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It then evaluates literacy and writing’s role in language standardization and tests whether SST functions as an emergent standard despite limited formal standardizing pressures.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/standardization-or-restandardization-standard-spoken-tamil-why-it-matters/501727/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/standardization-or-restandardization-standard-spoken-tamil-why-it-matters/501727.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"BAd apple","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-03",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",10,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why does the paper focus on spoken Tamil rather than the written standard (LT)?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Because LT is not used for authentic informal oral communication among live speakers, spoken dialects have diverged from LT to the point that mutual intelligibility is often difficult. This creates a need for a spoken koiné for inter-dialect communication.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What role does “social” film and drama play in SST?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The paper notes that inter-dialect koinéization appears most clearly in so-called “social” film, which developed from popular or “social” drama. Conversational portions of novels and short stories can also show spoken forms related to SST.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"On what basis does the author claim SST exists?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"SST is described as being based on the everyday speech of educated non-Brahman Tamils, and its public domains include Tamil social films, modern social stage dramas, radio broadcasting, and to some extent television. The author also supports the claim with data from Singapore, where broader SST use is observed.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},501727,1791422960,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,120,123,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":125},"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},19241458193282,"https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Standardization or restandardization: The case for“Standard” Spoken Tamil  \nH A R O L D F . S C H I F F M A N  \nSouth Asian Regional Studies  \nUniversity of Pennsylvania  \nPhiladelphia, PA 19104-6305  \n[haroldfs@ccat.sas.upenn.edu](haroldfs@ccat.sas.upenn.edu)  \nABSTRACT  \nThe Tamil language has had its current standard written form since the 13th century; but because of increasing diglossia, spoken Tamil dialects have now diverged so radically from earlier norms, including the written standard (LT, or Literary Tamil) that no spoken dialect, regional or social, can function as the koiné or lingua franca. Because LT is never used for authentic informal oral communication between live speakers, there has always been a need for some sort of spoken “standard” koiné for inter-dialect communication. Aside from interpersonal communication, one hears this inter-dialect koiné most clearly in the so-called “social” film, which arose out of its antecedent, the popular or “social” drama. Conversational portions of novels and short stories also exhibit spoken forms, though not always as clearly“phonetic” as a phonetician might expect. The goal of this paper is to examine the concept of“language standardization” as it has been applied to otherlanguages, focusing on the role of literacy and writing in this process; then to present evidence for, as well as the sources of, koinéization of“Standard Spoken Tamil”; and then to determine whether SST is in fact an emergent standard, given the challenges of literacy and writing. (Standardization, Tamil, diglossia, linguae francae, koinés)*  \nThe Tamil language has the second-longest history of standardization in South Asia, having been codified by Tolkppiyanr in the early centuries of the Common Era. It has changed radically over time, and subsequent standard written forms have evolved, the most recent being the codification by the grammarian Pavanandi in the 13th century. Because of increasing diglossia, spoken Tamil dialects have now diverged so radically from one another, and from the written standard (LT, or Literary Tamil), that there are problems of mutual intelligibility between many Tamil dialects.1 I will not even begin here to deal with the lack of intelligibility between Indian Tamil and the extremely divergent Sri Lanka Tamil dialects.2 Because LT is never used for informal oral communication between live speakers,3 some sort of spoken koiné has filled this gap and has been in use for centuries, though it is not always clear retrospectively what the linguistic  \n© 1998 Cambridge University Press 0047-4045/98 $9.50 359  \nHAROLD F . SCHIF F MAN  \nfeatures of this koiné have been.4 The Brahman dialect of Tamil was once the koiné used for inter-caste and inter-regional communication, but in the 20th century it has been replaced by another, non-Brahman dialect. The domain most clearly dominated by this koiné is the so-called “social” film, which arose out of another domain, the popular or “social” drama. Conversational portions of novels and short stories also exhibit spoken language forms, though these are not always as clearly representative of the non-Brahman koiné as a phonetician might expect.5 The goals of this paper are to examine the concept of“language standardization” as it has been applied to other languages, to examine the conditions under which a fairly uniform “standard” Spoken Tamil (SST) evolved, to present evidence for standardization features of SST, and to determine whether SSTis in fact an emergent standard.  \nFor a review of the rather extensive literature on the question of the existence of a Standard Spoken Tamil, see Bloch 1910, Pillai 1960, Andronov 1962, 1975, Schiffman 1979, Asher 1982, and Britto 1986. Various studies by Zvelebil (e.g. 1959–63) depict a range of dialect variation among the modern, non-standard, essentially regional varieties of Tamil.  \nDuring a recent research visit in Singapore, I was often asked whether there is such a thing as Standard Spoken T","cbCaiqouPTzHa9Oe","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqouPTzHa9Oe","pdf",122149,27,"English","# Abstract\n# Background: Tamil standardization and diglossia\n## Written standard (LT) vs spoken dialect divergence\n# Need for a spoken koiné\n## Inter-dialect communication in film and drama\n# Evidence and sources for SST koinéization\n# SST’s relationship to literacy and writing\n# Literature review and comparative studies","[{\"question\":\"Why does the paper focus on spoken Tamil rather than the written standard (LT)?\",\"answer\":\"Because LT is not used for authentic informal oral communication among live speakers, spoken dialects have diverged from LT to the point that mutual intelligibility is often difficult. This creates a need for a spoken koiné for inter-dialect communication.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does “social” film and drama play in SST?\",\"answer\":\"The paper notes that inter-dialect koinéization appears most clearly in so-called “social” film, which developed from popular or “social” drama. Conversational portions of novels and short stories can also show spoken forms related to SST.\"},{\"question\":\"On what basis does the author claim SST exists?\",\"answer\":\"SST is described as being based on the everyday speech of educated non-Brahman Tamils, and its public domains include Tamil social films, modern social stage dramas, radio broadcasting, and to some extent television. The author also supports the claim with data from Singapore, where broader SST use is observed.\"}]","Standardization or restandardization - Standard Spoken Tamil - Why it matters | PDF",1791023864,68]