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Restored revision 1268196002 by Jreiss17 (talk): There is not one colloquial pronounciation. e.g. SL Tamils and those in Kanyakumari pronounce it not as ள். |
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Tamil was the [[lingua franca]] for early maritime traders, with inscriptions found in places like [[Sri Lanka]], [[Thailand]], and [[Egypt]]. The language has a well-documented history with literary works like [[Sangam literature]], consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later, the vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations.
Tamil is predominantly spoken in [[Tamil Nadu]] and [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]] India, and the [[Provinces of Sri Lanka|Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka]]. It has significant speaking populations in [[Malaysia]], [[Myanmar]], [[Singapore]], and among [[Tamil Diaspora|diaspora communities]]. Tamil has been recognized as a classical language by the Indian government in 2004.
== Etymology ==
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===Brahmi script===
About 60,000 of the approximately 100,000 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>
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== Dialects ==
[[File:Jambai Tamil Brahmi.jpg|thumb|upright=1.81|[[Athiyamān Nedumān Añci|Jambai Tamil Brahmi inscription]] near [[Tirukkoyilur]] in [[Villupuram district]], Tamil Nadu dated to the early [[Tamil Sangam]] age ({{Circa|400
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