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August 11, 2005

Goings and comings in Tamil

A commonly encountered word-related question is: "What is an English word that means the same thing as its opposite?" One commonly cited answer to this question is "cleave", which can mean both to join things together or split them apart in different senses.

As I was talking to my family in Tamil the other day, I realized that Tamil too has such a word. It's not some obscure word like cleave but the very pedestrian varal, "to come" (first person singular present progressive varen, 'I am coming', second person imperative vango, "Come!"). In many situations, the same word, varen, is used in the sense of going as well. The rationale that underpins this strange usage has roots in social customs of politeness. It is customary for a Tamilian taking leave of someone else under normal circumstances not to say "I am going" but to say instead, "I am (leaving now and) returning." To actually say "I am going" indicates that the speaker intends never to return, such as when they don't want future social contact with the audience of the statement. Some superstitious types also believe that by saying "I am going", one portends their own imminent passing from this world.

As it turns out, "I am (leaving now and) returning" is spoken as "I am coming again." It isn't always necessary to include the adverbial modifier 'again'. This results in the somewhat weird situation of someone saying "I am coming" when they actually mean "I am going". It isn't that varal, to come, and its forms semantically entail the senses of both coming and going. In fact, if you were to ask any Tamilian what varal meant, they would say it only means 'to come'. However, out of politeness and social custom, they would use forms of varal when they indicate their desire to leave some place.

That's it for now. I am coming.

Posted by Vishy at August 11, 2005 10:00 PM

Comments

It's the same in Oriya: (/asuchi/ = coming) is used in leave-taking, a practice which puzzled me a lot when I was younger. Perhaps this feature comes free with the Jalebi script!

Posted by: Punya at August 16, 2005 01:56 AM