The Tirunelveli Tamil Dialect (TTD) has on the whole 41 phonemes of which 31 are segmental and the remaining 10 are suprasegmental.[3]Nellai Tamil also preserves archaic kinship terms that other dialects have long discarded. However, the most unusual feature of the Tamil spoken in the Tirunelveli region is that the medial "c" is pronounced as avoiceless palatal affricate as in Old Tamil and has not undergone the change to the dental "s" as in most other dialects.[4]
Nellai Tamil has been used in a number of Tamil movies. Some of them areSeevalaperi Pandi,Dum Dum Dum,Saamy,Ayya,Kovil,Thamiraparani,Roja,Thirunelveli,Kushi,Sillunu Oru Kadhal,Raman Thediya Seethai,Pidichirukku,Shankhar Ooru Rajapalayam,Kannum Kannum,Unakkum Enakkum Something Something,Dasavatharam,Seval,Thoothukudi,Veeramum Eeramum,Gentleman,Anniyan,Saadhu,Pudhu Nellu Pudhu Naatthu,Punnagai Mannan,Velai Kidaichiruchu,Thanneer Thanneer,Angadi Theru,Kadal,Osthee,Singam 1,Singam 2,Singam 3,Bhairava (Vijay Film),Asuran (Dhanush Film),Attagasam
Kamal Haasan's 2015 moviePapanasam, a remake of the 2013 Malayalam filmDrishyam, also features Nellai Tamil.
^Pillai, S. Anavartavinayakam (1974). "The Sanskrit Element in Dravidian Languages". In Mark Collines (ed.).Dravidian Studies. University of Madras. pp. 117–118.
