Indian Antiquary Vol 07

SR No.: 032499
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 386
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 329

NOVEMBER, 1878.]
ELLIS'S ESSAY ON THE MALAYALMA LANGUAGE.
275
Malayalam, Telugu, and probably the Canarese lan- 'the kingdom of Tulu': from Perumbula to guages, of which the third only-tbat on Telagu- Pudupattanam, near Nilêsvaram, the country is had been preserved, having been printed by called Ka pa-rajyam; thence to Kanuêrfi, near Mr. A. D. Campbell in his Telugu Grammar, about Kollam (Qnilon), lies Kêra! a-rajyam; and 1816, with the author's permission.
thence to Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin) MashiI have lately discovered the proof-sheets of the ka-r Ajyam. The Malayala, or more properly the second and third of the above treatises, among some Malayalma, is at present the language of the two papers brought from Madras, which fell into my last provinces. It is spoken likewise in Kapam, hands when examining the books of the College but in this province and in Taļa, which constitute of Fort St. George. Mr. Ellis was the first Prin- the district on which, in recent times, the name of cipal of the Board of Saperintendence of that Kanara has been imposed, the Tulu, a distinct institution, and printed such papers as he published dialect, though of the same derivation as the before his death at the college press. It was Malayalma, prevails among the aborigines, and a among a heap of corrected proofs and manuscript variety of tongues among the Haiga, Konkana, that I discovered these papers when I was a mem- Kannada, Telugu, and other tribes who have long ber of the Board
colonized the country. There is a certain variaThe essay on the Malayalam language seems tion in dialect between the language of Keralam well worthy of preservation, and I beg therefore to and Mushikam, and, indeed, in the several nidus offor it to you for publication in the Antiquary. into which they are divided, but none of sufficient The Telugu Grammar is so rarely met with that importance to reqnire particular notice: in the it is worthy of consideration whether the third latter province affairs of state are conducted in essay may not be reprinted also. I therefore the Tamil language, which is there, consequently, submit it likewise for your opinion.
much more prevalent than in the former. I made many inquiries for the Tamil treatise 1 The Malay & Ima is, like the Kodun-Tamil, which doubtless was the first of the series, but I an immediate dialect of the Sěn-Tamil : it could obtain no tidinge of it. Among the frag. differs from the parent language generally in the manta dinjecta, however, I found two MS. books same manner as the Kodun; it differs from the filled with rough copy of a Treatise on Tami? Pro- Kodun in pronunciation and idiom, but more sody by Mr. Ellis, and abounding in extracts from especially in retaining terms and forms of the the Southern poets, which were probably connected Son-Tamil which in the former are obsolete. with the missing essay. These I showed to the But its most material variation from its cognate lato Rev. T. Brotherton, a distinguished Tamil dialects is that, though deriving from a language scholar, who stated that he thought they would superfluously abounding in verbal forms, its be very useful if published...... We have no verbs are entirely devoid of personal terminaseparate English work," he added, "on Tamil tions, the person being always indicated by the progody, that I am aware of."
pronoun. It is this peculiarity which chiefly conThe difficulty will be to find a competent editor. stitutes the Malayalma a distinct tongue, and The MS. occupies upwards of 100 pages of foolscap
distinguishes it in a peculiar manner from all other in the rough, and is apparently unfinished.
dialects of Tamil origination. (See Note 4, p. 287.) In addition to the enumeration of Mr. Ellis's The Malay alma is written in three different writings given at pp. 220-21 of vol. IV., I should characters, namely the Aryam, the Kolo,uttu, specify his paper, “On the discovery of a modern and the Va t těluttu, or, as it is called in the imitation of the Vedas," in the Asiatic Researches, more southern districts, Malayala Tamil. The vol. XIV. pp. 1ff.
Aryam, a variation of the Grantham, has the WALTER ELLIOT. same number of letters as the Någari, and is
derived intermediately from the Tamil alphabet : DISSERTATION ON THE MALAYÅLMA
in this character all books, whether Sansksit or LANGUAGE
Malayalma, are written, correspondence conductBY THE LATE F. W. ELLIS.
ed, and business transacted. It is considerably The country of Malayalam, lying on the varied in the form and mode of writing.in different west coast of the Indian peninsula, is, according parts of the country: to the south of Calicut it to the Kéralátpatti, divided into four Khandam or is written square and distinct, and then, with the provinces. The most northern, commencing at exception of a few characters, approaches nearer Gökarnam and extending southward to Perum- to the Grantham: as written to the north of bula, near Mangalore, is called Tu!u-rajyam, Calicut, however, its variation from its primitive
"I shall be happy to place these papers at the disposal of any Tamil scholar who will undertake to edit and publish them within a given time.