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Tamil language

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PDFVolume 19. Dravidian languages
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Genealogy

Dravidian → Southern Dravidian

Geography

Main country: India (show on the map)

Identifiers

Features

Phonemic structure

[A‑1] Number of degrees of vowel height Three [A‑1‑2]
[A‑2] Vowel height degrees Close, mid and open [A‑2‑3]
[A‑3] Degrees of vowel backness Front, central and back [A‑3‑4]
[A‑4] Number of length degrees Two [A‑4‑2]
[A‑5] Vowel opposition in labialization No vowel opposition in labialization [A‑5‑1]
[A‑6] Vowel opposition in nasalization No vowel opposition in nasalization [A‑6‑1]
[A‑9] Diphthongs and triphthongs Only diphthongs present [A‑9‑2]
[A‑10] Types of diphthongs Falling (descending) [A‑10‑2]
[A‑11] Inventory of obstruents by laryngeal features Opposition by presence and absence of voice [A‑11‑1]
[A‑12] Inventory of obstruents by manner of articulation Plosives and fricatives [A‑12‑1]
[A‑13] Inventory of obstruents by place of articulation Labial, coronal, dorsal and guttural [A‑13‑3]
[A‑14] Inventory of labial obstruents by place of articulation Bilabial and labiodental [A‑14‑2]
[A‑15] Inventory of coronal obstruents by place of articulation Dental and retroflex [A‑15‑8]
[A‑16] Inventory of guttural obstruents by place of articulation Velar [A‑16‑1]
[A‑18] Additional articulatory oppositions of obstruents Absent [A‑18‑1]
[A‑19] Inventory of sonorants by manner of articulation Nasal, liquid, vibrant and glide [A‑19‑6]
[A‑20] Inventory of sonorants by place of articulation Labial, coronal, dorsal and guttural [A‑20‑17]
[A‑21] Additional articulatory oppositions of sonorants Absent [A‑21‑1]

Prosodic phenomena

[B‑1] Stress character Non-phonological [B‑1‑3]
[B‑3] Stress carrier Syllable [B‑3‑1]
[B‑4] Stress fixedness Not fixed [B‑4‑2]
[B‑6] Number of tone levels No tones [B‑6‑4]
[B‑9] Length character Non-phonological and rhythmic [B‑9‑6]
[B‑10] Target of vowel harmony Phoneme [B‑10‑1]
[B‑11] Feature of vowel harmony Height [B‑11‑3]

Syllable

[C‑1] Syllable onset Both null and non-null onset possible [C‑1‑5]
[C‑2] Syllable coda Both null and non-null ocoda possible [C‑2‑5]

Phonologic structure and phenomena

[D‑1] Restrictions on the phonemic structure of segment morphemes in the initial position No consonant clusters [D‑1‑6]
[D‑2] Restrictions on the phonemic structure of segment morphemes in the final position No consonant clusters [D‑2‑7]
[D‑4] Differences between content and function words No differences [D‑4‑1]
[D‑5] Differences between native and borrowed words Differences in phonetic structure and in syllable structure [D‑5‑6]
[D‑6] Differences between roots and affixes Differences in syllable structure [D‑6‑4]
[D‑7] Functional type of alternations Accompanying [D‑7‑2]
[D‑8] Type of altenations Vowel and consonant alternations [D‑8‑6]

Morphological type of language

[E‑1] Type of language by type of morpheme combination in a word Agglutinative [E‑1‑1]
[E‑4] Type of language by degree of morpheme cohesion Synthetic [E‑4‑5]

Nominal classifications

[F‑1] Number of agreement classes Two [F‑1‑2]
[F‑6] Agreement of cardinal numerals in gender Absent [F‑6‑1]
[F‑7] Nouns classifying categories Person/non-person [F‑7‑2]
[F‑8] Opposition by person/non-person Lexical and morphological [F‑8‑4]

Number

[G‑1] Number in nouns Singular and plural [G‑1‑1]
[G‑2] Single number marking Unmarked [G‑2‑2]
[G‑3] Honorific forms in pronouns and verbs Neutral and polite [G‑3‑2]
[G‑4] Agreement in number Predicative [G‑4‑2]
[G‑5] Form of a noun in numeral phrases Singular and plural [G‑5‑3]
[G‑6] Numeral system Decimal [G‑6‑1]

Case meanings

[H‑1] Number of noun cases Three-seven [H‑1‑2]
[H‑2] Subject and object marking Verbal agreement and case affixes [H‑2‑5]
[H‑3] Case of nominal predicate Nominative [H‑3‑4]
[H‑4] Case marking of possessive relations Genitive [H‑4‑1]
[H‑6] Means of expressing spatial relations Noun affixes, adverbs of place, and postpositions [H‑6‑17]
[H‑8] Case marking of animate and inanimate nouns Same [H‑8‑1]
[H‑9] Secondary cases Absent [H‑9‑2]

Verbal categories

[I‑2] Voice stacking in the same verb form Absent [I‑2‑2]
[I‑5] Tense forms Past [I‑5‑1]
[I‑5] Tense forms Present [I‑5‑2]
[I‑5] Tense forms Future [I‑5‑3]
[I‑6] Aspect and tense expression Separate [I‑6‑1]
[I‑7] Expression of tense categories Auxiliary verbs and affixes [I‑7‑3]
[I‑8] Syncretic expression of several verb meanings Person, number, gender, tense, aspect, and modality (mood) [I‑8‑19]
[I‑9] Marking of person in present tense verbs In singular and plural [I‑9‑3]
[I‑10] Transitivity marker Affix and meaningful morphonological alternation [I‑10‑11]

Deictic categories

[J‑1] Pronominal words Pronominal adverbs, adjectives and nouns [J‑1‑10]
[J‑2] Expression of deictic categories Demonstrative pronouns, postpositions and adverbs [J‑2‑17]
[J‑4] Content words expressing spatial orientation of action Pronouns and adverbs [J‑4‑6]
[J‑5] Morphological expression of (in)definiteness Absent [J‑5‑1]
[J‑7] Expression of politeness In verb phrase and in pronouns [J‑7‑6]
[J‑9] Negation marker position Postposition [J‑9‑4]

Parts of speech and inflection

[K‑1] Personal pronouns inflection Case affixes of pronouns are the same as noun case affixes [K‑1‑2]
[K‑2] Article types No articles [K‑2‑1]
[K‑7] Number of conjugation types Three types of conjugation [K‑7‑3]
[K‑8] Verb agreement types Subject [K‑8‑2]
[K‑9] Agreement categories expressed in participle Absent [K‑9‑1]
[K‑10] Tense expressed by participle Present, past and future [K‑10‑10]
[K‑11] Adverb grammar categories Absent [K‑11‑1]
[K‑12] Agreement categories expressed in adjective Absent [K‑12‑1]
[K‑14] Attribute agreement of adjectives Absent [K‑14‑2]
[K‑15] Attributive agreement types No attributive agreement [K‑15‑1]
[K‑16] Inflectional categories of noun Number and case [K‑16‑7]
[K‑17] Cumulative expression of several categories in noun Gender / agreement class, number and case [K‑17‑11]
[K‑18] Inflection means Affixes [K‑18‑2]
[K‑19] Word form model Mainly or only suffixal [K‑19‑4]

Word formation

[L‑2] Derivation affixes Suffixes [L‑2‑2]

Simple sentence

[M‑1] Morphosyntactic alignment Accusative [M‑1‑3]
[M‑2] Word order fixedness Fixed [M‑2‑1]
[M‑3] Dominant word order SOV [M‑3‑2]
[M‑4] Order of nouns and its modifier Modifier precedes noun [M‑4‑1]

Complex sentence

[N‑3] Dependent clause predicate Both finite and non-finite forms possible [N‑3‑3]
[N‑4] Compound sentence types Subordination and compounding [N‑4‑4]
[N‑5] Compound sentence syndesis and asyndeton Both syndesis and asyndeton possible [N‑5‑3]

Unfilled features

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