Brahmin Tamil/Lesson3

The word rendu 'two' has the forms rend aavadhu (Thanju) and rend aamadhu (Paalu) as the ordinal numerical pronouns (neuter gender).

The corresponding numerical adjectives are respectively rend aavadhu and rend aamathu.

The word paian 'boy', plural paszanga(hl), is preferred in Thanju and the word puhllei 'boy', plural puhlleiahl, is preferred in Paalu.

The expressions mun aale (Thanju) and min aale (Paalu) both mean 'before' (in time) and 'in front, forward' (in space).

The future tense base often serves as a noun, as in padi 'to read, srudy' and padipu 'reading, studies'.

The word aakum, variously translatable as 'indeed, of course, etc.' is more often used in Paalu and very rarely in Thanju.

Examples :

Aar aakum adhu ? 'Who could it be ?' (This meaning results while trying to guess 'who it is'). It could mean 'Who the hell is it ?' (This is the meaning when a person is annoyed by the interference). Naan aakum chonnen 'It is I who said it'. Enge aakum poonaa ? 'where indeed did they go ?' or 'Can you guess where they went ?' The plural ending could be -kahl, -gahl, -hahl or  (y)ahl depending upon the phonetic context. The future tense form of the verb is used often to refer to habitual actions of the past sometimes extending into the present:

Avaa varuvaa 'they will come, they used to come', irukum 'there generally is'.

The particle a or aa is often placed after a noun to convert it into an adverb.

Vocabulary

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

Nouns and pronouns are given in their ordinary (nominative) form followed in parentheses by the oblique form and, separated by a semicolon, by the attributive form.