“Rare words” in classical Tamil literature: from the Uriyiyal to the Tivākaram
“Rare words” in classical Tamil literature: from the Uriyiyal to the Tivākaram

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the organisation of the Uriyiyal, which is the 8th chapter inside the 2nd book of the Tolkāppiyam, the most ancient Tamil grammatical work preserved. That chapter, because it provides (approximate) synonyms for 120 “unfrequent words”, many of them polysemic, represents the earliest lexicographical attempt in Tamil. Those 120 words all belong to the category of uriccol, a residual lexical category, examined by the Tolkāppiyam once the nouns (peyarccol), the verbs (viṉaiccol) and the particles (iṭaiccol) have been dealt with in earlier chapters. The final section of the article examines the posterity of the Uriyiyal, which becomes a marginal section in grammatical literature, but finds its full development in the different scholarly landscape which is created with the composition of thesauri such as the Tivākaram and its successors.

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