Variations
There are many forms of Brahmin Tamil spoken. While the Tamil spoken by Brahmins vary from place to place influenced by the regional dialect of Tamil used, Brahmin Tamil, in general, is less influenced by regional dialects than the dialects used by other Tamil communities. The two main regional variations are Thanjavur and Palakkad sub-dialects.
The differences between Thanjavur and Palakkad sub-dialects are:
- In the words ending in m and n preceded by a vowel, the vowel is nasalised but the nasal stops themselves are not pronounced except when followed by a word beginning with a vowel in the Thanjavur style. In the Palakkad style the nasal stops in these cases are always pronounced.
- The accent, style and vocabulary of Tamil used by Tamil Brahmins from Palakkad is greatly influenced by Malayalam apart from Sanskrit while the sub-dialects used in Tamil Nadu borrow only from Sanskrit.
The Iyengars, particularly those outside the Tamil region, have a dialect retaining many archaic words from old religious texts like naalaayira dhivya prabandham. For a detailed mapping of words and spoken dialects and standard Tamil, see Wiki reference Iyengar Tamil.
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Famous quotes containing the word variations:
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