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Words ending in Sonorants, Liquids and Glides
In LT, words may not end in a consonant, but they may end in sonorants of various sorts, liquids and rhotics, and glides such as ² y. In ST, words that in LT end in liquids such as § l and ª l usually double the liquid consonant if it is a monosyllabic word with a short vowel, or delete it in final position if it is polysyllabic. If monosyllabic but with a long vowel, epenthetic Ë u is added. In some dialects, the liquid is deleted.But many of these `deleted' consonants then reappear if something is added, especially since ª l is often used in pronouns of various sorts, and as a PNG marker on verbs; cf. below.<UL> <LI> LT ¼Õ§ nil `stand' --> ST ¼Õ§è nillu <LI> LT Ȫ aal `man' --> ST Èë aalu <LI> LT´ª kal `toddy' --> ST ´ªë kallu <LI> LT ¼Ôª naal `day' --> ST ¼Ôë naalu or ¼Ô naa (in some dialects).
<LI> LT ¼Öõ´ª niingkal `you pl.' --> ST ¼Öõ´ niinga <LI> LT ¿§ vayal `field' --> ST ¿è vayalu
<LI> LT ÂÔ¶§ vaacal `gate, door' --> ST ÂÔ¶è vaasalu
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The variability of deletion or non-deletion of final laterals is perhaps greater than any other consonant-final situation in Tamil; no other final consonants display this amount of variation. One other kind of change seen in some dialects is that ª l is simply replaced by § l across the board. This model of neutralization is dispreferred in ST, so we will not give examples of it. It is, however, a pedagogical problem wherever Tamil literacy is taught, since some speakers simply have no contrast in their dialects.
Harold_F.Schiffman