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1、11SpatiallanguageinTamilEricPederson11.1TamilandTamilsTheDravidianlanguagefamilyisoneoftheworld’smajorlanguagefamilieswithperhaps200millionspeakersspeakingapproximatelytwenty-?vemutu-allyunintelligiblelanguages.TherearefourmajorliteraryDravidianlanguagesallofwhichareindigenoustoSou
2、thIndia.ThreeofthesemajorDravidianlan-guagesareintheSouthDravidianbranch:Tamil,KannadaandMalayalam.Followingthe1991IndianCensusdata(http://www.censusindia.net/),nativeTamilspeakersmakeupabout6.3percentofthetotalIndianpopulation.Themajorityofthesespeakers(48,434,744)liveinthestateof
3、TamilNaduwheretheyconstitute86.7percentofthatstate’spopulation.TheymakeupthelargestminoritylanguagepopulationinKerala,with616,010nativespeakers(2.1percent)andthereareperhapsanother2millionnativespeakerselsewhereinIndia.IncludingtheIndianpopulation,thereareperhaps70millionspeakerswo
4、rldwidewithsubstantialminoritypopulationsinMalaysia,Singapore,SriLankaandelsewhere.Tamilhasacontinuouswrittenhistorywithrecordsdatingbackapproxi-mately2,000years.Therehasalsobeenalongtraditionofmutualin?uencewithSanskritandotherancientIndianlanguagesandliteratures.TheclassicalTamil
5、perioddatestoperhapsasearlyas300BCE,aperiodinwhichtheTolka-appiyamwasproduced,agrammarapparentlymodelledonPannini’sSanskritgrammar.Becauseoftheageandprobablelinguisticconservatismofthesewritings,classicalTamilformsoftenresemblewhatisreconstructedforProto-Dravidianspokenover3,000yea
6、rsago.Eventoday,modernliteraryTamilisperhapsthemostconservativeofthewrittenDravidianlanguages.Thisliteraryconservatismhasledtosigni?cantdiglossiawiththespokenlanguage.Thediglossiaissuf?cientlyacutethatseparategrammarshavebeenMuchofthisworkderivesfrommyattemptstounderstandthelessons
7、ofthevariousnative-speakerteachersandconsultantsIhaveworkedwith.MostnotablyK.Paramacivam,butalsoE.Annamalai,V.Krishnaswami,J.ArunSelvan,aswellasmanywhosenamesarenowlost.ItakefullresponsibilityfortheerrorswhichIhaveintroduced.MygreatappreciationalsoforcommentsfromS.LevinsonandD.Wilk
8、ins.400SpatiallanguageinTa
