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The object of this book is to present the reader with grammar of common Tamil only, as it is correctly spoken and written. In ordinary conversation and writing several vulgarisms and colloquialisms are used. These can easily be mastered by observation, and by intercourse with the people of the country; and therefore they are only briefly noticed in these pages. When once the correct forms and expressions are known, vulgarisms and colloquialisms can easily be recognized and understood.
After mastering this Grammar, the student will then be in a position to proceed to the study of the higher dialect, and to the perusal of Native Grammars. It is in the higher dialect that Tamil poetry, and some also of the Native prose works, are written. So different is it from the common dialect, that a person who only knows the latter, cannot understand the former. It requires, therefore, separate treatment, and practically forms a distinct branch of study.
It is hardly necessary to add that the Native Grammars were composed for those who were already well acquainted with common Tamil as their own vernacular; and hence they are written in Tamil, and deal with the higher dialect. However useful therefore to advanced students, they are not adapted for teaching common Tamil to Europeans.
In this, as in the Telugu Grammar, the special effort of the author has been to adopt a strictly progressive system; in other words not to introduce matter which practically implies a knowledge of Tamil which has not been as yet imparted; and on the other hand, only to give such information as is absolutely required at the stage at which the student has arrived. Strict attention to this principle, while it makes the book much easier to study, must be pleaded as an excuse for any features
