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மறைமலையம் 16
Greening Lamborn says, "He knew, for example, that the excess of sibilants in English is a source of hissing, and he carefully went through his work to rid it of this element - he called it “kicking the geese out of the boat." So the remarkable absence of all hard hiss- ing and unnatural sounds from Tamil constitutes it a melodious, poetic language in its very build. Discerning this marked excel- lence of Tamil, the ancients kept Tamil absolutely pure and were very careful in preventing the entry of extraneous elements into it, as almost all the foreign languages including Sanskrit are made up of harsh and hissing sounds. This wariness on the part of the Tamils, this habit or resisting unwelcome foreign influence is so persistent in them that, though what was a desirable and progressive element once has now become an undesirable and unprogressive one, it yet constitutes an important factor in keeping Tamil still alive and pure among the greater portion of their community.
But recently certain Tamil scholars who have come under the influence of brahmins express it as their opinion, may even as their conviction, that a large introduction of Sanskrit words and phrases together with a number of English words and others, would enrich Tamil and keep it abreast of the needs of modern times. Indeed this suggestion must be quite welcome to all well-wishers of Tamil, if it would really enrich it. But, infact, the intrusion of foreign words instead of enriching Tamil, impoverishes it by mak- ing its own words fall into disuse one after another, in proportion to the former gain in currency. Even such pure household Tamil words as nilam, neer, neruppu, Katru, Vanam, unavu, oil, pahal, nila, iravu, talai, mooku, adi, an, erudu, enam, payan, eruchhal, aram, vinai, uyir, mahan, mahal, kadavul, niniaivu, nool, seyyul and many more which respectively mean in English earth, water, fire, air, sky, food, light, sun, moon, night, head, nose, foot, cow, bull, vessel, use, an- ger, virtue, action, soul, son, daughter, God, memory, treatise, stanza etc., are slowly disappearing from the speech of the high caste people, before the Sanscrit words bhumi, jalam, agni, vayu, akka, anna, prakasa, surya, chandra, ratri, ciras, nasika, padam, pacu, rishaba, patram, prayojanam, kopa, dharma, karms, jiva, putra, putri, Iswara, jnapaaka, sastram, kavita etc, which are usurping their place
