--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...>
wrote:

> suzmccarth wrote:
> > Okay, early Tamil had 9 independent vowel forms - a, aa, i, ii,

u,

> > uu, e, ee, o. However a/aa, u/uu, and e/ee were differentiated

only

> > by adding a small mark or medial dot for the long vowel. Then the
> > e/ee distinction was lost leaving 8 vowels for 12 centuries.
> >
> > Could this not point to an earlier script with only 4 or 5

vowels,

> > a/aa, (i/ii only dots anyway) u/uu, e/ee, o/oo?
>
> But we know exactly what the earlier script was: Brahmi.

I was actually looking at Brahmi (but the chart said "evolution of
Tamil script") when I described 8 vowels, 4 sets of long and short,
with only a mark to differentiate. The 8 vowels then carried on
into early Tamil with a slight variation. 12 vowels in the 18th
century.

What is the immediate precursor of Brahmi? something with 4 or 5
vowels, I assume.

Suzanne