represented in an agreed and intelligible system of signs or unless we have some means, like the . gramaphone record, which can bring, when we will and care, the living sonnd to our ears as it existed at a particular period. By the side of the spoken word the so-called standard language would be but a shadow and an illusion. A standard language, to the philologist, is a misnomer. It exists nowhere, It occurs only in the imagination and is, at bust, artificial. It is a vague something which defies analysis or definition and is but very remotely connected with living reality. When we, at the same time, recognize that even in the so-called standard language, we can perceive dialectal variations, we are irresistibly led to the conclusion that there is never a standard language but only dialects.
An attempt has been made above to refer to the activities of the early pioneers of Dravidian studies in Tamil,
