Tamil words in English

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

At 10:14 AM 2/6/98 -0600, N.Ganesan writes:
>Re: Tamil words in English
>***************************
>
>In Tamil, naRu means smell. Like in naRu malar = flower with a good smell.
>nARRam = smell.
>
>Prior to 10th century or so, nARRam meant only good smell.
>Compare the Srivaishnava Woman Saint Andal's song:
>karppUram nARumO? kamalap pU nARumO?. Here it definitely
>means good smell.
>
> nARRaGkAy or nARaGkaay means an unripened fruit with a unique smell.
>Nowadays, it is called nArttaGkAy or nArattaGkAy or nAraGkAy
>in spoken language.
>
>Webster's dictionary derives Orange from a Dravidian origin
>via Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Old Provencal, French and finally,
>middle English. See S. Kichenassamy's Indology posting
>on 13 oct 1995.
>
>I am sure:
>nARRaGkAy -> nAraGkAy ... -> Orange
>
>N. Ganesan
>
>PS:
>A. K. Ramanujan once told me Koel is from tamil kuyil.
>He uses the word Koel in his translations from Tamil too.
>
>

Saying that all these words are from Tamil only may not be correct.
For example Koel can be from telugu "koyila". Telugu word is much
closer than "kuyil". Similarly

English       Telugu

copra         kobbari
teak          tEku
coolie        kulI
anicut        Anakatta
cash            kAcu

What I see from the postings on this list from my tamil friends is
that they forget that there are three MAJOR, well developed
dravidian languages besides tamil in South India. Telugu at that time
known as "Gentoo" was extensively used by European and East India
company people. The borrowings cannot be only from tamil will be
a more reasonable position. But then.....

regards,

sarma.