Editing Tamil language (section)

== 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 BC}})]]
{{Listen
| type          = speech
| header        =
| filename      = Oppaari Song.ogg
| title         = Colloquial Tamil 'Oppaari song'
| description   = Oppaari song lamenting death, sung by women during a death ceremony. Here it is the death of a son lamented by the mother.
| filename2     = Ta-ponnagaram.ogg
| title2        = Pudumaipithan's short story 'Pon Nagaram'
| description2  = Audio recording of [[Pudumaipithan]]'s short story 'Pon Nagaram' (showing a few loanwords).
}}

=== Region-specific variations ===
{{see also|Sri Lankan Tamil dialects|Indian Tamil dialect of Sri Lanka}}
The [[Socio-linguistics|socio-linguistic]] situation of Tamil is characterised by [[diglossia]]: there are two separate registers varying by [[socioeconomic status]], a high register and a low one.<ref>Arokianathan, S. [http://www.ciil-ebooks.net/html/piil/acharya2.html Writing and Diglossic: A Case Study of Tamil Radio Plays] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928092717/https://www.ciil-ebooks.net/html/piil/acharya2.html |date=28 September 2007 }}. ciil-ebooks.net</ref><ref>{{Citation | doi = 10.2307/414796| jstor = 414796| title = Diglossia: A Study of the Theory, with Application to Tamil| journal = Language| volume = 64| issue = 1| pages = 152–155| year = 1988| last1 = Steever | first1 = S. B. | last2 = Britto | first2 = F. }}</ref> Tamil dialects are primarily differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example, the word for "here"—''{{IAST|iṅku}}'' in ''Centamil'' (the classic variety)—has evolved into ''{{IAST |iṅkū}}'' in the Kongu dialect of [[Coimbatore]], ''inga'' in the dialects of [[Thanjavur]] and [[Palakkad]],  and ''{{IAST |iṅkai}}'' in some [[Sri Lankan Tamil dialects|dialects of Sri Lanka]]. Old Tamil's ''{{IAST|iṅkaṇ}}'' (where ''{{IAST|kaṇ}}'' means place) is the source of ''{{IAST |iṅkane}}'' in the dialect of [[Tirunelveli]], Old Tamil ''{{IAST |iṅkiṭṭu}}'' is the source of ''{{IAST |iṅkuṭṭu}}'' in the dialect of [[Madurai]], and ''{{IAST |iṅkaṭe}}'' in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear "{{IAST|akkaṭṭa}}" meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India,<ref name="Lehmann 1998 75"/><ref name=as>{{Harvnb|Annamalai|Steever|1998|pp=100–28}}</ref> and use many other words slightly differently.<ref>{{Citation | doi = 10.1163/000000066790086440| title = Some features of Ceylon Tamil| journal = Indo-Iranian Journal| volume = 9| issue = 2| page = 113| year = 1966| last1 = Zvelebil | first1 = K. }}</ref> Tamil dialects include [[Central Tamil dialect]], [[Kongu Tamil]], [[Madras Bashai]], [[Madurai Tamil]], [[Nellai Tamil]], Kumari Tamil in [[India]]; [[Batticaloa Tamil dialect]], [[Jaffna Tamil dialect]], [[Negombo Tamil dialect]] in Sri Lanka; and [[Malaysian Tamil]] in Malaysia. [[Sankethi dialect]] in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by [[Kannada]].

==== Loanword variations ====
{{See also|Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil|Loan words in Sri Lankan Tamil}}
The dialect of the district of [[Palakkad]] in Kerala has many [[Malayalam]] loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from [[Kanyakumari district]] is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. [[Hebbar Iyengars|Hebbar]] and [[Mandyam]] dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil [[Vaishnavism|Vaishnavites]] who migrated to [[Karnataka]] in the 11th century, retain many features of the ''Vaishnava paribasai'', a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values.<ref>Thiru. Mu (1978). Kovintācāriyar, ''{{IAST|Vāḻaiyaṭi vāḻai}}'' Lifco, Madras, pp. 26–39.</ref> Several [[caste]]s have their own [[sociolect]]s which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech.<ref name="EB 2007">Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2013) [http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581953/Tamil-language "Tamil dialects"] in ''Tamil language''. Encyclopædia Britannica Online</ref> For example, [[Tamil Brahmin]]s tend to speak a variety of dialects that are all collectively known as [[Brahmin Tamil]]. These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many [[Sanskrit]] loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates [[Loan words in Sri Lankan Tamil|loan words]] from [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Dutch Language|Dutch]], and English.