2. conclusion Even though Pope's handbook is one of the few foreign grammars discussing the phonetics in detail, the analysis of the material does not give a very clear picture. Since he has given the aticulatory descriptions of the consonants, we are in a position to surmise certain features regarding those sounds. As regards the vowels, the interpretations are not so easy because the clues we get out of his equations of vowels with corresponding English sounds are not highly dependable. However this study will be valuable so far as it throws some light on the development of Tamil pronunciation. As for the colloquial language, Pope seems to be more familiar with southern dialect. References S. Agesthialingom, 1967, A Generative grammar of Tamil Anna malainagar C. J. Beschi, 1848, kodum Tami/ [Tr. from Latín by Mahon, G.S.], Madras. R. Caldwell, 1956, Comparative grammar of the Dravidian Langu age Madras. T. P. Meenakshisundaram, 1961, Collected papers of Prof. T. P. Meenakshisundaram, Annamalainagar. —A History of Tamil language Poona. S. V. Shanmugam 1968, “Epigraphy and Tamil linguistics, in Seminar on Inscriptions, 1966 [Nagaswamy, Ed] Madras. S. V. Shanmugam 1968, The language of the Tamil inscriptions, 1350-1700 A.D.’ unpublished-thesis submitted to the Annamalai University. - __ " * - 274
