Thanks to the University Grants Commission then presided over by Dr. C. D. Deshmukh who was interested in Linguistic Studies and the Rockefeller Foundation which sponsored the Linguistic Programme in India at the Deccan College presided over by Dr. S. M. Katre, the Linguistic Studies have found a permanent place in the University Education of this country with opportunities to develop. It was then that Sri T. M. Narayanaswami Pillai who was the Vice-Chancellor of Annamalai University during that period, agreed to send Mr. M. Shanmugam, one of the senior lecturers in the Tamil (Oriental) Department of the University to undergo training in some of the Summer Schools of Linguistics. Dr Fairbanks and Dr. Gumpertz, the American Professors in the programme, were impressed with his performance and suggested to me that he may be selected for further training. Mr. C. Gilpatric of the Rockefeller Foundation thinking that it was better to train a person who was in the service of a University so that he might become the nucleus of a linguistics department therein, convinced Sri T. M. Narayanaswami Pillai of the usefulness of granting leave for Sri M. Shanmugam and sending him to visit the American Universities under the Rockefeller programme, not for getting any degree but to know at closer quarters the detailed workings of the linguistics departments. took more or less an undertaking that on the return of Sri M. Shanmugam that a linguistics department would be opened in the University and that Sri M. Shanmugam would be appointed as a Reader.
After working in the Cornell University for a year, Sri M. Shanmugam went to Berkely for studying under Professor M. B. Emeneau. He came back to India in 1958 and became a Reader in the then Department of Comparative Philology which later on became the Linguistics Department and still later the Centre for Advanced Study in Dravidian Linguistics. It was in that year, at the instance of Sri T. M. Narayanaswami Pillai, I accepted the Professorship in Tamil (Arts) in the Annamalai University and as one connected with the linguistics programme in India, almost from its beginning, I was requested to be in charge of the Department of Comparative Philology.
In 1959 Professor M. B. Emeneau inaugurated the teaching courses in Linguistics in the Annamalai University. The Certificate and Diploma Courses in Linguistics were first organised and later the M. A. Course in that subjeet. Almost from the beginning, thanks to Sri M. Shanmugam's interest in the language teaching methods. Certificate and Diploma Courses in various languages were also organised as part of the Departmental programme in Applied Linguistics. At the instance of Dr. Forester, the Missionary Language School at Bangalore sought the advice and help of this department in teaching languages and a few experimental courses were conducted by the Department.
Spoken Tamil, Part I, is prepared to serve as teaching materials for the first four weeks of an eight-week intensive course in Spoken Tamil. Part II which is now in stencil, is intended for the second half of this course.
The draft was revised many times in the light of the experience gained by teaching such a course for the last three years, at the Department of Linguistics, Annamalai University. The language represents Tamil spoken by the educated non-The analysis and brahmins during informal conversations. the grammar presented here were done by the author.
My friends in the department, particularly Mr. E. Annamalai, who participated along with me in teaching this course, gave useful and critical comments about this material which they administered. Several of the students, who underwent this course, expressed their difficulties and needs frankly. All these have contributed to revise the text several times before it could attain the present form. Mr. Kumara-swamy Raja was kind enough to go through the proofs along with me while printing. I express my gratitude to all of them.
Annamalai University is kind enough to publish this book. Azhagu Printers equipped their Press with phonetic symbols for the sake of this book and printed the book in a very short period. To them I express my thanks.
Above all I express my gratitude to my Professor T. P. Meenakshisundaram for his silent help and encouragement.
Each lesson in this text is followed by a list of the vocabulary items, grammar and exercise. Students should first be given drill in vocabulary and then in the pattern sentences and their variations in the lessons. There are a number of small conversations given under the exercises in addition to the ones in the lessons. They will be of immediate use in practical situations. Students should memorize these conversations and reproduce them for which they should be tested and graded. No translation is given for these conversations because they are intended to serve as exercises for comprehension. Students should try to translate them for themselves and seek the help of the teachers where-ever they find it difficult.
Appendix I gives exercises for pronunciation drill. These exercises should be administered along with the lessons and should be completed within the first three weeks of the course. Appendix II and Appendix III are lists of the lexical items in this text. There are about one thousand lexical items.
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