பக்கம்:ஆய்வுக் கோவை.pdf/278

The Pronunciation of Tamil in the 19th Century Dr. S. V. SHANMUGAM Annamalai University One of the aspirations of the Tamil linguistics is to write !he historical grammar of Tamil. The necessary data for the various periods which is very extensive are now being collected from the various sources with that purpose in view. Among the various sources for the study of Early Modern period, the Tamil grammars written by foreigners are useful in two respects. They are the references to (1) the allophonic variations of the Tamil letters which are the unit of their phonetic description and (2) the colloquial language of their time. It should be mentioned here that we have not many other sources for these information. A HAND BOOK OF THE ORDINARY DiALECT OF THE TAMIL, tANGUAGE written by Rev. G.U. Pope 1855, 7th edition, revised by the author in 1904 is taken for study here. The materials for this paper are mainly from the 2nd chapter on ‘The Alphapet' and vowels alone are treated here, 1. vƠwELS “The vowels are remarkably pure and simple " [p. 6] but “if the consonants are pronounced, the vowels preceding some 270