயிர்மெய் valliṉa uyirmey). It takes half unit time for pronunciation. Uyiraḷapeṭai (உயிரளபெடை) and Oṟṟaḷapeṭai (ஒற்றளபெடை) are formed by elongating the duration of pronunciation of a letter to satisfy certain grammatical rules while composing poetry. In Uyiralapetai, the intrinsic vowel of the letter that is elongated is written next to it, to indicate that the letter now is pronounced for 3 units of time. In Kutriyalukaram, the duration of the short 'u' letters of vallinam category (கு, சு, டு, து, பு, று) is reduced to half units, when the letter is found at the end of the word, preceded by multiple letters or a single nedil(long) letter. If a word with kutriyalikaram is followed by a word with 'ய'(ya) as the first letter, the u sound is corrupted to i sound and takes a half unit of time for pronunciation. In Aikarakurukkam and Aukarakurukkam, the duration of the letters ஐ and ஔ are reduced to 1 1/2 units if they are the first letters of the word. If situated elsewhere it is reduced to 1 unit.
Vanjiyar In Tamil, a single letter standing alone or multiple letters combined form a word. Tamil is an agglutinative language – words consist of a lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes. These can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person, number, mood, tense, etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination, which can lead to long words with a large number of suffixes, which would require several words or a sentence in English. To give an example, the word pōkamuṭiyātavarkaḷukkāka (போகமுடியாதவர்களுக்காக) means "for the sake of those who cannot go", and consists of the following morphemes:
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