Tamil language
The 'l' in the word 'Tamil' is pronounced like a retroflex 'r', and is often transliterated as "zh". The letter 'ழ' which is found in 'தமிழ்' (Tamil) is believed to have unique pronunciation and not found in any other languages. See Tamil alphabet.
| Tamil (தமிழ்) | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation (Approximate; no phonetic symbol available yet for the unique final 'l'): | tha-mi-zh SAMPA: /t{mIl/ IPA: /tæmɪl/ |
| Spoken in: | India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia |
| Region: | Tamil Nadu and neighboring states |
| Total speakers: | 61 million |
| Ranking: | 18 |
| Genetic classification: |
Dravidian Southern Tamil-Kannada-Telugu Tamil-Kodagu Tamil-Malayalam Tamil Tamil |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | India, Sri Lanka, Singapore |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1: | ta |
| ISO 639-2: | tam |
| SIL: | TCV |
History
Tamil's origins are independent of Sanskrit (which is from the Indo-European language family and the ancestor of many Indian languages), but it has borrowed a number of words from Sanskrit in recent centuries. Quite significantly for its age, Tamil seems to have undergone minimal changes and adaptations over the years. Classical Tamil is quite comprehensible to speakers of the modern language. The ancient Tamil book Tirukkural is an example. The verses from the book are often taught to young students of the language at the primary level, and they pick up the lines in the ancient dialect with little difficulty.
Classification
Tamil is a member of the Tamil languages group of languages, along with Irula, Kaikadi, Betta Kurumba, Sholaga, Yerukula. The Tamil languages are a subgroup of the Tamil-Malayalam languages, which in turn is a subgroup of Tamil-Kodagu languages, a subgroup of Tamil-Kannada-Telugu languages. The Tamil-Kannada-Telugu languages are a subgroup of the Southern branch of the Dravidian language family.
Geographic distribution
Tamil is spoken mainly in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Tamil is also spoken in Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Official status
Tamil is one of the 22 official languages of India. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore.
Dialects
Dialects of Tamil identified by the Ethnologue are: Adi Dravida, Aiyar, Aiyangar, Arava, Burgandi, Kasuva, Kongar, Korava, Korchi, Madrasi, Parikala, Pattapu Bhasha, Sri Lanka Tamil, Malaya Tamil, Burma Tamil, South Africa Tamil, Tigalu, Harijan, Sanketi, Hebbar, Tirunelveli, Madurai.
Derived languages
Malayalam developed from a dialect of Tamil called Koduntamil or Malaithamil (literally Tamil of the mountains), spoken by the people around the hilly ranges bordering Kerala and Tamil Nadu states.
The Tamil script evolved from the Grantha script of the Southern Indian group of scripts. Interestingly, the Tamil language is one of the oldest recorded languages in southern India. The earliest texts, written in a southern variant of Brahmi, date from just before the 1st century CE. Later, the Grantha script was employed to write the Tamil language until the 8th century CE when a distinctive script evolve to exclusively write the language. The system has changed little since.
Main article: Tamil alphabet
Tamil has its own writing system, which is similar to the Brahmi script of ancient India.
Writing system
Examples
There is a Tamil language WikipediaSee also
External links
Learning
Recognition of Tamil as a classical language
Tamil is about to declared as a "classical language" by the Indian government. These links are about that news.
Fonts and Encodings
Discussions
Other