Know the Etymology: 167
Place Name of the Day: Thursday, 18 November 2010

I'lavaalai

இளவாலை
Iḷavālai

Ila+aalai

The small hamlet
The new hamlet

I’la

(adjective) Small, smaller (Eezham Tamil place names); Young, tender, youthful (Tamil/ Malayalam, Dravidian Etymological Dictionary 513); E’l, E’la, E’le: Tenderness, youth, weakness, moderation, (Kannada, DED 513); ‘La, ‘Laa, La, Laa: (adjective) New, young, fresh (Sinhala); Ilandaariyaa: Youth, young man (Sinhala, I’lanthaari in Tamil); ‘La: (adjective) Young, unripe, immature, callow, juvenile, green, tender, also a place name component (Divehi/ Maldivian, Etymological Dictionary of Maldivian Island Names)

Aalai

An Eezham Tamil place name suffix; Aal-idam: Hamlet, street (Thivaakaram Lexicon 5:144); Aalai: Village; as in U’l-aalai: The centre of a village (Tamil inscription, 986 CE, SII, iv, 534, GTI); Pillared hall, as in Chathur-aalai: a structure of four pillars or a square structure (Tamil inscription, 1011 CE, SII, vii, 412, also GTI); Aalai: Shed, stable, workplace, sugarcane mill (Changkam Tamil Diction, Pu’ranaanoo’ru: 220: 2-4, Perumpaa’naattuppadai 261:2); Mill such as a sugarcane mill (Tamil/ Malayalam, DED 387); Factory (Modern Tamil); S’aalaa: A house, mansion, building, hall, large room, apartment, shed, workshop, stable (Sanskrit). Also see Vangkaalai and Chillalai.

The prefix I’la as an adjective in Tamil normally means, young, tender, new, etc. The word has cognates in many Dravidian languages including Brahui of Pakistan (DED 513), Sinhala and in Maldivian.

However, in the Eezham Tamil place names the component seems to stand for a related shade of meaning: small, or perhaps in some instances, new.

The clue comes from a set of adjacent place names of comparison found in a Tamil village Pa’l’lith-thidal (now, Pa’l’liya-godella) in the Polonnaruwa district.

Periya-ve’li (the big expanse) and I’la-ve’li (obviously meaning in this context ‘the smaller expanse’) are locality names found in this village for two adjacent expanses of land.

Aalai is a popular suffix in Eezham Tamil place names, meaning a hamlet or village.

Usages in Tamil inscriptions such as U’l-aalai to refer to inner part of a village confirm that ‘village’ was one of the meanings of the word Aalai. The earliest Tamil lexicon (Nika’ndu), Chenthan Thivaakaram of c. 9th century CE, says hamlet and street are meanings for the word Aal-idam.

It seems Aalai, which meant a hut for sugarcane mill, an elephant stable etc in the Changkam Tamil literature, became a word for a hamlet in later usages. In the sense of a mill it is listed as a Dravidian word (DED 387). It needs comparison with the word S’alaa in Sanskrit.

I’lavaalai today is an important village in Valikaamam North division of Jaffna district.


Some related place names:

I’la-malai: The small mound; Point Pedro division, Jaffna district

I’la-maruthangku’lam: The small Maruthan-ku’lam (tank of Maruthu trees); Vavuniyaa division, Vavuniyaa district. The place name differentiates it from another Maruthang-ku’lam, which was larger or older.

I’la-kattuwa: The small enclosure/ the small part/ the small bund; Aaraachi-kattuwa division, Puththa’lam district.

I’la-kaamam: The small village; Jaffna district

I’la-ve’li: The small expanse; Pa’l’liththidal (Pa’l’liya-godella) division, Polonnaruwa district.

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Related place names in South India and Maldives:

Elanthoor: The small village or the new village, Pathanamthitta district, Kerala

Ye’landur: The small village or the new village; this is today a Taluk headquarters in Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka. The addition of Y before E is a common feature in Kannada and also in Tamil.

I’laiyaan-kudi: The small settlement or the settlement of a junior; Sivagangai district, Tamil Nadu

‘Lavaddoo: ('Lava-kah-ddoo in the copper plates of 12th century and also called ‘La-van-dhoo): The small forest island, Ko’lumadulu Atoll, Maldives

‘Laimendhoo: Kuda-‘lai-men-dhoo: The small island in the middle, Miladunmadulu North Atoll, Maldives

Maa’laveli: (Maa-'la-veli): The big and new sand (island that formed), Mulaku Atoll, Maldives

First published: Thursday, 18 November 2010, 23:20