Editing Tamil language (section)

=== 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>