The Tamil language has absorbed a large number of Indo-Aryan, Prakrit, Pali and Sanskrit, loanwords ever since the early 1st millennium CE, when the Sangam period Chola kingdoms became influenced by spread of Jainism, Buddhism and early Brahmanism. Many of these loans are obscured by adaptions to Tamil phonology.
Contents
- Change of final retroflex to dental
- Loss of initial s
- Loss of initial complex consonant retaining initial vowel
- Loss of initial complex consonant introduction of vowel
- Loss of voicing
- Loss of voiced aspiration
- Tatsama borrowing
- Change of final sibilant to semivowel
- Change of medial sibilants to stops
- Split of complex syllables
- Others
- References
This is an illustrative list of Tamil words of Indo-Aryan origin, classified based on type of borrowing. The words are transliterated according to IAST 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. In the examples below, the second word is from Tamil, and its original Indo-Aryan source is placed to the left.
Change of final retroflex to dental
Loss of initial s
Loss of initial complex consonant (retaining initial vowel)
Loss of initial complex consonant (introduction of vowel)
Loss of voicing
Loss of voiced aspiration
Tatsama borrowing
Change of final sibilant to semivowel
Change of medial sibilants to stops
Split of complex syllables
Others
References
Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA