Tamil Offshoot Theory

The Tamil offshoot theory and the arguments of its proponents

Proponents of this theory includes Robert Caldwell, P. Govinda Pillai, A.R Raja Raja Varma, P. Sankaran Nambira, and L.V. Ramaswami Iyer. Ulloor's argument is half-way between the Independent Origin Theory and Tamil Offshoot Theory.

Caldwell suggests that Malayalam is an offshoot of Tamil, primarily distinguished by the disuse of personal terminations in verbs and a larger number of Sanskrit derivatives. According to Caldwell, the separation of Malayalam from Tamil likely occurred at a very early period. He illustrates this with the example of the word kiḻakkŭ, which means "beneath" or "downwards" and is used to denote "east," and mēlkku, which means "upwards" and is used to denote "west." These terms, he argues, originated not on the western coast but in the Tamil region. He also added that geographical distinctiveness has vital influence over the language formation of a particular region.

According to the author of Keralapanineeyam, A.R. Raja Raja Varma, the inhabitants of the Malayalam-speaking region, or Malainadu, were originally Tamilians. Their literary language was known as Centamil, while their colloquial language was Kodumtamil, a variety of Tamil (Koduntamil) from which Malayalam is derived. He noted that although Sanskrit has outwardly influenced Malayalam, its core structure remains rooted in Tamil. He also believed that the Dravidians are indigenous to South India and had spread throughout the region before the Aryan invasion. Further according to him, the Kodum Tamil variants of Kuttam, Kudam, Karkka, Venadu and Puzhinadu are transmitted into Malayalam.

In his work, Keralapaniniyam, he states that the dialect of Tamil, Kodumtamil changes into Malayalam due to the following reasons (1) Geographical Peculiarities (2) Cultural differences and Intermingling of Aryan and Dravidian. He also states 6 rules that differentiates between Tamil and Malayalam.

These are 1) Nasaliasation 2) Palatalisation 3) Contraction 4) Abandonment of Personal Termination 5) Retention of Archaic forms 6) Elision of Contraction of letters

Malayalam has reduced the size of some Dravidian roots and suffixes by eliding certain sounds for convenience. This process has altered the forms to the point where they are sometimes unrecognizable, similar to deformities occurring when the head and tail are cut off. As a result, disputes regarding the original forms of some of these words still continue.

Another proponent of this theory is L.V. Ramaswamy Iyer, who, considering written literature, suggests that the morphological features of Malayalam are closely related to Early Middle Tamil. Before diving into the study, he stated that phonology and syntax doesn't fall into the ambit of his study in 'Morphological Evolution of Malayalam'. He makes three concluding points;

• Most of the morphological features are nearest related to those of Early Middle Tamil.

• Many of them are derivable phonetically and historically from Early Middle Tamil.

• A few unique features do exist in Malayalam; and one or two of these may have been archaisms preserved in west coast colloquial.

Ramaswamy Iyer discusses the morphology of Old Tamil in his work "Morphology of the Old Tamil Verb," where he indicates a sharp linguistic cleavage between the language of Sangam works and that of Tamil writers from the 5th century onwards. He terms Sangam Tamil as Old Tamil and the Tamil from the 5th century CE as Middle Tamil. L.V. Iyer believes that the exact beginning of Malayalam is difficult to ascertain and that the common opinion of the 10th century marking the end of this epoch need not be absolute, considering that Malayalam may have developed and popularized its characteristic linguistic features even before the 10th century in the colloquial speech of the west coast. Furthermore, he states that this development was likely not uniform across all areas of Malabar and may have been considered "dignified" usage only from around the 9th or 10th century CE.

Ulloor's perspective on the evolution of Malayalam falls between the Independent Origin theory and the Tamil Offshoot theory.

The Pazhanthamil language underwent an early division into North and South Dravidian branches prior to any contact with Aryans or other Dravidians. The South Dravidian branch developed into a colloquial language with its own distinct characteristics. Literary works originated in the third century B.C., utilizing an artificial mixture of Centamil. The spoken language of South Dravidians exhibited slight dialectical differences between the eastern and western regions of the Western Ghats. Kodum Tamil in Kerala differed from that of the Chola region due to the dominance of Centamil in the latter, leading to the diffusion of Kodumtamil into the supremacy of the Centamil language. However, in Kerala, the South Dravidian language continued to exist thereafter with its own peculiarities.

Ullur S Parameswara Iyer presents arguments to suggest that Malayalam is older than Tamil. According to Tolkappiyam, Sutra 399, the -a ending forms in Malayalam are the older forms. Malayalam retained personal termination, unlike Centamil, which has forms with Personal Termination. Aytam is absent in Pazhantamil but developed in Centamil, similar to the visarga in Sanskrit. Malayalam does not contain Aytam. Words like paḻakiya and aṭakkiya in Malayalam are older than their Tamil counterparts, such as paḻakina and aṭakkina. The suffix -āṇ is present in Pazhantamil and Malayalam but absent in Tamil. In Pazhantamil, the case marker for second person singular is niṉ- while in Middle Tamil, it is uṉ-. Malayalam preserves the older form. Forms in Malayalam like āyi and āvum are older than forms present in Tamil such as āki and ākum. Nasalization and palatalization are not exclusive features of Malayalam but are characteristic of South Dravidian languages predating the origin of Centamil. Malayalam preserves the Proto forms. The augment –attu in words like maḻayattu and nilāvattu are present in Old Tamil as well as Malayalam. There are some archaic forms in Centamil works that may be understood by a Malayali but not by a Tamilian.

These are the arguments that support the Tamil Offshoot Theory. While Ramaswamy Iyer argues that Malayalam has close affinity with Early Middle Tamil, Cadwell, Raja Raja Varma and Ulloor is of the opinion that Malayalam is an offshoot of Old-Tamil.

References

1. A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages,Robert Caldwell, 1856

2. Kerala Panineeyam, A.R. Rajarajavarma, 1917

3. The Evolution of Malayalam Morphoology, L.V Ramaswamy Ayyar, 1936

4. Malayalam History of Literature, Ulloor, 1953

5. The origin of Malayalam Language- The Linguistic theories, Lekha Kumari, 2021 IJCRT | Volume 9, Issue 12 December 2021