--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...>
wrote:
> I am thinking of K. Paramasivan (he made us call him K.P., and
even in
> his publications he never spelled out his first name), who called
my
> language "Yinglish" and was a friend to "yeveryone." He was the
first
> Tamil-speaker I knew (we started at Chicago at the same time), and
I
> subsequently heard the same phenomenon in other Tamil-speakers.

I had never noticed that but will look out for it now. I am no
phonologist but the pure vowel, any vowel, as initial syllable is
very common in written Tamil and Cree.

> --
> Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...