cleansing tamil

by MaxEntropy_Man Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:29 pm

in the other thread, bw asked about the origins of the movement to 'cleanse' tamil. i mistakenly dated it to the DK movement of the 50s and 60s. although that gave it impetus, the movement is much older.

i had forgotten about the role of maraimalai adigaL. the anti-hindi agitation may have given impetus to this movement, but it had its origins in the late nineteenth century. when it started, it was called the thani thamizh iyakkam.

here is a brief history: http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft5199n9v7&chunk.id=s1.4.18&toc.id=ch4&brand=ucpress

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:33 pm

Actually this cleansing business has backfired BIG time. except for the news the quantum of English words in normal tamil usage is more than 50%. just watch ANY reality TV program on any Tamil channel.

by Guest Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:35 pm

Maraimalai Adigal was an ass. He was a junior contemporary of the greatest modern tamil poet Subramanya Bharati. While Bharati would freely use words of Sanskrit origin in his tamil writings, Adigal made efforts to purge Sanskrit origin words in tamil by deliberately not using such words in his writings even if they were commonly used words and using some synonym of non-Sanskrit origin instead even if said synonym was esoteric and not commonly in use. These kind of efforts to purge a language of commonly used words inevitably end up in failure.

by Kris Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:37 pm

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:Actually this cleansing business has backfired BIG time. except for the news the quantum of English words in normal tamil usage is more than 50%. just watch ANY reality TV program on any Tamil channel.

>>>50%? A new slogan comes to mind: 'English is okay, Sanskrit -no way!' Smile

by bw Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:39 pm

thanks. i did think that this 'vadamozhi' removal happened much earlier than the 60s political thing. since my parents never lived in TN until after the 80s, this was never discussed at home and i guess i was never exposed to it.

by MaxEntropy_Man Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:41 pm

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:Actually this cleansing business has backfired BIG time.

i agree. i think cleansing sanskrit words out would really rob us of so much literature. in fact any piece of post-sangam literature, and probably even parts of sangam literature. not to mention what is being cleansed could well have gone the other way to begin with.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:44 pm

Kris wrote:
Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:Actually this cleansing business has backfired BIG time. except for the news the quantum of English words in normal tamil usage is more than 50%. just watch ANY reality TV program on any Tamil channel.

>>>50%? A new slogan comes to mind: 'English is okay, Sanskrit -no way!'

Ashamed of you for not using Tamil. Let me rewrite in Tamil:

"English-na ok...anaa Sanskrit - no way"

by Kayalvizhi Mon Jul 28, 2014 10:18 am

As Max pointed out, Pure Tamil movement predates DK.

Actually DK and DMK did not stand for pure Tamil as such. Not only EVR, Annadurai also mixed Sanskrit in writings and speeches althogh he "supported" pure Tamil.

Karunanidhi uses Sanskrit words even today. His screenplays of Manohara has fair amount of sanskrit words. I do not blame him for his name. His parents gave it. He chose not to change it as Nedunjchezhian and Anbazhagan did. Use of pure Tamil depends on the individual in DMK.

The one who popularized it among Tamil nationalists is Poet Perunjsiththiranar. He publishec 3 magazines (all in pure Tamil), PMK's Ramadoss is a pure Tamil supporter. His Makkal Tholai Katchi (People's TV) anchors use pure Tamil. Very pleasant to hear.
I use pure Tamil always. This actuaaly induced others to do so too. In college, some miscreants used to make fun (they are not anti-Tamil but just no good to nothing jokers).

Initially they used pure Tamil words (some they coined themselves and good) talking to me and sometimes even others as joke. Soon they caught on and started using pure Tamil more and more. There were many students who avoided Sanskrit and English words as much as possible. Soon notices in the hostel appeared in pure Tamil.
Be an example to others. Use Tamil.

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