CHENNAI: Even Tamil teachers in the state might be taken aback if we told them that the origins of the English word ‘free’ could be traced to Tamil. While etymology links it to the Sanskrit root ‘pri’, meaning ‘to love’, a new research project challenges this idea, suggesting that the original root word comes from the Tamil word puri, meaning ‘desire’ — as in Tirukkural, pugazh purindha il which means ‘wife who desires praise’. This revelation is part of what is said to be a potentially path-breaking initiative to explore Tamil’s connections to Indo-European languages, providing a new perspective on the evolution of words.
The Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation (TNTB & ESC) has partnered with the Oxford University Press (OUP) to publish a 12-volume comparative etymological dictionary, which will uncover Tamil’s ancient link to Indo-European languages. Led by Professor G Arasentiran (former head of the department of Tamil, Madras Christian College), the project builds upon the work of renowned English philologist William Skeat, who identified 461 Proto-Indo-European (PIE) roots in his influential work, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language.
“We will trace the sources of more than 300 of the 461 PIE words back to Old Tamil. This will be established through semantics to show how meanings have evolved, as well as through phonetics to demonstrate how sounds have shifted over time. Our dictionary will be published in 12 volumes, with each volume covering nearly 25 roots,” said Arasentiran. He pointed out that renowned philologists like Robert Caldwell and Devaneya Pavanar have already traced the roots of some Sanskrit words back to Tamil.
“For instance, Devaneya Pavanar, a great etymologist, noted that the Tamil word puri transformed into the Sanskrit word ‘pri.’ When I was going through the English etymological dictionary, it struck me that puri must be the root of all these words — free, freedom, Friday etc.,” he said. Similarly, by referencing various sources and applying semantic and phonetic rules, the dictionary will trace these root words back to Tamil, he added.
The project will underscore Tamil’s significance as one of the world’s oldest languages, pushing its antiquity even further back than previously recognised. It will also provide new support for the Nostratic theory, which states that there was a common language between Europe and Asia, as well as the monogenesis theory, arguing a shared linguistic origin for all languages.
Sharmila Guha of OUP said that the ambitious project is expected to be completed in three years. “Indo-European languages are often seen as a distinct language group. With this treatise, we aim to demonstrate Tamil’s connection to the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) proto-language, showing how it has influenced many Indo-European languages. Much of these roots have been traced back to Old Tamil,” she explained.
OUP’s connection to Dravidian languages dates back to the 1960s when Thomas Burrow and Murray B Emeneau published the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, exploring links between Indo-European and all Dravidian languages. “This project goes a step further by focussing exclusively on Tamil. It identifies roots through the Nostratic framework to showcase Tamil’s antiquity that goes further back than what we know now.”
She added, “In India, we often see language hegemony. At OUP, we value linguistic diversity. We have worked with 13 Indian languages and published four dictionaries in Tamil. Ignoring Tamil’s classical significance alongside Sanskrit creates an incomplete picture of India’s linguistic heritage.”
T Sankara Saravanan, joint director (translation) of TNTB & ESC and coordinator of the project, said, “OUP is already our co-publisher for the English translations of Tamil literary works. Given OUP’s expertise in lexicography, we are proud to collaborate with them on this comparative dictionary of Tamil and Indo-European languages.”