Arabic is Semitic language and Tamil a Dravidian language. Both belong to two different linguistic families and the two speech communities live in non-contiguous geographical areas. However, Arab traders had been visiting Kerala and Tamil Nadu to sell horses, among other things and the Greek coins unearthed by the archaeologists might have been brought to Tamil Nadu by the Arab traders because the Greek drachmas and denarii were the basis of foreign exchange. This business intermingling might have led to interlinguistic influences at the spoken level.
The most intimate personal pronoun is I. In Arabic, ‘ana’ stands for ‘I’; in spoken Tamil, it is ‘na’. When the initial unstressed vowel is omitted, the process of omission is called ‘aphesis’. So, it appears that the Tamil ‘Na’ is the aphetised form of Arabic ‘ana’. How is it that the Arabs and Tamils selected the alveolar nasal |n| as the basic consonant to describe themselves?
The most beloved object of devotion and glorification and spontaneous eulogy is God. In Arabic, God is ‘Rabb’. In the first instalment of the Quranic revelation, God is described as ‘Rabb’. In Punjabi, it becomes Rabba. In spoken Tamil, God is ‘Iraiva’. It is not difficult to see howRabb is indigenised as ‘Iraiva’ ‘þ¨ÈÅ¡’, According to the rules of word-formation in Tamil, |r| |á| cannot be the initial phoneme. Therefore, a process known as prosthesis is adopted and |i| is introduced as the first letter. Now, we have |ir|. |Ra| of Arabic is changed to |Rai| in Tamil as the second ‘Ga’ ‘¸¡’ of ‘Ganga’ is changed into ‘Gai’‘¨¸’likeGangai‘¸í¨¸’. Now, we have ‘Irai! ‘Ba’ of ‘Rabba’ is changed into ‘va’ ‘Å¡’ in Tamil, just as the bi-labial plosive |b| of Bengal is changed into the labio-dental fricative ‘v’. In this way, Rabb or Rabba ‘ÃôÀ¡’ is changed into ‘Iraiva’þ¨ÈÅ¡. How is it that the Tamils and the Arabs remember God by using almost the same and similar consonants? ‘R’ is the common consonant and ‘b’ and ‘v’ are quote akin to each other. I hope this is not mere speculation.
The most comfortable place for rest, relaxation, mental peace is home. Arabs use ‘bait’ and the‘t’ in Arabic is not the same as the voiceless alveolar plosive or stop |t| of English. Arabic is not familiar with this phoneme and has a more dentalised version like the |t| of Tamizh as it is spoken. In Tamil, home is ‘Veedu’ ‘ţΒ |b| of Arabic has become |v| in Tamil as in the previous example given. |t| of Arabic has become |d| in Tamil and both phonemes are alveolar. The nucleus is |i| in ‘veedu’ ‘ţΒ and |ai| in ‘bait’ and this change in vowel is not unnatural. How is it that the Arabs and Tamils have an identical morphology in the words they select to describe their shelter?
To reach one’s home, a street is necessary. In Tamil the street is called ‘Salai’ ‘º¡¨Ä’ and in Arabic it is ‘Sharai’. |s| for |sh| and |l| for |r| are the only changesmade in Tamil. |s| is alveolar and |sh| is palato – alveolar. As they are similar fricatives, one can be substituted for the other. ‘|sh| in Hebrew becomes |s| in Arabic. Shalome’ of Hebrew is ‘Salam’ of Arabic. |aa| of Arabic is invariably |o| in Hebrew. |Elo| of Hebrew for ‘God’is ‘Ilah’ of Arabic. Eloi in Eloi, eloi lama sabachthani is ‘My God’.|l| and |r| are both frictionless continuants. How is it that both Tamils and Arabs pass through the same way to reach their precious homes?
When a Tamilian wants to inquire he has a simple way. He adds |a| to a noun. Teachera|ËîºÃ¡?| in Tamil means ‘Are you a teacher? ‘It is as simple as that. What does an Arab do? He also uses |a| as in the word ‘China’. But the difference is that he uses it not as a final morpheme but as an initial morpheme. What intonation does in English is what this morpheme does in Tamil and Arabic. How come both the speech communities employ the morphene for the same purpose though its syntactic position may differ from language to language?
The word ‘Surah’ is well-known to the readers of the Quran. .Moulana Abdul MajidDaryabadi of respected memory says that the word means ‘Height’ and another meaning is ‘A wall of a fortification’. ‘Suwar’ in Tamil means ‘a wall’or an enclosing structure. Allah warns us not to prostrate before or surrender to ‘Hawaa’. This Arabic word is not dissimilar to the Tamil word ‘Awaa’. In Tamil, the initial ’h’ is omitted. For example, Hasthinapuram is invariably pronounced and written as Asthinapuram. These two words – Surah and Hawaa- have philosophical connotations. At this level too, Arabic and Tamil have affinity.
The Tamilians are justly proud of the phoneme |zh| |ழ |in their script. Similarly Arabs are proud of a phoneme which the International Phonetic Association denotes as |d| with a dot below it. The Arabs describe themselves as Ahluzzad or as a speech community in proud possession of this phoneme|ض|. The similarity of approach adopted by these two speech communities towards a particular phoneme is food for thought. What is more surprising is the similarity in transcribing the two phonemes. The grapheme for |zh| |ழ |in Tamil is known to all. It has an upper part and a lower part. What Arabic does is it stresses the right partof the Tamil phoneme and collapses it to produce this phoneme|ض|.The phonemes which the two speech communities are proud of are written in almost the same way.
Many of the letters in the Arabic and Tamil alphabets have a close relationship. Arabic is written from right to left and this obliges Arabic to accept the right part of the Tamil letters. |அ|in Tamil has a vertical line towards the right. Arabic adopts the vertical line and rejects the rest of the letter to denote | أأa|. The phoneme |À| |b| in Tamil is written as two vertical lines with a horizontal line connecting them at the base. What Arabic does is that it retains the shape of the letter but modifies it by reducing the length of the vertical lines and broadening the base a little. It is interesting to note that both Arabs and Tamils pronounce ‘Pakistan’ as ‘Bakistan’ in the spoken version of their languages. In Tamil, ‘thoothar’தூதர் is written. The second ‘tha’த is pronounced differently from the first ‘tha’. The phoneme of the second ‘tha’ is written in Arabic asد whichis similar tothe right part of the letter which moves from right to left. The rest of the letter is omitted in Arabic. The same thing happens for|ர| r forம |m|. The part in |r| written from right to left is adopted in Arabic to represent the same phoneme and the rest is rejected. The right part of |ம|is accepted as م in Arabic. Tamil |l| Ä can be divided into two parts. The right half is retained to represent |l| in Arabic and the retained part is lengthened a bit to represent |ل |in Arabic. |
Not all Arabic letters resemble Tamil letters but where they resemble, they resemble in parts only. That is to say that Arabic opts for shorter and simpler versions of the selected Tamil letters, in keeping with its kharosti style of writing from right to left.
Tamil-speaking Muslim scholars have developed a script in Arabic to produce Tamil morphemes. They call it Arab Tamil. It is in this script that Friday sermons are delivered in the mosques situated in the coastal areas of the southern parts of Tamil Nadu.
We are given to understand that the Tamil classic Thirukkural has now been translated into Arabic. It will be a good idea if a concerted effort is made to translate other Tamil classics too are translated in Arabic
Research is needed to study the linguistic links between Arabic and Tamil at the levels of the morphemes and syntax because there is more to the links than meets the eye.