Tamil language Tamil script | References | Other websites | Navigation menutatamtamotyoty"Myanmar's and Thailand's Tamils seek to protect their identity"Tamil language"Official languages of Tamil Nadu""Official languages""Official languages of Srilanka""Official languages and national language"10.2307/20533252053325adding to it
Languages with ISO 639-2 codeLanguages with ISO 639-1 codeTamil language
Dravidian languageTamil NaduPuducherryIndiaSri LankaSingaporeMalaysialiteraryTolkāppiyamvowelsBrahmiUnited StatesGermanyFijiIndonesiaFranceAfricaThailanddiaspora
Tamil
Tamil language
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| tamil | |
|---|---|
தமிழ் tamiḻ | |
 | |
| Pronunciation | [t̪ɐmɨɻ] |
| Native to |  India (official),  Sri Lanka(national and official), Singapore(official),  Malaysia, Réunion,  Mauritius,  Burma, Australia, America, UK[1] |
| Ethnicity | Tamil people |
Native speakers | 90 million (2007)[2] 18 million as a second language[3] |
Language family | Dravidian
|
Writing system | Tamil alphabet (Brahmic) Tamil Braille |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Indian states: Tamil Nadu[4] and Puducherry,[5] Sri Lanka,[6] and Singapore.[7] |
Recognised minority language in | Malaysia Mauritius Réunion South Africa |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ta |
| ISO 639-2 | tam |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: tam – Modern Tamil oty – Old Tamil |
Linguist List | oty Old Tamil |
 Distribution of Tamil speakers around the World | |
Tamil is a Dravidian language.[8] It is spoken in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry states of India and parts of Sri Lanka. Many people in Singapore and Malaysia also speak it. A few people speaking Tamil live in various places around the world.
It is in the southern branch of the Dravidian language family. It is one of world's oldest literary languages. It has existed for at least 20,000 years.[9][10] The oldest text found in Tamil is Tolkāppiyam. Tamil is the one of the oldest living languages in the world. It is spoken by almost 90 million people.
Tamil script |
The script of the language is very old. It has 12 consonants, 18 vowels, and the āytam ஃ, which is neither a consonant nor a vowel. The āytam can be used with other letters to represent sounds not in the Tamil script, such as 'f'. The consonants and vowels can mix to form compound letters. Altogether, there are 247 sounds/sets of sounds in the Tamil script. Tamil, like English, is written from left to right.
It is a Brahmi script, and it has been said that most of the other Indian scripts are basically derived from the letters of Tamil. In a few cases, the words themselves were used in other Indian languages for better understanding. Tamil numbers have certainly shaped the numbers in other Dravidian language family.
Tamil is the dominant language in Tamil Nadu, India, and Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is also spoken in places like the United States, Germany, Fiji, Indonesia, France, Africa and Thailand. This is because of the Tamil diaspora.
References |
↑ "Myanmar's and Thailand's Tamils seek to protect their identity". BBC. Retrieved 11 April 2014..mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output .citation qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-maintdisplay:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em
↑ Nationalencyklopedin. "Världens 100 största språk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007
↑ Tamil language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
↑ "Official languages of Tamil Nadu", Tamil Nadu Government, retrieved 1 May 2007
↑ "Official languages", UNESCO, retrieved 10 May 2007
↑ "Official languages of Srilanka", State department, US, retrieved 1 May 2007
↑ "Official languages and national language", Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, Government of Singapore, retrieved 22 April 2008
↑ /ˈtæmɪl/ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
↑ Stein, Burton (1977), "Circulation and the Historical Geography of Tamil Country", The Journal of Asian Studies, 37 (1): 7–26, doi:10.2307/2053325, JSTOR 2053325
↑ Steever, Sanford B. "The Dravidian languages", First Published (1998), pp. 6–9.
ISBN 0-415-10023-2
Other websites |
 | Tamil edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Tamil at Wikibooks
 | For a list of words relating to Tamil language, see the Tamil language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
 | Wikivoyage has a travel guide about: Tamil |
Media related to Tamil language at Wikimedia Commons
Media related to Tamil language at Wikimedia Commons
This short article about Asia can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.Categories:
- Languages with ISO 639-2 code
- Languages with ISO 639-1 code
- Tamil language
(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function()mw.config.set("wgPageParseReport":"limitreport":"cputime":"0.624","walltime":"0.873","ppvisitednodes":"value":5048,"limit":1000000,"ppgeneratednodes":"value":0,"limit":1500000,"postexpandincludesize":"value":57688,"limit":2097152,"templateargumentsize":"value":8863,"limit":2097152,"expansiondepth":"value":20,"limit":40,"expensivefunctioncount":"value":2,"limit":500,"unstrip-depth":"value":1,"limit":20,"unstrip-size":"value":21151,"limit":5000000,"entityaccesscount":"value":2,"limit":400,"timingprofile":["100.00% 791.368 1 -total"," 60.41% 478.081 1 Template:Infobox_language"," 53.75% 425.335 1 Template:Infobox"," 34.31% 271.518 1 Template:Reflist"," 23.37% 184.953 1 Template:Lang"," 12.00% 94.963 14 Template:Flag"," 11.77% 93.122 1 Template:Cite_news"," 10.85% 85.879 5 Template:Citation"," 4.98% 39.371 3 Template:Main_other"," 4.86% 38.457 1 Template:IPAc-en"],"scribunto":"limitreport-timeusage":"value":"0.320","limit":"10.000","limitreport-memusage":"value":12977052,"limit":52428800,"cachereport":"origin":"mw1275","timestamp":"20191102132429","ttl":86400,"transientcontent":true););"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","name":"Tamil language","url":"https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language","sameAs":"http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5885","mainEntity":"http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5885","author":"@type":"Organization","name":"Contributors to Wikimedia projects","publisher":"@type":"Organization","name":"Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","logo":"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-hor-googpub.png","datePublished":"2006-02-14T08:54:33Z","dateModified":"2019-10-18T04:02:37Z","image":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Word_Tamil.svg","headline":"language"(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function()mw.config.set("wgBackendResponseTime":123,"wgHostname":"mw1257"););
