Author’s Preface

This is a collection of a few papers I wrote on various occasions. Except for a very few, all the others are on various aspects of Malayalam language viewed from either diachronic stand or synchronic point of view. The one on ancient Indian phonetics is relevant to Malayalam studies since Malayalam grammatical lore also has imbibed that tradition. In order to enrich our knowledge of our own phonetic pattern one has to rely heavily on the very same sources. Viewed from the stand point of the history of general phonetic theory at large, ancient Indian tradition is of absolute importance. Another paper describes the ways in which Keralite pronounce Sanskrit words. Still another looks into the problems we face in English phonetics in relation with the imperfect spelling system of that language. Another paper is on the first ever book printed in Tamil. It was printed in Kerala and hence has a place in the history of printing in Kerala. It is hoped that the title of this collection stands justified.

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. G. Balasubramanian ‘or taking pains to collect these papers scattered in different journals and books and arranging them in the present order. The type setter Mrs. Laly Francis had very hard time in setting the types with diactrical marks used so often. I thank her also. I thank the authorities of Calicut University Publication Division for accepting volume for publication and the Press for the neat implementation of the work.

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