Naṉṉūl () is a work on
Tamil grammar written by a
Jain ascetic
around 13th century CE.
It is the most significant work on Tamil grammar after
Tolkāppiyam
''Tolkāppiyam'', also romanised as ''Tholkaappiyam'' ( , ''lit.'' "ancient poem"), is the oldest extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. It is the earliest Tamil text mentioning Gods, perhaps linked to ...
.
The work credits
Western Ganga vassal king Seeya Gangan of
Kolar
Kolar may refer to:
Places India
* Kolar, Karnataka, a city in India
**Kolar Assembly constituency
*Kolar district, in Karnataka, India
*Kolar Gold Fields, former gold mines in Karnataka, India
**KGF (disambiguation)
**Kolar Gold Field Assembly co ...
with patronising it.
About 20 commentaries have been written on Nannūl up to 19th century CE.
Nannūl was divided into five sections:
written language
A written language is the representation of a language by means of writing. This involves the use of visual symbols, known as graphemes, to represent linguistic units such as phonemes, syllables, morphemes, or words. However, written language is ...
,
spoken language
A spoken language is a form of communication produced through articulate sounds or, in some cases, through manual gestures, as opposed to written language. Oral or vocal languages are those produced using the vocal tract, whereas sign languages ar ...
,
semantics
Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
, poetic language and
rhetorical device
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device, persuasive device, or stylistic device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a perspective, ...
s. The latter three sections have been lost, so only the parts on written and spoken language are extant today.
In Tamil, ''nal'' means good and ''nūl'' means ''book'', so ''Nannūl'' means ''good book''.
See also
*
Karanthai Pavananthi munivar
References
External links
nannUl of pavaNanti munivar, edited by Dr. T. Malten, Inst. of Indology and Tamil Studies, Univ of Koeln, Germany
Tamil-language literature
{{Dr-lang-stub
Grammar books