Words are formed from roots and bases by means of suffixed formative additions. The root itself generally remains unchanged throughout. Thus from the Tamil base per, “great,” we can form adjectives such as per-iya and per-um, “great”; verbs such as per-u-gu, “to become increased”; per-u-kku, “to cause to increase,” and so on.
Many bases can be used at will as nouns, as adjectives, and as verbs. Thus the Tamil kaḍu can mean “sharpness,” “sharp,” and “to be sharp.” Other bases are of course more restricted in their respective spheres.
The inflection of words is effected by agglutination, i.e. various additions are suffixed to the base in order to form what we would call cases and tenses. Such additions have probably once been separate words. Most of them are, however, now only used as suffixes. Thus from the Tamil base kōn, “king,” we can form an accusative kōn-ei, a verb kōn-en, “I am king,” and so on.
Dravidian nouns are divided into two classes, which Tamil grammarians called high-caste and casteless respectively. The former includes those nouns which denote beings endowed with reason, the latter all others. Gender is only distinguished in the former class, while all casteless nouns are neuter. The gender of animals (which are irrational) must accordingly be distinguished by using different words for the male and the female, or else by adding words meaning male, female, respectively, to the name of the animal—processes which do not, strictly speaking, fall under the head of grammar.
There are two numbers, the singular and the plural. The latter is formed by adding suffixes. It, however, often remains unmarked in the case of casteless nouns.
Cases are formed by adding postpositions and suffixes, usually to a modified form of the noun which is commonly called the oblique base. Thus we have the Tamil maram, “tree”; maratt-āl, “from a tree”; maratt-u-kku, “to a tree”; vīḍu, “a house”; vīṭṭ-āl, “from a house.” The case terminations are the same in the singular and in the plural. The genitive, which precedes the governing noun, is often identical with the oblique base, or else it is formed by adding suffixes.
The numeral system is decimal and higher numbers are counted in tens; thus Tamil pattu, “ten”; iru-badu, “two tens,” “twenty.”
The personal pronoun of the first person in most dialects has a double form in the plural, one including and the other excluding the person addressed. Thus, Tamil nām, “we,” i.e. I and you; nāṅgal, “we,” i.e. I and they.
There is no relative pronoun. Relative clauses are effected by using relative participles. Thus in Telugu the sentence “the book which you gave to me” must be translated mīru nāku iccina pus-takamu, i.e. “you me-to given book.” There are several such participles in use. Thus from the Telugu verb koṭṭa, “to strike,” are formed koṭṭ-ut-unna, “that strikes,” koṭṭ-i-na, “that struck,” koṭṭē, “that would strike,” “that usually strikes.” By adding pronouns, or the terminations of pronouns, to such forms, nouns are derived which denote the person who performs the action. Thus from Telugu koṭṭē and vāḍu, “he,” is formed koṭṭē-vāḍu, “one who usually strikes.” Such forms are used as ordinary verbs, and the usual verbal forms of Dravidian languages can broadly be described as such nouns of agency. Thus, the Telugu, koṭṭināḍu, “he struck,” can be translated literally “a striker in the past.”
Verbal tenses distinguish the person and number of the subject by adding abbreviated forms of the personal pronouns. Thus in Kanarese we have māḍid-enu, “I did”; māḍid-i, “thou didst”; māḍid-evu, “we did”; māḍid-aru, “they did.”