Roots

Ran into the online version of കേരള പാണിനീയം. Especially the one on roots.

Check it out!

The origin of God

In an earlier post, we looked at some of words meaning God. Let's dig in a bit deeper.

Most of the current words seem to be derived from Sanskrit.

For example, ദൈവം, ഈശ്വരന്‍ , ഭഗവാന്‍ etc. comes from the Sankrit roots.

There is an "older" word for God - ആണ്ടവന്‍ This word does not appear in Gundert's, but a related word does. അണ്ടര്‍ - meaning god. Gundert gives two origins:

• അണ്ഡം (universe) -> അണ്ടം -> അണ്ടര്‍
• അണ്ണ (above) -> അണ്ട -> അണ്ടര്‍
  

Given that this is such an old word, I subscribe more to the second etymology. (അണ്ണ is the same root from which we have അണ്ണന്‍ - elder brother)

I also noticed an interesting connection with another word അണ്ട (young bamboo shoot). Gundert says it comes from ആണ്‍ + തൈ = അണ്ടൈ -> അണ്ട by means of some neat ആദേശസന്ധി. I think this will be a deep, male-centric, etymology for the god-word as well: God is the "Male Shoot" or the male form - the പുരുഷന്‍ - of the godhead.

But somehow this interpretation seems very forced. If there is a word for the the male form, there should be a word for the female form as well - and I don't know of any. Also, the etymology given by Gundert indicates a non-sexist God - especially with the -അര്‍ suffix, as opposed to the -അന്‍ suffix.

Interestingly, one of the tamil words for God is ഇറൈ which also means "above".

Hybrid words

I vaguely recall hearing an (unwritten) rule in mallu says that one should not combine Sanskrit and Tamil roots in the same words. So one would say കല്പലക as opposed to കല്ഫലകം; പൂമെത്ത as opposed to പുഷ്പമെത്ത; ജന്മദിനം as opposed to പിറവിദിനം.

But we do have common words that seem to violate this rule:
കണ്മണി, കണ്മഷി, കാര്‍മേഘം Each of these words is formed from a Tamil and Sanskrit root; and I cannot think of a common alternative that is either pure Tamil or pure Sanskrit.

Which makes me think that the "rule" that I am recalling may not be correct. Or, maybe there are well-defined exceptions to the rule.

What do you think?

Bad words!

All right! It's time for some 'bad' words :-)

The other day I noticed an interesting pattern in the etymology of words denoting bad.

ചീത്ത sounds very related to ചീയുക - to decay
അഴുക്കു comes from അഴുകുക - to decay
കെട്ട comes from കേടാകുക - to go bad, e.g. milk

So, it seems, that originally bad meant not fit for consumption.

A case against വ്യ

The other day, I noticed the following wrong etymology in a Yoga book (written by a western lady) - that "pranayama = prana + yama = breath + control". Actually, പ്രാണ + യമ = പ്രാണയമ and not പ്രാണായാമ. To get the latter, the word needs to be split as പ്രാണ + ആയാമ, or stretching of breath.

A related word is വ്യായാമം = വി + ആയാമം = cross-stretching. So exercise was orginally cross stretching.

The prefix വി (cross, against) appears in a lot of common mallu words mostly disguised as വ്യ (വി + അ) , as seen in the following:

വ്യതിയാനം, difference or variation, is വി + അതി + യാനം, "to overshoot against (a set mark, probably)"

വ്യഗ്രം, eager, is വി + അഗ്രം, "up against the edge"

വ്യാഖ്യാനം, explanation, is വി + ആഖ്യാനം, "cross explain"

Of course, there is another prefix വി, which is an intensifier which appears in വിജ്ഞാനം, വിശുദ്ധം, etc.

സൌമ്യത

[Sorry for the long hiatus. Had been on an India trip.]

What is the etymology of സൌമ്യത?

Here is my explanation: സൌമ്യത comes from സുമത , or the quality of being a flower (സുമം). Obviously, someone who has സൌമ്യത will be meek like a flower.

What do you think?

ചേന നന നാനാരേ

For my previous post, I got a comment that asked about rules for pronouncing ന.
Now, I don't really know of any rules so I thought why not try to derive some. Looking at some some of the words that have ന or ന്‍, I came up with the heuristics:

• When it begins a word, ന is pronounced Na. e.g. നിലാവ്, നുള്ളി, നൃപന്‍, നെടുകേ
• When it occurs as a simple letter (i.e. a non-compund letter), it is pronounced na. e.g. കനല്‍, കനി, മനുഷ്യന്‍, അങ്ങനെ,
• When it occurs as the chillu (ന്‍) it is always pronounced n

These heuristics seem to work even for complex cases like നാനാനനന്‍ (Naanaananan - ബ്രഹ്മാവ്‌).

The heuristics for complex letters don't seem as simple. Let us look at some examples:

• തിന്നുക is nnu, തിന്നു is NNu
• പന്ന is nna, പന്നി is NNi
• നിമ്നം is na, നഗ്നം is Na

So, there doesn't seem to be a rule.

I am tempted to say that words of Sanskrit origin use na whereas Na is used only in words of Tamil origin. But this also doesn't explain the Tamil words with pronunciation of na.