Denominal Adjectives

Tamil can make adjectives from nouns by various processes. One is to take the OBLIQUE form of nouns (those that have them) and prepose it to the noun being modified:

• ¾À£ maram `wood, tree' --> ¾À¢â marattu `wooden' + ؾ׶ meese `table' --> ¾À¢â ؾ׶ `wooden table'.

• ÂÖà viidu `house' --> ÂÖ¥à viittu + ´ÔÀ¨ kaaran `one who does s.t.' --> ÂÖ¥à´ÔÀ¨ viittukaaran `landlord; husband'

Other nouns can be prefixed to nouns to form new nouns:

• ×½Ôýá ponnu `girl' + ½Õª×Ä pillai `child' --> ×½Ô£½Õª×Ä pombille `female, woman; girl'.

• äöÓ»´£ pustaham `book' + ¼ÕÙÁ¿£ nilayam `place' --> äöÓ»´¼ÕÙÁ¿£ pustahanilayam `library'.
• ãÚ§ nuul `book' + Ç´£ aham `home' --> ãÚÁ´£ nuulaham `library, bookstore'.

Note that in the examples above, the last one ãÚÁ´£ nuulaham has superceded the previous one as the `official' word for a library; its component parts were not in use in ST, but were borrowed from older forms of LT.