Stephanie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow, I take back how simple it looked! lol
> Amazingly complex. What I find interesting is the
> spiritual significance of it all. It's like the
> language is a religion unto itself. Would the
> comparative hardness of a consonant be the reason
> why it is the body and the softer vowel the soul?

no, i think vowel gives the soul to any consonent, it makes the consonent to become a proper letter for a proper word... k as such is nothing, but it becomes, ka or ki when a or i is added to it. k is not a proper letter (it takes half a second to say any consonent and is not a full letter by itself), but ka or ki are proper letters.


> I am guessing here but would a uyirmei be a
> combination of a consonant and a vowel?


yes, it is the combination of the body and the soul.



and, the consonents (and corresponding uyirmei) are grouped into three categories depending on their hardness(as you mentioned hardness of it, i remembered this bit),

vallinam - hard group group
idaiyinam - mediam-soft group
mellinam - soft group

ka, cha, da, tha, pa, ra - vallinam
ya, ra, la, va, la, la - (three las and two ras - idaiyinam
gna (pronounced through nose lol.), nga, na, ma, na, (there are two nas) - mellinam


>It'd be
> rather symbolic if that were the case because it
> would be a combination of body and soul--the
> balance of the two.
>
> In english, I have no clue of why we have rules
> like "i before e except after c" and so on. If
> there are any old reasons why our word formats are
> there, they certainly aren't being taught to us in
> regular schooling. Intriguing stuff, Prema. From
> what I understand, the Navajo language is about as
> complex as this. The different sounds all of
> their own meaning. A word can be simply
> translated for ease but the greater definition of
> the word usually has more of an explanation to it.
>
>

also, Tamil words and names always have a meaning, and it has to have a meaning. I think there is a name to such languages..

for example doormat... it has a meaning. but the word chair has no meaning. names of towns all have meanings....

Cheers
Prema