The Tamil language of Dravidian family has absorbed many loanwords from Indo-Aryan family, predominantly from Prakrit, Pali and Sanskrit, ever since the early 1st millennium CE, when the Sangam period Chola kingdoms became influenced by spread of Jainism, Buddhism and early Hinduism. Many of these loans are obscured by adaptions to Tamil phonology.Michael Witzel
There are many words that are cognates in Sanskrit and Tamil, in both tatsama and tadbhava forms. This is an illustrative list of Tamil words of Indo-Aryan origin, classified based on type of borrowing. The words are transliterated according to IAST system. All words have been referenced with the Madras University Tamil Lexicon, which is used as the most authoritative and standard lexicon by mainstream scholars.Harold Schiffman in his official website says of the Madras University Tamil Lexicon "most comprehensive and authoritative."Another source asserting the status of the Madras University Lexicon is this page where it is called "still the most comprehensive and authoritative Tamil dictionary." In the examples below, the second word is from Tamil, and its original Indo-Aryan source is placed to the left.
Change of final retroflex to dental
ambara - ampalaMadras University Tamil Lexicon
Loss of initial s
samayaṃ - amaiyam at p. 133 sabhā - avai
Loss of initial complex consonant (retaining initial vowel)
śṛavaṇa - Āvaṇi (also note loss of initial complex consonant Śr)
Loss of initial complex consonant (introduction of vowel)
ḥṛdaya - itaya (also loss of voicing)
Loss of voicing
agati - akati
Loss of voiced aspiration
adhikāra - atikāra adhika - atika
Tatsama borrowing
aṇu - aṇu nīti - nīti
Change of final sibilant to semivowel
Ākāśa - Ākāya
Change of medial sibilants to stops
aśuddha - acutta
Split of complex syllables
agni - akkini (gni to kini, also note loss of voicing)
Others
ahaṃkāram - akankāram (anger, arrogance, self-love)wiktionary:%E0%AE%85%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%99%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D#Tamil agastya - akattiya ahambhāva - akampāvam Āṣāḍha - Āḍi Ārambha - Ārampam kāvya - kāppiyam kārttika - kārttikai śvāsa - cuvācam śani - cani chitra - cittirai budha - putan phalguna - pankuni manas - manatu mārgaśīrSa - mārkazhi (month name: mid-December to mid-January) māgha - māci vaiśākha - vaikāci
References
Notes
Bibliography
S Vaidyanathan, Indo-Aryan loanwords in old Tamil, Rajan Publishers (1971), ASIN B0000CQQI3 Chandran Tucker, A dictionary of English loan-words in modern Tamil: Contributions towards a modern Tamil-English dictionary , Biblia Impex (1986), R Wallden, Hidden Indo-European and/or Indo-Aryan "Loanwords" in Old Tamil?, Orientalia Suecana Uppsala 1980, vol. 29, pp. 140–156 -
External links Madras University Tamil lexicon