DYNAMISM IN TAMIL DIGLOSSIC CONINTUUM

Central Institute of Classical Tamil, Chennai & Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. National Seminar on Tamil Dialects through Ages. 9-11th Jam. 2013. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - DYNAMISM IN TAMIL DIGLOSSIC CONINTUUM Dr . S. Arokianathan Pondicherry (Mobile: +91 944 32 149 62) The well established Tamil diglossic system has both spoken and written media for the two varieties of Tamil namely the High variety and the low variety. The High variety which is mostly used for literary activities and in writings ranges from archaic literary style to modern literary style. The style variations within this range of High variety involve selection of various lexical items, grammatical forms and syntactic structures. The Low variety refers mostly to the spoken form of the language and this variety is also written in many informal domains. However the written style of the Low variety stands nearer towards the spoken style of the modern Literary style whereas the spoken style of the Low variety stands as the extreme point in the range of styles available within the Low variety. Thus the High and the Low varieties of Tamil diglossia have a range of styles confining to the domains in which they are used and which depends on the content of the discourse and the relationship of the hearer with reference to the speaker. It is understood that during the Sangam period the high variety is confined to literary activities both in written and spoken media even though one doesn’t have any direct evidence for the use of High variety in spoken media. The writings found in the inscriptions after Sangam period may refer to the Spoken variety in written media. But one cannot produce any record in that earlier period for the spoken variety in spoken media. The existence of the two varieties in complimentary domains of use is well established and the gap between the two varieties seems to be much wider at all levels such as selection of lexical items, manner of pronunciation, use of certain grammatical forms and syntactic structures. But around Bhakthi period in 6t h Century, the literary works especially the religious rhymes were written for memorizing and for repeated recitation for a much wider group besides literary readers. Therefore the language style of Bhakthi literatures was little simple and was more comprehensive when compared to the archaic literary style of the Sangam period. Thus the High variety used for literary activities during Bhakthi period came little nearer towards the Low variety of Tamil. The rigid and high level code of writing Epic literature have been very much diluted after 10t h century during the period of minor literatures which is known as “siRRilakkiya kaalam”. Further the literary content of certain minor literatures such as kuravanji and, PaLLu refers to the working class people and therefore the language style for these type of literatures used isoglosses of spoken variety of the working class for ‘realism’ in the content. Thus one could see spoken forms gaining literary acceptance during these period. There are evidences for the presence of spoken forms in literature since Tolkappiam. But in Kuravanji and PaLLu literatures one can see even grammatical forms besides lexical items of Spoken variety. In a similar manner, the writing style of the spoken variety as found in palm leaves and in stones was without any short and long vowel differences and without any diacritic marker for the end of a sentence. There are also graphemic variations such as using ‘யி’ /yi/ instead of “இ’ /i/. Sometimes, the prose style of this spoken variety also had rhymes and alliterations similar to poetry* . But the inscription prose style has lexical items and grammatical forms of Spoken variety. Earlier to the arrival of the Europeans though the prose variety of Tamil did not have any literary status, the prose style used in literature was almost that of poetic style without any rigid constraint of poetic metre. Silapathikaram, one of the major epics of Sangam period is referred as “uraiyiTaiyiTTa paaTTuTaic ceyyuL” since there are many ‘u rai peRu kaTTurai’ portions in this epic One could see archaic lexical items and grammatical forms in them. Scholars mention this prose style of writing belongs to ‘akaval’ metre of poetry though it is referred as prose form (Paramasivanantham, A. Mu. Tamil Prose Style)1 . The European missionaries soon after their arrival from 15t h century were engaged in religious propagation. They identified the downtrodden poor working class among caste wise organized Tamil society as their target group for their religious conversion. The working class group was mostly uneducated and thus they remained as speakers of Low variety of Tamil and as passive listeners of High variety with minimum comprehension. The Europeans found the two varieties of Tamil as very distinct and as two different forms of communication where the knowledge of one variety will not help to understand easily the other one. The European missionaries understood the need to gain confidence of the local target group for their successful religious conversion through sufficient knowledge of the spoken variety of Tamil. As the High variety of Tamil remained as an ‘out source’ one even for the local uneducated target group, the European missionaries concentrated in learning the Spoken variety of Tamil. Further it became an utmost importance task to the European Tamil scholars to identify the language style that need to be used in Christian religious books such as Prayers books, Catechism books, Mass prayers etc for the use of new converts. The European missionaries knew very well that the prose style of their mother tongue has literary status from the beginning and it is used in religious writings. Further as the uneducated new converts have mastery only in the Low variety of Tamil for all of thei r linguistic activities, the European missionaries also chose the spoken variety for writing religious literature. The learning of spoken variety was much easier and of immediate need for day t o day conversations for the European missionaries. Sanskrit lexical items such as ‘pujai, suvaami, teepaaraatane, arcane, viratam’, were used in Tamil in religious domains at that time. Therefore the European missionaries also did not hesitate to use Sanskrit lexical items such as ‘pitaa, sutan, sarveesvaran, njaanasnaanam, sorkam, paavam, kiirtti, raacciyam’, etc in their religious writings besides few Latin and portugese words for certain technical terms such as ‘kompaseeri’ Confession, ‘paasukku’ Pasca, ‘saakkiramentu’ Sacrement, ‘kiraasai’ Grace, etc 2 . The y also introduced diacritic marks such as coma, semi colon, full stop, etc. in prose style of writing based on their native experience. Thu s the European missionaries chose a prose style based on the spoken variety of the Tamil language for their religious activities . Further this is the prose style encouraged by the European missionaries in their local schools. The prose style of writing is available continuously in inscriptions , palm leaves, manuscripts, etc through ages. The writings system underwent many changes from stone carvings to printing in paper. There were also changes in selection of lexical items, grammatical forms and use of non native words from Sanskrit, English, Portugese, etc. Many temple manuscripts, government records, panjayat writings are also available in Tamil. One could also notice in 18t h century the influence of French in Tamil language i n Anandaranga Pillai’s Diary, Muthu Vijayathiruvenkatam Pillai’s Diary, etc. This may be considered as representing the written form of the spoken dialect of Pondicherry at that time3 . There are also records of Marathi period with Marathi influence in Tamil language. Though prose writings in non literary domains have existed continuously withstanding many changes it remained alway s representing the Spoken variety in written media. One could also notice the influence of the written media in the writte n representation of this spoken variety. Contrary to this, there was a prose style in Sangam period used in literary domain which is very much similar to the archaic poetry style. The High variety of Tamil includes this prose style and th e poetry and represents the High variety of Tamil of Sangam period . This prose style of High variety of Tamil has undergone change s through ages as seen in Irayanar KaLaviyal urai, grammatica l commentaries of 9t h century, etc.4 The prose style of writing introduced by the European missionaries is contrary to the prose style prevalent in Tamil literature. The earlier prose style is closer to the written Tamil High variety with literary standard where as the Prose style introduced by the European missionaries is closer to (the written form of) the Low variety of Tamil i.e. the spoken variety. The novel type of literary genre and Tamil journals developed the prose style introduced by the Europeans having standardized it with out any dialect markers and spoken forms. The prose style has gained independent literary status in writings of short stories, novels, etc. after 16t h century. I n other words, the spoken variety attempts to extend its domain to literary activities. Thus one can see the gap between the hig h variety and Low variety of Tamil diglossia coming little nearer to each other from that of the Bhakthi period. After Bhakthi period the influence of Sanskrit was very high to such an extent to mention that Tamil language cannot exist by itsel f without Sanskrit. Grammarians like Subramania Diktshita r (Prayooka Viveekam), Vaithiyanatha Desigar (Ilakkana ViLakkam), Swaminatha Desigar (IlakkaNakkottu), etc. were in support of the thought that Tamil language is an offshoot of Sanskrit and further Tamil cannot exist without Sanskrit. The maNipravala style of prose which had a temporary literary status through religious support could not sustain its literary status as anti Sanskrit attitude in the form of pure Tamil movement became prevalent in socio political arena. Therefore the writings in Low variety as found in short stories, novels, etc. were standardized closer to the written variety in spoken media. Further the upcoming of the Dravidian movement around independence period has brought back the past glory of the Sangam age and created a social honour and prestige in the use of literary variety i n platform speeches and in ornate prose writings. One must note that though the Dravidian movement popularized the greatness of the Sangam period, yet they adopted a variety for their prose writing s which was syntactically closer to (spoken form of the) High variety and lexically closer to (written form of the) Low variety. The anti- Hindi movement and the pure Tamil movement along wit h the raising of Dravidian party in Political domain gave great thrust to take pride in knowing the ancient Tamil literatures and the ancient glory. However the knowledge of English commanded prestige in the society with economic benefits. Therefore the influence of English occurred against the annihilation of Hindi/ Sanskrit language influence in Tamil language. Thus the gap between the high variety and the Low variety of Tami l diglossia remained widened and the domains of the use of High variety in formal speech and writings also got enlarged to som e extent during 1950s around the period of independence. The increase of bilinguals due to the spread of education in post independence period, the popularity of free verse poetry in seventies and the application of different types of “isms” in literar y studies have brought closer the written Tamil variety to the Spoken variety of Tamil. Further the spoken variety of Tamil was introduced in literary writings for realism for example in Dalit writings, free verse poems, etc. Thus the gap between the high and the low varieties of Tamil got narrowed to some extent along with the acceptance of literary status to spoken variety. The gap between the two varieties of Tamil diglossia has undergone many shifts by the widening and narrowing of the gap through Ages. Now one could see the changes in the choice of lexical items and grammatical forms by narrowing the gap between the two varieties and also one could notice the exclusive domains of use earmarked earlier for each variety has been changed by accepting the spoken variety in certain literary domains against protests from traditional Tamil Pandits. However the diglossic situation in Tamil exists continuously though but not stable in it s exclusive use of linguistic forms and in the complimentar y distribution of domains of use. Thus the diglossic situation in Tamil remains as a continuum fluctuating at various levels depending o n the selection of lexical items, grammatical forms, structural patterns, etc. and ranging from one extreme of the spoken form of the spoken variety called as Low variety to the other extreme of written form of the archaic literary variety called as High variety appropriate to the domain in which it is used. ---------------------------------------