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TABLE OF CONTENTS xvii PAGE. theories--views of Caldwell and Buhler examined--argunients in support of E. Thomas's theory --not derived from Brahmi-Vatteluttu and Brahmi were in use siinultaneously-why supplanted by Grantha-Tamil-which was developed from the Pallava characters--how much of modern Tamil characters adapted trom Vatteluttu—the shape of vowel-consonants described-why the modern Tamil characters are anyular in form—the number and order of letters--pronunciation--letters peculiar to Tamil-accent audenphasis-origin of letters-interchange of letters of similar sounds how to determine pure Tamil words-- initial letters---final letters and middle letters... 113 Essay VII.-- THE PLACE OF TAMIL IN PHILOLOGY. Where spoken-the Tamil's knowledge of geography--principles of philology-changes in the growth of a language- Tamil an agglutinative tongue--can never become inflectionaltraditional origin—it is one of the Dravidian languages-Sanskrit and Tamil compared as regards their vocabularr—Tamil words in Sanskrit--orthography--Dr. Caldwell's views examined Word structure-word formationcoalescence in words or Sandli -compound words or phrases etymology-differences between Tamil and Sanskrit - prosody in the two languages other peculiarities of Tamil--- the Indo-Germanic affinity-the Dravidian influence on the Sanskrit dialects-affiliation of Tamil--the Dravidian and the Uralo-Altaic languages-causes for the difference_position in the linguistic system-early Tamil (vocabulary, grammar, style and matter) -- mediæval Tamii-modern Tamil-need for prose literature, 141 Essay VIII.—PERIODS OF TAMIL LITERATURE. Tamil literature characteristic of race-insepa B