Brahmin Tamil/Lesson2

Enga 'our' is a possessive adjective, the final -a is often dropped when followed by a word beginning with a vowel : eng aam 'our house', When something is owned by most members of the family, enga 'our' is used instead of en 'my'. Thus 'my father, my house' is always replaced by 'our father, our house', etc.

In Thanju, words beginning with i- or -e tend to be pronounced as yi- or ye-, beginning with the semivowel or consonant y-, So, in the expression ong aam enge iruku, the m of aam is not pronounced and the aa is nasalised, because enge is pronounced as yenge beginning with the consonant y-. In Paalu e- and i- are pronounced as such, and in any case the final -m and -n are always pronounced as a full nasal consonant.

So the same expression ong aam enge iruku is pronounced differently in the two styles, although written in the same way.

The interrogative particle a (pronounced aa) turns a statement into a question.

The Paalu 2 nd person singular verb ending -aay is replaced by -e when it is followed by the interrogative partiocle a.

The simple present tense form is often equivalent to the simple present or present continuous form of English : padikaren 'I read, I am reading'

The negative form of the verb is obtained by placing the particle lei after the infinitive form of the verb.

The postposition ku / ki : ki occurs after a word ending in -i, -e, -ai or -ei. ku occurs elsewhere.

Vocabulary

Verbs are given in the imperative form. The present, past and future tense bases are given in parentheses.