நன்னூல்

Naṉṉūl — The Good Book

Pavananti Muṉivar · c. 12th–13th century CE · Classical Tamil Grammar

Four hundred and sixty-two grammatical sūtras — the complete account of the Tamil language by Pavananti Muṉivar, one of the great grammarians of the Tamil tradition. Where every other work in this library is a poem or a hymn, the Naṉṉūl is the grammar that made them possible: the rules of the letters, the words, the sounds. The invisible architecture beneath all of Tamil literature, made visible.

462
Sūtras
2
Books
10
Chapters
நன்
Good
The Two Books
இரண்டு அதிகாரங்கள்

Two pillars of the Tamil language

அதிகாரம் I · Book One · Sūtras 1–131 · 4 Chapters
எழுத்ததிகாரம்
Eḻuttatikāram — The Book of Letters

The study of the Tamil sound-system and writing system: the twelve vowels, eighteen consonants, their classification and order, the phonological rules governing word structure, and the sandhi (puṇarcci) rules of sound combination at word boundaries.

131 sūtras · 4 chapters Letters →
அதிகாரம் II · Book Two · Sūtras 132–462 · 6 Chapters
சொல்லதிகாரம்
Collatikāram — The Book of Words

The comprehensive grammar of Tamil words: nouns and their seven cases, verbs and their three tenses, particles, qualifying words, non-finite verbal forms, and the rules of word formation — the complete morphology and syntax of classical Tamil.

331 sūtras · 6 chapters Words →