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Extended Tamil script
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<h2 id="history">History</h2> <p>The <a href="/facts/Tanittamil_Iyakkam/bBDNFeRF">Independent Tamil Movement</a> of the colonial era purged Grantha characters from use (calling "<a href="/facts/Grantha_script/V329dYoU">Grantha</a>" an Aryan "pollution" of Tamil) and with support from <a href="/facts/Dravidian_parties/PNBbIm30">Dravidian parties</a>, mandated to exclusively use the reformed minimal-Tamil script.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> They also successfully "cleaned" Tamil textbooks by replacing <a href="/facts/Indo-Aryan_languages/hm2N7fYp">Indo-Aryan</a> vocabulary with pure-Tamil words, especially Sanskritic/Prakritic words that entered via Middle-Tamil; hence making Grantha characters almost useless in modern formal-Tamil.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> According to Kailasapathy, this was a part of Dravidian nationalism and amounted to regional ethnic chauvinism.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> </p><p>Although the predominant amount of classical Tamil literature is written in <a href="/facts/Middle_Tamil/rVKGVg5h">Middle Tamil</a>, Tamil purists regard only <a href="/facts/Old_Tamil/czC2Nb2x">Old Tamil</a> as the authentic source for <a href="/facts/Tamil_grammar/urbMgaq6">Tamil grammar</a> and literature. Based on vocabulary, Tamil is classified into two registers: செந்தமிழ் (centamiḻ) meaning 'good' (or 'pure') Tamil and கொடுந்தமிழ் (koṭuntamiḻ) meaning 'horrible' (or 'corrupt') Tamil. Purists classify Middle Tamil as belonging to the latter class, thereby enabling the Dravidian movement to call Tamil-Grantha as impure. </p><p>Hence in the present day, only a few religious texts have the inclination to choose Tamil-Grantha; all other domains have adapted to Modern-Tamil. </p> <h2 id="digital-usage">Digital usage</h2> <p>Since Modern-Tamil <a href="/facts/Unicode/DDu3MfPV">unicode</a> does not support all the missing consonants from Extended-Tamil, generally it is not possible to digitally encode it easily. It is possible to use fonts like <i>Lopamudra</i> and <i>Agastya</i> on top of Malayalam text to render it like Extended-Tamil. Or one can also use modified fonts that support rendering <a href="/facts/Grantha_Unicode/KRaIWGTN">Grantha Unicode</a>. </p><p>There were proposals to reunify Grantha into Modern-<a href="/facts/Tamil_Unicode/pdsDTWQS">Tamil Unicode</a>;<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> however, the proposal triggered discontent by some.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> Considering the sensitivity involved and rejection<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> of the proposal by the Tamil Nadu government, it was determined by the Indian government that the two scripts should not be unified, except numerals<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> and a separate Unicode block was allocated to Grantha. </p> <h3>Computing resources</h3> <ul><li><a href="http://aksharamukha.appspot.com/converter"><i>AksharaMukha</i></a> - To convert Indic/Roman text to Extended-Tamil</li> <li><a href="http://www.virtualvinodh.com/projects/agastya"><i>Agastya & Lopamudra</i></a> - Download Tamil-Grantha Fonts</li></ul> <h2 id="non-indic-consonants">Non-Indic consonants</h2> <p>Tamil script can also be extended with ஃ (ஆய்த எழுத்து, <i>āyda eḻuttu</i>, equivalent to <a href="/facts/Nuqta/5NgIQuWR">nuqta</a>) to represent phonemes of foreign languages, especially used to write <a href="/facts/Islamic/zDLbL45C">Islamic</a> and <a href="/facts/Christian/15hE11VR">Christian</a> texts. </p> <table><tbody><tr><th>Adapted-Tamil</th><th><a href="/facts/Latin/pM3Kge85">Latin</a></th><th><a href="/facts/Perso-Arabic/GB5gsj1F">Perso-Arabic</a></th><th><a href="/facts/Devanagari/dQvQ3Ufs">Devanagari</a></th></tr><tr><td>ஃஜ</td><td>za</td><td>ز</td><td>ज़</td></tr><tr><td>ஃக</td><td>qa</td><td>ق</td><td>क़</td></tr><tr><td>ஃப</td><td>fa</td><td>ف</td><td>फ़</td></tr><tr><td>ஃவ</td><td>wa</td><td>و<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a></td><td>व़</td></tr><tr><td>ஃஷ</td><td>zha<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a></td><td>ژ</td><td>झ़</td></tr><tr><td>ஃஸ</td><td>Sa or 9</td><td>ص</td><td>स़</td></tr><tr><td>ஃக்ஹ</td><td>kha</td><td>خ</td><td>ख़</td></tr><tr><td>ஃஹ</td><td>Ha or 7</td><td>ح</td><td>ह़</td></tr><tr><td>ஃத</td><td>Ta or 6</td><td>ط</td><td>त़</td></tr></tbody></table> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Simplified_Tamil_script/QyoKTEgF">Simplified Tamil script</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Tamil_99/Y72vIQyY">Tamil 99</a></li> <li>தமிழ் 99</li> <li><a href="/facts/InScript/FM3bMEQH">InScript</a></li> <li><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Brahmic_keyboard_layouts">Brahmic keyboard layouts</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Keyboard_layout/6aYkBXuK">Keyboard layout</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Tamil_(Unicode_block)/pdsDTWQS">Tamil (Unicode block)</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Tamil_blogosphere/svHlQbhu">Tamil blogosphere</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Tamil_All_Character_Encoding/1bfWTPBk">Tamil All Character Encoding</a></li></ul> <h2 id="notes">Notes</h2> <h3>Works cited</h3> <ul><li>Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). <i>The Dravidian Languages</i>. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge University Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-521-77111-5.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Iravatham_Mahadevan/8pwQe2fy">Mahadevan, Iravatham</a> (2003), <i>Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D</i>, Harvard Oriental Series, vol. 62, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-674-01227-1</li> <li>Meenakshisundaran, T.P. (1965), <i>A History of Tamil Language</i>, Poona: Deccan College</li> <li>Ramaswamy, Sumathy (1997). <a href="http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5199n9v7/"><i>Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891–1970</i></a>. Berkeley: University of California Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-585-10600-7.</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Kailasapathy, K. (1979). "The Tamil Purist Movement: A Re-Evaluation". Social Scientist. 7 (10): 23–51. doi:10.2307/3516775. ISSN 0970-0293. JSTOR 3516775. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516775" target="_blank">https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516775</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Meenakshisundaran 1965, pp. 145–146 - Meenakshisundaran, T.P. (1965), A History of Tamil Language, Poona: Deccan College <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Mahadevan 2003, pp. 208–213 - Mahadevan, Iravatham (2003), Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D, Harvard Oriental Series, vol. 62, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-01227-1 <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Extended Tamil font". Retrieved 2021-07-03. <a href="http://www.virtualvinodh.com/projects/agastya" target="_blank">http://www.virtualvinodh.com/projects/agastya</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"The two ways to represent Tamil Shri". Unicode. Retrieved 11 December 2021. <a href="https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2018/18054-tamil-shri.txt" target="_blank">https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2018/18054-tamil-shri.txt</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Ramaswamy 1997 - Ramaswamy, Sumathy (1997). Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891–1970. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-585-10600-7. <a href="http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5199n9v7/" target="_blank">http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5199n9v7/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Krishnamurti 2003, p. 480 - Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77111-5. <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Kailasapathy, K. (1979). "The Tamil Purist Movement: A Re-Evaluation". Social Scientist. 7 (10): 23–51. doi:10.2307/3516775. ISSN 0970-0293. JSTOR 3516775. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516775" target="_blank">https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516775</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Sharma, Shriramana. (2010a). Proposal to encode characters for Extended Tamil. <a href="https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10256r-extended-tamil.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10256r-extended-tamil.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Sharma, Shriramana. (2010b). Follow-up to Extended Tamil proposal L2/10-256R. <a href="http://unicode.org/L2/L2010/10379--extended-tamil.pdf" target="_blank">http://unicode.org/L2/L2010/10379--extended-tamil.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Eraiyarasan, B. (2011). Dr. B.Eraiyarasan’s comments on Tamil Unicode And Grantham proposals. <a href="https://unicode.org/L2/L2011/11055-tamil-grantha.pdf" target="_blank">https://unicode.org/L2/L2011/11055-tamil-grantha.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>"Attempts to Pollute Tamil Unicode with Grantha Characters". 2020-03-06. Archived from the original on 2020-03-06. Retrieved 2024-08-22. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200306030655/http://www.tamiltribune.com/18/1201.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20200306030655/http://www.tamiltribune.com/18/1201.html</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Tamil Nadu government (2010) Rejection reason. <a href="https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10464-tamil-nadu.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10464-tamil-nadu.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Government of India (2010). Unicode Standard for Grantha Script. <a href="https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10409-grantha-meeting-sum.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10409-grantha-meeting-sum.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Pronounced as /v/ or /w/ based on context of letter <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>Not to be confused with Tamil ழ ( [ɻ] / ḻ ) <a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/Tamil" target="_blank">/wiki/Help:IPA/Tamil</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>