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== History == [[File:Civiltà_thamirabani,_reperti_da_adhichanallur,_02.jpg|thumb|Findings from [[Adichanallur]] in the [[Government Museum, Chennai]]|left]] [[File:Keezhadi excavation.jpg|thumb|[[Keezhadi excavation site]]|left]] === Legendary origins === [[File:Tamil Inscriptions.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Explanation for [[Mangulam]] Tamil Brahmi inscription in Mangulam, [[Madurai district]], Tamil Nadu, dated to Tamil [[Sangam period]] ({{Circa|400 BCE|200 CE}})]] [[File:Satavahana Bilingual Coin.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|[[Tamil-Brahmi|Tamil Brahmi]] script in the reverse side of the bilingual silver coin of king [[Vashishtiputra Sātakarni]] ({{Circa|160 CE}}) of [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]]. '''Rev:''' Ujjain/Sātavāhana symbol, crescented six-arch chaitya hill and river with Tamil Brahmi script<ref>{{Citation|last=Nagaswamy |first=N |title=Roman Karur |publisher=Brahad Prakashan |year=1995 |oclc=191007985 |url=http://www.tamilartsacademy.com/books/roman%20karur/chapter04.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720024602/http://www.tamilartsacademy.com/books/roman%20karur/chapter04.html |archive-date=20 July 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Mahadevan|2003|pp=199–205}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Panneerselvam|first=R|year=1969|title=Further light on the bilingual coin of the Sātavāhanas|journal=Indo-Iranian Journal|volume=4|issue=11|pages=281–288|doi=10.1163/000000069790078428|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Yandel|first=Keith|title=Religion and Public Culture: Encounters and Identities in Modern South India |publisher=Routledge Curzon |year=2000 |page=235 |isbn=978-0-7007-1101-7}}</ref> '''Obv:''' Bust of king; [[Prakrit]] legend in the [[Brāhmī script|Brahmi]] script]] According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form [[Tamil Thai|Tamil Thāi]] (Mother Tamil) was created by Lord [[Shiva]]. [[Murugan]], revered as the Tamil God, along with sage [[Agastya]], brought it to the people.{{sfn|Ramaswamy|1997|p=87}} ===Historical origins=== Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the [[Proto-Dravidian language]], which was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower [[Godavari]] river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of the culture associated with the [[Neolithic]] complexes of South India,<ref>{{Harvnb|Southworth|2005|pp=249–250}}</ref> but it has also been related to the [[Harappan civilization]]. Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present).<ref name="Lehmann 1998 75">{{Harvnb|Lehmann|1998|pp=75–76}}</ref> ===Brahmi script=== About 60,000 of the approximately 10,000 inscriptions found by the [[Archaeological Survey of India]] in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages.<ref>{{citation |title= Students get glimpse of heritage |url= http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/22/stories/2005112215970400.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060518064346/http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/22/stories/2005112215970400.htm |url-status= dead |archive-date= 18 May 2006 |date = 22 November 2005|work= [[The Hindu]] |location=Chennai, India}}</ref> In 2004, a number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware [[urn]]s dating from at least 696 BCE in [[Adichanallur]]. Some of these urns contained writing in [[Tamil Brahmi]] script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin.<ref name=":2b">{{Cite journal|last=Christy|first=Agatha|date=2019|title=A Study About Archaeological Survey in Adichanallur|url=https://www.ijresm.com/Vol.2_2019/Vol2_Iss11_November19/IJRESM_V2_I11_33.pdf|journal=International Journal of Research in Engineering, Science and Management|volume=2|pages=158–169}}</ref> Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in [[Keezhadi excavation site|Keezhadi]]. These were sent to Beta Analytic in [[Miami]], [[Florida]], for [[Accelerator Mass Spectrometry]] (AMS) dating. One sample containing [[Tamil-Brahmi]] inscriptions was claimed to be dated to around 580 BCE.<ref>{{cite web |title=KEELADI |url=https://www.tnarch.gov.in/keeladi|website=Government of Tamil Nadu Department of Archeology}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gershon |first1=Livia |title=Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Dagger Linked to Enigmatic Indian Civilization |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/excavation-india-may-hold-clues-ancient-civilization-180978414/|access-date=2022-01-29|website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref> [[John Guy (historian)|John Guy]] states that Tamil was the [[lingua franca]] for early maritime traders from India.<ref name="scroll.in">{{citation|url=http://scroll.in/article/704603/Step-aside,-Gujaratis:-Tamilians-were-India's-earliest-recorded-maritime-traders|title=Scroll.in – News. Politics. Culture.|date=6 February 2015 |publisher=scroll.in}}</ref> [[Tamil Brahmi|Tamil language inscriptions]] written in Brahmi script have been discovered in [[Sri Lanka]] and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt.<ref name=Egypt /><ref name="Foreign locations">{{Citation |last=Mahadevan |first=Iravatham |title=An epigraphic perspective on the antiquity of Tamil |date=24 June 2010 |newspaper=The Hindu |url=http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/an-epigraphic-perspective-on-the-antiquity-of-tamil/article482654.ece |location=Chennai, India }}</ref> In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions.<ref name=Egypt>{{citation|title=Tamil Brahmi script in Egypt|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tamil-brahmi-script-in-egypt/article1952611.ece|access-date=5 January 2015|work=The Hindu|date=21 November 2007}}</ref> There are a number of apparent [[Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew]] dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language.<ref name=Rabin438>Rabin, C. ''Proceedings of the Second International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies'', p. 438</ref> === Old Tamil === {{Main|Old Tamil language}} [[File:Mangulam inscription.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Mangulam]] [[Tamil-Brahmi|Tamil Brahmi]] inscription in Mangulam, [[Madurai district]], Tamil Nadu, dated to Tamil [[Sangam period]] ({{Circa|400 BCE|200 CE}})|left]] Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the [[Brahmi script]] called [[Tamil-Brahmi]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Mahadevan|2003|pp=90–95}}</ref> The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the ''[[Tolkāppiyam]]'', an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BCE.<ref name="Lehmann 1998 75"/><ref name="Zvelebil 1973"/> Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as [[Sangam literature]]. These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BCE and 5th century CE.<ref name="Lehmann 1998 75"/><ref name="Zvelebil 1973"/> === Middle Tamil === [[File:Tanjavur Tamil Inscription2.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Middle Tamil]] inscriptions in [[Vatteluttu|Vatteluttu script]] in stone during [[Chola empire|Chola]] period {{circa|1000}} CE at [[Brahadeeswara temple]] in [[Thanjavur]], Tamil Nadu|left]] {{Main|Middle Tamil language}} The evolution of [[Old Tamil]] into [[Middle Tamil]], which is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century,<ref name="Lehmann 1998 75"/> was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme,<ref>{{Harvnb|Kuiper|1958|p=194}}</ref> the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals,<ref>{{Harvnb|Meenakshisundaran|1965|pp=132–133}}</ref> and the transformation of the alveolar [[plosive]] into a [[Rhotic consonant|rhotic]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Kuiper|1958|pp=213–215}}</ref> In grammar, the most important change was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb ''{{IAST|kil}}'' ({{lang|ta|கில்}}), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an [[Grammatical aspect|aspect marker]] to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ''{{IAST|ṉ}}'' ({{lang|ta|ன்}}). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – ''{{IAST|kiṉṟa}}'' ({{lang|ta|கின்ற}}) – which combined the old aspect and time markers.<ref>{{Citation | doi = 10.2307/601707| jstor = 601707| title = The Duration of an Action-Real or Aspectual? The Evolution of the Present Tense in Tamil| journal = Journal of the American Oriental Society| volume = 105| issue = 2| pages = 277–291| year = 1985| last1 = Rajam | first1 = V. S.}} at pp. 284–285</ref> === Modern Tamil === The [[Nannūl]] remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|Schiffman|1983|p=2}}</ref> Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil<ref>{{Harvnb|Annamalai|Steever|1998|p=100}}</ref> – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically.<ref>{{Harvnb|Steever|2005|pp=107–8}}</ref> Modern spoken Tamil also shows a number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions,<ref>{{Harvnb|Meenakshisundaran|1965|p=125}}</ref> and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic.<ref>{{Harvnb|Meenakshisundaran|1965|pp=122–123}}</ref> Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with the introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the [[Theta role|syntactic argument structure]] of English.<ref>{{Citation | doi = 10.1515/ijsl.1978.16.59| title = Standard Language and Socio-Historical Parameters: Standard Lankan Tamil| journal = International Journal of the Sociology of Language| issue = 16| year = 1978| last1 = Kandiah | first1 = T. | s2cid = 143499414}} at pp. 65–69</ref> In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named ''[[Thambiran Vanakkam]]'', thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tamil-saw-its-first-book-in-1578/article476102.ece|title=Tamil saw its first book in 1578|author=Karthik Madhavan|newspaper=The Hindu|date=2010-06-20}}</ref> The ''[[Tamil Lexicon]]'', published by the [[University of Madras]], was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages.<ref>{{citation|last = Kolappan |first = B. |title = Delay, howlers in Tamil Lexicon embarrass scholars |newspaper = The Hindu| location = Chennai| date = 22 June 2014| url = http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/delay-howlers-in-tamil-lexicon-embarrass-scholars/article6138747.ece |access-date = 25 December 2014}}</ref> A strong strain of [[linguistic purism]] emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the [[Pure Tamil Movement]] which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil.<ref name="thaniththamizh">{{Harvnb|Ramaswamy|1997}}</ref> It received some support from [[Dravidian parties]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Ramaswamy|1997}}: "Dravidianism, too, lent its support to the contestatory classicist project, motivated principally by the political imperative of countering (Sanskritic) Indian nationalism... It was not until the DMK came to power in 1967 that such demands were fulfilled, and the pure Tamil cause received a boost, although purification efforts are not particularly high on the agenda of either the Dravidian movement or the Dravidianist idiom of tamiḻppaṟṟu."</ref> This led to the replacement of a significant number of [[Sanskrit]] loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain.<ref name="Krishnamurti 2003 p=480">{{Harvnb|Krishnamurti|2003|p=480}}</ref> According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies.<ref>''India 2001: A Reference Annual 2001''. Compiled and edited by Research, Reference and Training Division, Publications Division, New Delhi: Government of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.</ref>
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