Editing Tamil language (section)

===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>