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Eelam
Eelam ((タミル語:ஈழம்), ''īḻam'', also spelled Eezham, Ilam or Izham in English) is the native Tamil name for the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Eelam is also a name for the spurge (a plant), toddy (an intoxicant) and gold.〔 (Online edition at the University of Chicago)〕 The exact etymology and the original meaning of the word are not clearly known, and there are number of conflicting theories. The Retroflex approximant l in Eelam is a unique phoneme for Dravidian languages, retained in closely related Tamil and Malayalam. Conventionally it has been represented in the Latin script with the digraph ''zh''.〔
==Etymology==
The earliest use of the word is found in a Tamil-Brahmi inscription as well as in the Sangam literature. The Tirupparankunram inscription found near Madurai in Tamil Nadu and dated on palaeographical grounds to the 1st century BCE, refers to a person as a householder from Eelam (''Eela-kudumpikan''). The inscription reads,
The Sangam literature ''Paṭṭiṉappālai'', mentions ''Eelattu-unavu'' (food from Eelam). One of the prominent Sangam Tamil poets is known as Īḻattup pūtaṉtēvaṉār meaning Pūtaṉtēvaṉār of Īḻam (Eelam). (Akanaṉūṟu: 88, 231, 307; Kuṟuntokai: 189, 360, 343; Naṟṟiṇai: 88, 366) The Tamil inscriptions from the Pallava & Chola period dating from 9th century CE link the word with toddy, toddy tapper's quarters (''Eelat-cheri''), tax on toddy tapping (''Eelap-poodchi''), a class of toddy tappers (''Eelath-chanran''). Eelavar is a caste of toddy tappers found in the southern parts of Kerala. The Tamil lexicons ''Thivaakaram, Pingkalam and Choodaamani'', dating from c. 8th century CE, equate the word with the Sinhala language and with gold. ''Eela-kaasu'' and ''Eela-karung-kaasu'' are refers to coinages found in the medieval inscriptions of Tamil Nadu.〔
Since the 1980s the words ''Eelam'' and ''Eelavar'' have been taken up by the Sri Lankan Tamil resistance movement. In this usage, ''Eelam'' refers to Tamil Eelam, an area covering what has been reconstructed by historians as the former Jaffna Kingdom. Eelavar now refers to the future citizens of Tamil Eelam.〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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