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One of the most complex of the
Tamil aspectual verb is Ø´Ô koo, derived from the lexical verb
×´Ôª kol- which means `hold, contain'. In LT lexical ×´Ôª
kol occurs usually with neuter subjects, i.e. sentences in which
some thing holds or contains some thing, not some one. Lexical
×´Ôª koo does occur as an AVP with verbs of motion Ø½Ô poo `go'
and ÂÔ vaa `come', and the combination ×´ÔýàØ½Ô kondupoo and ×´ÔýàÂÔ konduvaa mean `take (something)' (i.e.
`hold and go') and `bring (something)' (i.e. `hold and come') respectively.
Since lexical ×´Ôª kol is a class I verb, with present ÞØŨ
koreen,The short /o/ in many forms of this morpheme is actually
phonetically [ '025
], i.e. ÞØŨ koreen is [k '025
r
],
etc. past ´Õ¥Ø¹¨ kitteen, and future ×´Ôب
koveen, these are also the forms for aspectual Ø´Ô koo. Its AVP is
´Õ¥à kittu. The phonology of the spoken form of this AV is
much more different from its LT counterpart than could be predicted by regular
historical or morphophonemic rules, and moreover varies tremendously from
dialect to dialect; in some dialects there is a present form ´ÕàØŨ
kidreen and infinitive ´Õ¹ kida that are back-formations
from the past ´Õ¥à kittu.The extreme variability
of the phonology of this AV bespeaks a radical departure of some sort that are
one of the symptoms of the process of grammaticalization.
Vasu Renganathan
Sat Nov 2 21:16:08 EST 1996