Editing Tamil language (section)

== Vocabulary ==
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The vocabulary of Tamil is mainly Dravidian. A strong sense of [[linguistic purism]] is found in Modern Tamil,<ref>{{Citation | doi = 10.1017/S0010417500018673| title = En/gendering Language: The Poetics of Tamil Identity| journal = Comparative Studies in Society and History| volume = 35| issue = 4| page = 683| year = 2009| last1 = Ramaswamy | first1 = S. | s2cid = 145729544}}</ref> which opposes the use of foreign loanwords.<ref>{{Harvnb|Krishnamurti|2003|p=480}}.</ref> Nonetheless, a number of words used in classical and modern Tamil are loanwords from the languages of neighbouring groups, or with whom the Tamils had trading links, including [[Malay language|Malay]] (e.g. {{IAST|cavvarici}} "sago" from Malay {{IAST|sāgu}}), Chinese (for example, {{IAST|campān}} "skiff" from Chinese san-pan) and Greek (for example, {{IAST|ora}} from Greek ὥρα). In more modern times, Tamil has imported words from [[Urdu]] and [[Marathi language|Marathi]], reflecting groups that have influenced the Tamil area at times, and from neighbouring languages such as [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Kannada]], and Sinhala. During the modern period, words have also been adapted from European languages, such as Portuguese, French, and English.<ref>{{Harvnb|Meenakshisundaran|1965|pp=169–193}}</ref>

The strongest effect of purism in Tamil has been on words taken from Sanskrit. During its history, Tamil, along with other Dravidian languages like [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Kannada]], [[Malayalam]] etc., was influenced by [[Sanskrit]] in terms of vocabulary, grammar and literary styles,<ref name="influence">"Literature in all Dravidian languages owes a great deal to Sanskrit, the magic wand whose touch raised each of the languages from a level of patois to that of a literary idiom" (Sastri 1955, p. 309); Trautmann, Thomas R. (2006). ''Languages and nations: the Dravidian proof in colonial Madras''. Berkeley: University of California Press. "The author endeavours to demonstrate that the entire Sangam poetic corpus follows the "Kavya" form of Sanskrit poetry" – {{Harvnb|Tieken|2001|p=18}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation | doi = 10.2307/597587| jstor = 597587| title = Indo-Aryan Loan Words in the Cīvakacintāmaṇi| journal = Journal of the American Oriental Society| volume = 87| issue = 4| pages = 430–434| year = 1967| last1 = Vaidyanathan | first1 = S.}}</ref><ref name="caldwell">{{Harvnb|Caldwell|1974|pp=87–88}}</ref><ref name="takahashi">Takahashi, Takanobu. (1995). ''Tamil love poetry and poetics''. Brill's Indological Library, v. 9. Leiden: E. J. Brill, pp. 16, 18. {{ISBN|90-04-10042-3}}.</ref> reflecting the increased trend of [[Sanskritisation]] in the Tamil country.<ref>Pollock, Sheldon (1996). "The Sanskrit Cosmopolis 300–1300: Transculturation, vernacularisation and the question of ideology" in Jan E. M. Houben (ed.), ''The ideology and status of Sanskrit: Contributions to the history of the Sanskrit language''. E. J. Brill, Leiden. pp. 209–217. {{ISBN|90-04-10613-8}}.</ref> Tamil vocabulary never became quite as heavily Sanskritised as that of the other Dravidian languages, and unlike in those languages, it was and remains possible to express complex ideas (including in science, art, religion and law) without the use of Sanskrit loan words.<ref>{{Citation|last=Trautmann|first=Thomas R.|title=Hullabaloo About Telugu|journal=South Asia Research| volume=19| issue=1 |year=1999 | pages=53–70|doi=10.1177/026272809901900104|s2cid=144334963}} at p. 64</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Caldwell|1974|p=50}}</ref><ref>Ellis, F. W. (1820), "Note to the introduction" in Campbell, A.D., ''A grammar of the Teloogoo language.'' Madras: College Press, pp. 29–30.</ref> In addition, Sanskritisation was actively resisted by a number of authors of the late medieval period,<ref>''See'' Ramaswamy's analysis of one such text, the ''{{transliteration|ta|ISO|Tamiḻ viṭututu}}'', in {{Citation | doi = 10.2307/2659024| jstor = 2659024| title = Language of the People in the World of Gods: Ideologies of Tamil before the Nation| journal = The Journal of Asian Studies| volume = 57| issue = 1| pages = 66–92| year = 1998| last1 = Ramaswamy | first1 = S. | s2cid = 162469583}}</ref> culminating in the 20th century in a movement called ''[[Tanittamil Iyakkam|{{IAST|taṉit tamiḻ iyakkam}}]]'' (meaning "pure Tamil movement"), led by [[Parithimaar Kalaignar]] and [[Maraimalai Adigal]], which sought to remove the accumulated influence of Sanskrit on Tamil.<ref>Varadarajan, M. ''A History of Tamil Literature'', transl. from Tamil by E. Sa. Viswanathan, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1988. p. 12: "Since then the movement has been popularly known as the ''tanittamil iyakkam'' or the Pure Tamil movement among the Tamil scholars."</ref> As a result of this, Tamil in formal documents, literature and public speeches has seen a marked decline in the use Sanskrit loan words in the past few decades,<ref>{{harvnb|Ramaswamy|1997|loc = "[http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=ft5199n9v7&chunk.id=ch4 Laboring for language]"}}: "Nevertheless, even impressionistically speaking, the marked decline in the use of foreign words, especially of Sanskritic origin, in Tamil literary, scholarly, and even bureaucratic circles over the past half century is quite striking."</ref> under some estimates having fallen from 40 to 50% to about 20%.<ref name="Krishnamurti 2003 p=480"/> As a result, the Prakrit and Sanskrit loan words used in modern Tamil are, unlike in some other Dravidian languages, restricted mainly to some spiritual terminology and [[abstract noun]]s.<ref>Meenakshisundaram, T. P. (1982) ''A History of Tamil Language'', Sarvodaya Ilakkiya Pannai. (translated) pp. 241–2</ref>

In the 20th century, institutions and learned bodies have, with government support, generated technical dictionaries for Tamil containing [[neologism]]s and words derived from Tamil roots to replace loan words from English and other languages.<ref name="thaniththamizh" /> {{as of|2019|post=,}} the language had a listed vocabulary of over 470,000 unique words, including those from old literary sources. In November 2019, the state government issued an order to add 9,000 new words to the vocabulary.<ref>{{cite news
| title = By govt. order: 9,000 words to enter Tamil vocabulary 
| newspaper = The Hindu
| location = Chennai
| pages = 2
| publisher = Kasturi & Sons
| date = 9 November 2019
| url = https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tamil-to-get-9000-new-words/article29919044.ece
| access-date = 29 December 2019}}</ref>