The Issue of 'ai' (ஐ/அய்) & 'au' (ஒள/அவ்) in Tamil Language and Periyar's Proactiveness

Volume 2, Issue 1 | January 2022 - March 2022

Prof. Dr. Kannabiran Ravishankar (KRS)

Professeur adjoint - Littératures comparée (tamoul), Université de Paris, France

R, Kannabiran. 2022. “1. The Issue of ‘ai’ (ஐ/அய்) & ‘au’ (ஒள/அவ்) in Tamil Language and Periyar's Proactiveness”. Dravida Pozhil – Journal of Dravidian Studies 2 (1):09-30.

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Tamil Script has 12 vowels & 18 consonants, out of which the two vowels ai (ஐ, அய்) & au (ஒள, அவ்) have evoked considerable interest throughout the lengthy history of Tamil language, its People and Heritage. Technically considered as Diphthongs, these two vowels - their phonetics and forms, have been analyzed and discussed at length, both in ancient grammar (tolkāppiyam) and medieval grammar (naṉṉūl). Writing in Tamil language has also evolved continuously over a period of minimum 32 centuries (earliest available written account) across Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka (ilaṅkai) and many other lands throughout the world where the ethnic Tamil People have lived and are living today.

Dravidian Movement - a social justice and cultural renaissance movement which started in the early twentieth century in Tamil Nadu, was spearheaded by an iconic leader, Periyar E.V. Ramasamy. He was also a great publisher of rational literature. In those days of type setting and type blocks for the printing press, Periyar experimented a lot on Tamil language's orthography and came out with bold proposals of script reform, that included the typefaces for the diphthongs ai (ஐ, அய்) & au (ஒள, அவ்). This sparked a huge debate in linguistic circles with many proponents & opponents for the idea. Most of his reforms were later accepted and evolved into modern Unicode standard for Tamil writing in IT systems.

This paper enquires into that evolution and establishes that Periyar did not break any grammatical rules of the Tamil language, his proposals were in fact adhering to the standards of tolkāppiyam, and his usage of அய் & அவ் is consistent with the works of the three Master Poets of Tamil - Valluvar, Ilango & Kamban. Periyar's reforms were so proactive, that we are now able to adapt our ancient system of writing to modern-day Information Technology standard - Unicode, for consistent encoding and representation.

Prof. Dr. Kannabiran Ravishankar (KRS), Professeur adjoint - Littératures comparée (tamoul), Université de Paris, France

Dr. Kannabiran Ravishankar (KRS) is a Researcher and Adjunct Professor at the Paris University. Prior to moving to Europe, he was an adjunct scholar at Columbia University, New York. He received his doctorate in Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley. He focuses primarily in Comparative Linguistics and his specializations are Classical Tamil Literature, Literary & Grammatical History, History of Humanism & Social Justice, and Science in the Language Corpus. KRS is also a full time Investment Banker by profession.

His publications include: Comparative techniques of Drama in Shakespeare & Ilango, Painting Patterns in ThirukkuRaL Concordance and 15 other research papers, with his main thesis being: 'Comparative Studies of Master Poets: Ilango & Kamban' from a Social Justice standpoint. In addition to Tamil, he is well versed in Sanskrit & Indo-European languages and adept in handling both Devotional & Rational Literature. He has also majored in the Sāma Vēda/ Chāndōgya Upanishad.

KRS has translated into Tamil, NASA's Learning Card Project of the James Webb Space Telescope. He has authored the books: 'aRiyapadaatha ThamizhMozhi' (The Unknown Tamil Language), 'What is Tamil?'', 'Humanism & Dravidian Movement - A Success Story' and 'Thamizhaa? Samskrithamaa?' He also serves as the Chief Editor of the Journal of Dravidian Studies - Dravida Pozhil.

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