Abstract
IT IS SUSPECTED by M. B. Emeneau (Lang. 21. 189) that the distinction in meaning: ta 'give to lst or 2nd person' and kotu 'give to 3rd person' i. ' inconsistently carried through in literary Tamil a.s a survival, perhaps, of a thoroughgoing difEerence in early Tamil or in pre-Tamil.' Indigenous Tamil grammars confirm his suspicions. Tolkappiyam, which perhaps dates back to the centuries immediately preceding the beginning of the Christian era and deals with many presumably preTamil features (not represented in the estant Old Tamil texts) lays down the following rules in the f rst chapter of the morphological and syntactic division of the work known as Collatikaram:
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
