தொல்காப்பிய இளமைப் பெயர்களும், கம்பரின் ’குழந்தை’ என்ற சொற்படைப்பும்

Nouns for childhood in Tholkaapiam and Kambar’s authoring of the word “kuzhandhai”

Abstract

Language is the assemblage of words. Language is the general term we use, to refer an organised collection of words. When referring to a language as an ancient language, it would also mean that words constituting the language are also ancient. Thus, “Thamizh”, a preeminent language, acknowledged as an ancient language constitutes words of ancient origin. “Thamizh” words commonly used by people in conversations are referred as of common words and those used by scholars in literature are poetic words. However, there are, in “Thamizh”, innumerable poetic words, which gained popularity and usage among the people and have been deemed common words. One such word is “kuzhandhai”. “kuzhandhai” is a noun meaning child. It is the purpose of this paper to research and present with validation, when and in which period this word originated in literature, who started the usage and the nouns which were used in literature prior to it to denote a child and as to how the word “kuzhandhai” was handled in literature subsequent to its origin.