Venpa

Venpa (''வெண்பா'' in Tamil language) is a form of classical Tamil language poetry. Classical Tamil poetry has been classifed based upon the rules of Meter (poetry). Such rules form a context-free grammar. Every Venpa consists between two to twelve lines. == Popular books written in Venpa style == # All 1330 couplets from Tirukkural, composed by Tiruvalluvar are examples of Venpa. Tirukkural comes under a sub-category of Venpa called Kural, wherein each Kural has only two lines. # Nala venpa^{#External links} is another classical work written in venpa style. # Niti venpa^{#External links} is another venpa style book that preaches values. == Basic units of meter in classical Tamil poetry == Vowels and consonant-vowel compounds in Tamil alphabet have been classified into ones with short sounds (''kuril'') and the ones with long sounds (''nedil''). A sequence of one or more of these units optionally followed by a consonant can form a ner asai (the Tamil word ''asai'' roughly corresponds to ''syllable'') or a nirai asai depending on the duration of pronunciation. Ner and Nirai are the basic units of meter in tamil prosody. A sIr or cheer is a type of metrical foot that roughly corresponds to an iamb. Thalai is the juxtaposition of iambic patterns. == Grammar for meter in Venpa == A set of well defined metric rules define the grammar for Venpa. Such rules have been proved to form a Context-free grammar. One set of rules constrains the duration of sound for each word or ''cheer'', while another set of rules defines the rules for the possible sounds at the beginning of a word that follows a given sound at the end of the preceding word. Any Venpa should conform to both these sets of rules. Following is the set of production rules corresponding to the first set of rules.


  → {1-11} 
  →    
  →   
  →  | 
  →  |  |  | 
  →  |  |  | 
  →  |  |  | 
  →  
  →  
  →  
  →  
  →  
  →  
  →  
  →  
  → 
  → 
  →  
  →  
  →  |  |  
  →   |   |  
  → {VOWELS OR COMPOUNDS WITH A SHORT SOUND}
  → {VOWELS OR COMPOUNDS WITH A LONG SOUND}
  → {CONSONANTS, WHICH HAVE AN EXTREMELY SHORT SOUND}
 
 1. {1-11} is not a standard Backus-Naur Form notation but a widely accepted Extended Backus-Naur Form notation indicating   
 repetition of number of times specified in the range.
 2. The grammar has some redundant productions that have been retained so as to preserve 
 the semantics as described originally in Tamil grammar.

Following is the set of production rules corresponding to the second set of rules.


    →  | 
 	 →  
 	 →  
 	 →  
 	 →  
 	 →  | 
 	 →  | 
 
 [If the above rules are conformed to, the ''thalai'' is said to be ''Iyarcheer vendalai'']
 
 	 →  
 	 →  
 	 →  
 	 →  
 
 [If the above rules are conformed to, the ''thalai'' is said to be ''Vencheer vendalai'']

== Example == Following is a couplet from Tirukkural: உடுக்கை இழந்தவன் கைபோல ஆங்கே இடுக்கண் களைவதாம் நட்பு. ''(a translation by George Uglow Pope)'' "As hand of him whose vesture slips away, Friendship at once the coming grief will stay. (True) friendship hastens to the rescue of the afflicted (as readily) as the hand of one whose garment is loosened (before an assembly)." [[Image:ParseTreeForKural.png|500px|thumb|left|Parse tree for the above Kural for the first set of grammar rules given in #Grammar for meter in Venpa - Note: 0 represents 'kuril' and 1 represents 'nedil']] [[Image:ProductionsForThalai.png|400px|thumb|right|Set of productions for the same Kural for the second set of rules given in the grammar section]] == External links == * [http://www.tamil.net/projectmadurai/pub/pm0015/pm0015.pdf Nala Venpa (pdf version)] * [http://www.tamil.net/projectmadurai//pub/pm0137/neethi2.html Niti Venpa (TSCII encoding)] * [http://forumhub.com/tlit/venpa.txt Rules for Venpa] * [http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/balasundararaman03context.html Context Free Grammar for Natural Language Constructs. An implementation for Venpa Class of Tamil Poetry] (2003, research paper) ta:வெண்பா

Venpa

== Adding a citation/reference section == Please have a look at Venpa, largely edited by me. If and only if you feel appropriate, add a reference to our paper whose citation I've given below. (I don't want to do it myself, because on the one hand I feel it's appropriate and on the other I feel it may qualify to be pure self-promotion.) L BalaSundaraRaman, Ishwar S, Sanjeeth Kumar Ravindranath. ''Context-free grammar for natural language constructs - An implementation for Venpa class of Tamil poetry''. Tamil Internet Conference, Chennai, India, 2003. You can link it to [http://www.infitt.org/ti2003/papers/19_raman.pdf the conference proceedings] and/or [http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/balasundararaman03context.html the citeseer page] -- User:Sundar 06:29, Dec 2, 2004 (UTC) : An update - User:Dbachmann has added a link to the Citeseer page in the external links section. -- User:Sundar 06:05, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

See other meanings of words starting from letter:

V

Words begining with Venpa:

Venpa
Venpa