Written and Unwritten Standards.

Though we may speak of an informal standardizing process taking place, and we may recognize the kinds of standardization and regularity that exist in SST, some people are still loath to admit that a speech-form can be standard(ized) unless it has a written grammar, i.e. a book between two covers. This is because of the idea that grammars are imposed or bestowed upon languages, not that languages have grammars, i.e. have rules and regularities that people can discover, and organize into a book. I would like to introduce another notion here, and that is that though Spoken Tamil may not be completely standardized, i.e. there are areas of variability, it is in a position where standardization could in fact be brought about. That is, the potential for standardizing the language is there, and were certain conditions to be met, the process could be complete.

The conditions necessary would, in my opinion, be:

1.

In the areas where inconsistency and variability exist, where people do not agree on the form to choose (such as past neuters) attitude surveys and usage surveys could be undertaken. The areas of variability could be subject to questionnaires in order to determine what people think of, e.g. the cci past neuter, and whether it should be made the standard, allowed as a variant, or excluded.

2.

Educated Tamilians from various communities and regions could make decisions, formal decisions, about the areas where doubts exist. This would be a revolutionary idea, but it could be done.

3.

Consensus could be reached on having flexible stability rather than rigid stability, in order to allow for the possibility that certain sound changes, such as the rounding of front vowels between initial labials and before retroflex consonants, might complete themselves.

4.

A newer, more open way to obtain recommendations for development of new vocabulary could be agreed upon, allowing for flexibility and opening the language to natural and folk resources, rather than only classical resources.