Streams of Language: Dialects in Tamil.

• Author: Steever, Sanford B.
• Position: Book review

Streams of Language: Dialects in Tamil. Edited with introduction by M KANNAN. IFP Publications Hors Serie, vol. 6. Pondichery; INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE PONDICHERY, 2008. Pp. xxii + 335. Rs. 500.

Streams of Language (SOL) publishes and extends the proceedings of an international conference, "Dialects in Tamil," held in Pondicherry in August 2006. The volume is divided into eight sections: "International" (1-90), "Historical" (91-106), "Regional" (107-40), "Linguistic" (141-84), "Anthropological" (185-206), "Lexicographical" (207-22), "Experiential" (223-58), and "Literary and Creative" (259-318). Two appendices round out the volume, one on the twelve traditional dialect regions of Tamil, the other on dialect regions according to linguistic analysis. If the subtitle of this book were translated in Tamil, a choice would have to be made between two terms to represent the English term dialect: kilai mozi and vattara mozi. The first, literally 'branch speech', has been used in linguistics, while the second, lit. 'local speech', is current in literary criticism. I mention this because, despite its division into eight sections, SOL focuses on two major thematic areas: the linguistic and the literary-critical, with pride of place being given to Tamil dialect literature. Contributions appear in English or Tamil, and each article has a summary in the other language so monolinguals in either language may follow the general flow of the volume.

In linguistic terms, Tamil dialects vary along several dimension: history (old, middle, modern), geography (Sri Lankan vs. Continental Tamil, Chennai vs. Madurai, etc.), social distinctions (e.g., Brahman vs. Dalit), and diglossia (high vs. low). Anyone who wishes to function competently in the Tamil speech community needs to command some of the variants of the last three dimensions; when the vast Tamil literary canon is taken into account, the first dimension also becomes important. Over the past fifty years Tamil literature has expanded from the almost exclusive use of the high diglossic level, traditionally used in writing, to include spoken Tamil. However, the late T V Gopal Iyer's chapter on "Dialects as Vehicle for the Construction of Regional and Social Identities" (pp. 223-30) makes the case that certain earlier literature incorporated features of the spoken language. He argues that some medieval bhakti poems reflect a spoken Brahmin dialect. Reverting to modern spoken Tamil, one must be aware of regional and...