PREFACE.
The present work is chiefly intended for the use of those who wish
to acquire a knowledge of the grammar of colloquial Tamil within a
comparatively short time, either for practical purposes or as the
preliminary to a thorough study of the language.
Particularly bearing in mind students who work without a teacher, I have devoted some pages wholly to the subject of pronunciation, and have given the transliteration of all the Tamil words occurring in the grammar, side by side with the native character. This will enable the beginner gradually to acquire the Tamil character as he proceeds with the study of the grammar itself, thereby avoiding a needless waste of time and trouble.
The chapter on euphonic changes will specially appeal to those who have a philological turn of mind; for this gives the key to the solution of many difficulties that beset an ordinary student in the way of analysing Tamil words and sentences and of mastering their relationship to one another.
I have added a few exercises in translation into and from the Tamil, followed by a key; also a Tamil-English vocabulary containing not only all the words found in the text of the grammar and in the exercises but also very many others that are in common use. For a regular series of progressive exercises in the Tamil character the student is referred to Dr. Pope's Handbook, published by the Oxford Clarendon Press.
Such are the scope and the arrangement of the present work, and it only remains for me now to acknowledge my manifold indebtedness lo Dr. G. U. Pope, who has guided my Tamil and Telugu studies, and to whom this work is dedicated. My thanks are also due to the present editor of the Self-Taught Series of Languages, for many valuable suggestions and emendations.
Indian Institute,
Oxford, September, 1906.
P.S. — A companion volume, " Tamil Self-Taught," will be published shortly, and will include an English-Tamil alphabetical vocabulary, in addition to a large number of vocabularies and conversations classified according to subject. These two works will enable one speedily to acquire as much Tamil as is necessary for business purposes, and also to lay a scientific foundation for the serious
study of Tamil literature.
