EXPLANATION OF
THE SIGNS USED IN THIS BOOK.
The apostrophe (’)—distinguishable from an ordinary comma by be-
ing (like the apostrophe) always above the line—shews that the vowel
preceding it belongs to the following word; the vowel of the preceding
word has generally in this case been omitted.
Example: അതിന്നി’ല്ല = അതിന്ന്’ ഇല്ല. for അതിന്നു ഇല്ല. Hence ’ is the
sign of Elision.
The mark (‘)— an inverted comma shews that a letter has been
prefixed for euphonic purposes to the following word.
Eample: ‘പ്പോക‘യില്ല = പോക ഇല്ല; പ being doubled, and യ prefixed
to ഇല്ല in accordance with the rules of Sandhi. Hence ‘ is the sign
of Augmentation.
The hyphen (-) is used, 1st to join the members of compound
words; and 2nd to connect a ശബ്ദന്യൂനം with the noun which completes
it. (N. B. it is not intended hereby to assert that a ശബ്ദന്യൂനം and
its completion form only one compound word).
The remaining marks are the ordinary signs of punctuation.
Certain words of very common occurrence are not separated from
the preceding word.
These are:
1st. The indeclinables ഉം, ഏ, ഒ.
2nd. Any inflections of the verb ഇടു when used as an auxiliary.
3rd. ditto... ditto... of the verb ആക, when used as a സംബന്ധക്രിയ.
4th. കൊണ്ടു in the sense of the instrumental case-affix.
These should nevertheless to be considered each as a distinct പദം
and parsed accordingly.
With these exceptions each line is divided by the spacing or by
the marks ’ etc. into its separate പദങ്ങൾ.
