Tamil தமிழ் tamiḻ
Pronunciation:	[t̪ɐmɨɻ] (Listen)
Spoken in:	India, Sri Lanka and Singapore, where it has an official status; with significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius, and Réunion, and emigrant communities around the world. Tami (תמ"י an acronym for Tenoa'a laMesorat Yisrael (Hebrew תנועה למסורת ישראל lit Movement for the Heritage of Israel) was a Sephardi India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Singapore For the biogeographical region see Malesia Malaysia (məˈleɪʒə or /məˈleɪziə/ is a country that consists of thirteen states and Mauritius (pronounced məˈrɪʃəs L’île Maurice /il mɔ'ʁis/ Mauritian Creole: Maurice) officially the Republic of Mauritius, République Réunion ( French: Réunion or formally La Réunion; previously Île Bourbon) is an island located in the Indian Ocean, east of [1]
Total speakers:	68 million native,[2][3] 77 million total[2]
Ranking:	20, 16,[1] 15[4](native speakers)
Language family:	Dravidian  Southern   Tamil-Kannada    Tamil-Kodagu     Tamil-Malayalam      Tamil
Writing system:	Tamil script
Official status
Official language in:	India,[5][6]  Sri Lanka,[7] and  Singapore. This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada Tamil-Kannada is a hypothetical inner branch (Zvelebil 199056 of the South Dravidian I (SDr I subfamily of the Southern Dravidian languages that include Tamil The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Singapore [8]
Regulated by:	Various academies and the Government of Tamil Nadu
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	ta
ISO 639-2:	tam
ISO 639-3:	tam
This page contains Indic text. This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. Tamil Nadu ( Tamil:, Country of the Tamils, t̪ɐmɨɻ n̪aːɽɯ is one of the 28 states of India. ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Tamil (தமிழ் tamiḻ; IPA: [t̪ɐmɨɻ]) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada Tamil people (also called Tamils or Tamilians) ( are an Ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, a state in India, and the north-eastern This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia For geopolitical treatments see South Asia. It has official status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Singapore Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius, and Réunion, as well as emigrant communities around the world. For the biogeographical region see Malesia Malaysia (məˈleɪʒə or /məˈleɪziə/ is a country that consists of thirteen states and Mauritius (pronounced məˈrɪʃəs L’île Maurice /il mɔ'ʁis/ Mauritian Creole: Maurice) officially the Republic of Mauritius, République Réunion ( French: Réunion or formally La Réunion; previously Île Bourbon) is an island located in the Indian Ocean, east of ^[1] It is the administrative language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and the first Indian language to be declared as a classical language by the government of India in 2004, followed by Sanskrit. India is a union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. Tamil Nadu ( Tamil:, Country of the Tamils, t̪ɐmɨɻ n̪aːɽɯ is one of the 28 states of India. ^[9][10]

Tamil literature has existed for over two thousand years. Tamil literature refers to the Literature in the Tamil language. ^[11] The earliest epigraphic records found date from around the third century BCE^[12] and the Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம்), the oldest known treatise in Tamil, has been dated variously between 2nd century BCE and 10th century CE. Epigraphy (ἐπιγραφολογία from Greek ἐπιγραφή — "inscription" is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs engraved The Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம் is a work on the Grammar of the Tamil language and the earliest extant work of Tamil ^{[13][14][15][16][17][18]} Similarly, the earliest period of Tamil literature, Sangam literature, is dated to between the 2nd century BCE and 10th century CE. Sangam literature refers to a body of classical Tamil literature created between the years 300 BCE and 600 CE ^[13][19]

Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class, number, and case, verb tense and other grammatical categories. In Linguistics, agglutination is the morphological process ofadding Affixes to the base of a Word. In Linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing Nouns A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its Referent In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs Tamil's standard metalanguage (the language used for naming its technical and linguistic terms) is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most other Dravidian languages. In Logic and Linguistics, a metalanguage is a Language used to make statements about statements in another language which is called the Object Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada ^[20][21] According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. ^[22]

Contents 1 Classification 2 History 3 Geographic distribution 3.1 Legal status 3.2 Dialects 3.3 Spoken and literary variants 4 Writing system 5 Sounds 5.1 Vowels 5.2 Consonants 5.3 Āytam 5.4 Numerals & Symbols 6 Grammar 6.1 Morphology 6.2 Syntax 7 Vocabulary 8 See also 9 References 10 Footnotes 11 External links

Classification

Main article: Dravidian languages

Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages, a family of around twenty-six languages native to the Indian subcontinent. The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia For geopolitical treatments see South Asia. ^[23] It is sometimes classified as being part of a Tamil language family, which alongside Tamil proper, also includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups^[24] such as the Irula, and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue). Tamil language family is a group of Dravidian languages closely related to Tamil language, which includes the Irula, Kaikadi, Betta Kurumba Irula is a Scheduled tribe of India. Irulas are found in various parts of India but their main habitat is in the Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu Yerukula is a Dravidian language mainly spoken by the Yerukala tribe Ethnologue Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics a Christian

The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam. Until about the ninth century, Tamil and Malayalam were dialects of one language,^[25] called "Tamil" by the speakers of both. Not to be confused with the Malay language. Malayalam (മലയാളം malayāḷaṁ) is a Dravidian language used ^[26] Although many of the differences between Tamil and Malayalam evidence a pre-historic split between eastern and western dialects,^[27] the process of separation of the two into distinct languages was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. ^[28]

History

Tamil is one of the ancient languages of the world with records in the language dating back over two millennia. ^[29][30] Its origins are not precisely known, but it developed and flourished in India as a language with a rich literature. ^[29][31] With an estimated 30,000 inscriptions, Tamil has the largest number of inscriptions in South Asia. ^[32]

Tamil has the oldest extant literature amongst the Dravidian languages, but dating the language and the literature precisely is difficult. The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada Literary works in India were preserved either in palm leaf manuscripts (implying repeated copying and recopying) or through oral transmission, making direct dating impossible. Palm leaf manuscripts are Manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves ^[33] External chronological records and internal linguistic evidence, however, indicate that the oldest extant works were probably compiled sometime between the 2nd century BCE and the 10th century CE. ^[34][17][18]

Tamil scholars categorize the history of the language into three periods, Old Tamil (300 BC - 700 CE), Middle Tamil (700 - 1600) and Modern Tamil (1600-present). ^[35] Epigraphic attestation of Tamil begins with rock inscriptions from the 3rd century BC, written in Tamil-Brahmi, an adapted form of the Brahmi script. Tamil-Brahmi was an early variant of the Brahmi script used to write Tamil characters Brāhmī script refers to the oldest members of the Brahmic family of alphabets. ^[12] The earliest extant literary text is the Tolkāppiyam, a work on poetics and grammar which describes the language of the classical period, dated variously between the 3rd century BCE and 5th century CE. The Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம் is a work on the Grammar of the Tamil language and the earliest extant work of Tamil

The Sangam literature contains about 50,000 lines of poetry contained in 2381 poems attributed to 473 poets including many women poets. ^[36][37] Many of the poems of Sangam period were also set to music. ^[38] During the post-Sangam period, important works like Thirukkural, and epic poems were composed, including Silappatikaram, Manimekalai, Sīvakacintāmani, Valaiyapathi and Kundalakesi which are known as the five great epics. Silappatikaram ( Tamil: சிலப்பதிகாரம்; siləppəd̪iɡɑːrəm is one of the five great epics of ancient Tamil Literature Manimekalai ( மணிமேகலை) written by Seethalai Saathanar is one of the masterpieces of Tamil literature and is considered as one of the The Bhakthi period is known for the great outpouring of devotional songs set to pann music, including over eight thousand Tevaram verses on Saivism and four thousand verses on Vaishnavism. Pann ( Tamil:பண் is the melolic mode used by the Tamil people in their music since the ancient times Shaivism, also spelled "Saivism" names the oldest of the four sects of Hinduism. Vaishnavism is a tradition of Hinduism, distinguished from other schools by its worship of Vishnu or its associated avatars principally as Rama and ^[39] The early mediaeval Period gave rise to a popular adaptation of the Ramayana in Tamil, known as Kamba Ramayanam and a story of 63 Nayanmars known as Periyapuranam. The Rāmāyaṇa ( Devanāgarī: sa रामायण is an ancient Sanskrit epic attributed to the Hindu sage ( Maharishi) Valmiki Ramavataram ( இராமாவதாரம்) popularly referred to as Kamba Ramayanam (கம்ப இராமாயணம் is a Tamil epic The Nayanars or Nayanmars were Shaivite devotional poets of Tamil Nadu, active between the fifth and the tenth centuries CE ^[40]

Geographic distribution

Tamil is the first language of the majority in Tamil Nadu, India and North Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu ( Tamil:, Country of the Tamils, t̪ɐmɨɻ n̪aːɽɯ is one of the 28 states of India. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The North Eastern Province of Sri Lanka was an administrative unit created following the merger of the Northern Province and the Eastern Province of Sri Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island The language is spoken by small groups of minorities in other parts of these two countries such as Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur and Maharashtra in case of India and Colombo and the hill country in case of Sri Lanka. Karnataka (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ pronounced) is a state in the southern part of India Kerala ( Malayalam: {{Kerala in Malayalam}}; Manipur (mnipur in Meitei Mayek) is a state in northeastern India, making its capital in the city of Maharashtra ( Marathi: mahārāṣṭra, IPA) is a state located on the western coast of India. Colombo ( Sinhala:, ˈkoləmbə Tamil: கொழும்பு is the largest city and commercial capital of Sri Lanka.

There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, South Africa, and Mauritius. The Tamil Diaspora is a term used to denote people of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan Tamil origin who have settled in many parts of the rest of For the biogeographical region see Malesia Malaysia (məˈleɪʒə or /məˈleɪziə/ is a country that consists of thirteen states and Singapore Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar ( pjìdàunzṵ mjàmmà nàinŋàndɔ̀ is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. The majority of South Africa's Asian population is Indian in origin many of them descended from indentured workers brought to work on the sugar plantations of the eastern coastal area then known Mauritius (pronounced məˈrɪʃəs L’île Maurice /il mɔ'ʁis/ Mauritian Creole: Maurice) officially the Republic of Mauritius, République Many people in Guyana, Fiji, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins,^[41] but only a small number speak the language there. Guyana (ɡaɪˈænə or /ɡiːˈɑːnə/ officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is the only Nation state Fiji (Matanitu ko Viti फ़िजी officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands (Matanitu Tu-Vaka-i-koya ko Viti फ़िजी द्वीप समूह गणराज्य Suriname ( Dutch: Suriname; Sranan Tongo: Sranan) officially the Republic of Suriname (traditionally spelled Surinam by The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (ˈtrɪnɪdæd ən təˈbeɪgoʊ is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American Groups of more recent migrants from Sri Lanka and India exist in Canada (especially Toronto), USA, Australia, many Middle Eastern countries, and most of the western European countries. The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora refers to the global Diaspora of the people of Sri Lankan Tamil origin Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Toronto (təˈrɒntoʊ colloquially pronounced or) is the largest city in Canada and is the provincial capital of Ontario The United States of America —commonly referred to as the For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East.

Legal status

Tamil is the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Pondicherry^[42][43] and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands^[44] It is one of 23 nationally recognised languages in the Constitution of India. Puducherry (formerly; புதுச்சேரி or பாண்டிச்சேரி పాండిచెర్రి പുതുശ്ശേരി Pondichéry is a The Andaman & Nicobar Islands is a Union territory of India. Informally the territory's name is often abbreviated to A & N Islands, or ANI India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Tamil is also one of the official languages of Sri Lanka and Singapore. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Singapore In Malaysia, primary education in government schools is also available fully in Tamil. For the biogeographical region see Malesia Malaysia (məˈleɪʒə or /məˈleɪziə/ is a country that consists of thirteen states and Education in Malaysia may be obtained from government-sponsored schools, Private schools or through Homeschooling.

In addition, with the creation in 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations^[45][46] Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. A classical language, is a language with a Literature that is "classical"&mdashie "it should be ancient it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly The recognition was announced by the then President of India, Dr. The President of India or Rashtrapati ( Hindi: राष्ट्रपति a Sanskrit Neologism, lit Abdul Kalam, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on June 6, 2004. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (அவுல் பகீர் ஜைனுலாப்தீன் அப்துல் கலாம் born October 15 1931 Tamil Nadu The Parliament of India (or Sansad) is the federal and supreme Legislative body of India. Events 1508 - Maximilian I Holy Roman Emperor, is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three-year "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " ^[47][9][10]

Dialects

Tamil is a diglossic language. In Linguistics, diglossia is a situation where in a given society there are two (often closely-related languages one of high prestige, which is generally used ^[48][49] Tamil dialects are mainly differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example, the word for "here" —iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore, inga in the dialect of Thanjavur, and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka. Coimbatore (கோயம்புத்தூர் also known as Kovai (கோவை is a major industrial city in India and the second largest city in the Thanjavur ( Tamil: தஞ்சாவூர் also known by its Anglicised name Tanjore, and it is the Eleventh largest city in Tamil Nadu (after The Sri Lankan Tamil dialects or Ceylon Tamil dialects form a group of Tamil Dialects used in the modern country of Sri Lanka by Sri Lankan Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli, Old Tamil iṅkaṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in the dialect of Ramanathapuram, and iṅkaṭe in various northern dialects. Tirunelveli (திருநெல்வேலி is a city in Tamil Nadu and was formed into a Municipal corporation in 1999 by merging three municipalities viz WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Ramanathapuram, also known as Ramnad, is a city and a Municipality in Ramanathapuram district Even now in Coimbatore area it is common to hear "akkaṭṭa" meaning "that place".

Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India,^[50] and use many other words slightly differently. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country ^[51] The dialect of the district of Palakkad in kerala has a large number of Malayalam loanwords, has also been influenced by Malayalam syntax and also has a distinct Malayalam accent. For the district with the same name see Palakkad District. Palakkad, also known as Palghat (anglicized is a town and a Municipality Not to be confused with the Malay language. Malayalam (മലയാളം malayāḷaṁ) is a Dravidian language used Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in the eleventh century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai, a special form of Tamil developed in the ninth and tenth centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values. Hebbar Iyengars, a formerly endogamous group constitute a part of the Iyengar sub-caste of Tamil Brahmins residing in Karnataka Mandyam or Mandyam Tamil is a dialect of the Tamil language spoken in Karnataka, India. Vaishnavism is a tradition of Hinduism, distinguished from other schools by its worship of Vishnu or its associated avatars principally as Rama and Karnataka (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ pronounced) is a state in the southern part of India ^[52] Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. Castes are Hereditary systems of occupation, Endogamy, social culture, Social class, and Political power. In Linguistics, a sociolect is the variety of language characteristic of a social background or status It is often possible to identify a person’s caste by their speech. ^[53]

Spoken and literary variants

In addition to its various dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on the ancient language (caṅkattamiḻ), a modern literary and formal style (centamiḻ), and a modern colloquial form (koṭuntamiḻ). A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech, writing or Paralinguistics. These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ, or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ. ^[54]

In modern times, centamiḻ is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. Tamil literature refers to the Literature in the Tamil language. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ. Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example, is in koṭuntamiḻ, and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) is the branch of the Performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one A politician (from Greek " Polis " is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of Politics or a person The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial ‘standard’ spoken dialects. In India, the ‘standard’ koṭuntamiḻ is based on ‘educated non-brahmin speech’, rather than on any one dialect,^[55] but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Thanjavur ( Tamil: தஞ்சாவூர் also known by its Anglicised name Tanjore, and it is the Eleventh largest city in Tamil Nadu (after Madurai In Sri Lanka the standard is based on the dialect of Jaffna. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Jaffna or Yazhpanam (யாழ்ப்பாணம் in Tamil meaning யாழ்=

Writing system

Main article: Tamil script

Tamil is written using a script called the vaṭṭeḻuttu. The Tamil script consists of 12 vowels, 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters. As with other Indic scripts, all consonants have an inherent vowel a, which in Tamil, is removed by adding an overdot called a puḷḷi, to the consonantal sign. The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, Unlike most Indic scripts, the Tamil script does not distinguish between voiced and unvoiced plosives. A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Instead, plosives are articulated with voice or unvoiced depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology, as discussed below. See also Tamil language The Tamil alphabet distinguishes 12 Vowels and 18 Consonants These combine to form 216 compound characters

In addition to the standard characters, six characters taken from the Grantha script, which was used in the Tamil region to write Sanskrit, are sometimes used to represent sounds not native to Tamil, that is, words borrowed from Sanskrit, Prakrit and other languages. The Brihadishwara Temple ( Tamil: ta பெருவுடையார் கோவில் also known as Rajarajeswaram, at Thanjavur is a brilliant Thanjavur ( Tamil: தஞ்சாவூர் also known by its Anglicised name Tanjore, and it is the Eleventh largest city in Tamil Nadu (after Grantha ( Tamil: கிரந்த ௭ழுத்து Bengali: গ্রন্থলিপি Malayalam: ml ഗ്രന്ഥലിപി Sanskrit The traditional system prescribed by classical grammars for writing loan-words, which involves respelling them in accordance with Tamil phonology remains, but is not always consistently applied. ^[56]

Sounds

Main article: Tamil phonology

Tamil phonology is characterised by the presence of retroflex consonants, and strict rules for the distribution within words of voiced and unvoiced plosives. See also Tamil language The Tamil alphabet distinguishes 12 Vowels and 18 Consonants These combine to form 216 compound characters In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Tamil phonology permits few consonant clusters, which can never be word initial. Native grammarians classify Tamil phonemes into vowels, consonants, and a "secondary character", the āytam.

Vowels

Tamil vowels are called uyireḻuttu (uyir – life, eḻuttu – letter). The vowels are classified into short (kuṟil) and long (five of each type) and two diphthongs, /ai/ and /au/, and three "shortened" (kuṟṟiyal) vowels. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with

The long (neṭil) vowels are about twice as long as the short vowels. The diphthongs are usually pronounced about 1. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with 5 times as long as the short vowels, though most grammatical texts place them with the long vowels.

	Short			Long
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u	iː		uː
	இ		உ	ஈ		ஊ
Mid	e		o	eː		oː
	எ		ஒ	ஏ		ஓ
Open		a		(aj)	aː	(aw)
		அ		ஐ	ஆ	ஒள

Consonants

Tamil consonants are known as meyyeḻuttu (mey—body, eḻuttu—letters). In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A central vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A central vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A mid vowel is a Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal The consonants are classified into three categories with six in each category: valliṉam—hard, melliṉam—soft or Nasal, and iṭayiṉam—medium. In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the

Unlike most Indian languages, Tamil does not have aspirated consonants. Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed In addition, the voicing of plosives is governed by strict rules in centamiḻ. A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Plosives are unvoiced if they occur word-initially or doubled. Elsewhere they are voiced, with a few becoming fricatives intervocalically. Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Nasals and approximants are always voiced. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants ^[57]

A chart of the Tamil consonant phonemes in the International Phonetic Alphabet follows:^[58]

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	p (b)	t̪ (d̪)		ʈ (ɖ)	tʃ (dʒ)	k (g)
	ப	த		ட	ச	க
Nasal	m	n̪	ṉ	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
	ம	ந	ன	ண	ஞ	ங
Rhotic		ɾ̪	r
		ர	ற
Lateral		l̪		ɭ
		ல		ள
Approximant	ʋ			ɻ	j
	வ			ழ	ய

Though many characters sound alike, the different tongue-teeth vocal coordinations, produce different sound tones. The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips ( bilabial articulation or with the lower lip and the upper teeth ( labiodental articulation In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Rhotic consonants, or "R"-like sounds are non-lateral Liquid consonants This class of sounds is difficult to characterise phonetically though most of them share Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants Many of the characters that sound alike are differenciated by a sizing or specific description. For instance the character ற and ர have the same pronunciation. Contrary to popular belief, ர is truly the bigger of the two constantants and is known as 'big ra' whereas ற is actually 'small ra'.

Phonemes in brackets are voiced equivalents. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Both voiceless and voiced forms are represented by the same character in Tamil, and voicing is determined by context. The sounds /f/ and /ʂ/ are peripheral to the phonology of Tamil, being found only in loanwords and frequently replaced by native sounds. There are well-defined rules for elision in Tamil categorised into different classes based on the phoneme which undergoes elision. Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a Vowel, a Consonant, or a whole Syllable) in a word or phrase producing a result that is easier

Āytam

Classical Tamil also had a phoneme called the Āytam, written as ‘ஃ’. Āytam is a special sound in the Tamil Language It is represented in the Tamil script by the character ஃ. Tamil grammarians of the time classified it as a dependent phoneme (or restricted phoneme^[25] ) (cārpeḻuttu), but it is very rare in modern Tamil. The rules of pronunciation given in the Tolkāppiyam, a text on the grammar of Classical Tamil, suggest that the āytam could have glottalised the sounds it was combined with. This article is about the sound in spoken language For the letter see Glottal stop (letter. It has also been suggested that the āytam was used to represent the voiced implosive (or closing part or the first half) of geminated voiced plosives inside a word. Implosive consonants are stops (rarely Affricates with a mixed Glottalic ingressive and Pulmonic egressive Airstream mechanism. ^[59]

Numerals & Symbols

Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil also has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year, debit, credit, as above, rupee, numeral are present as well.

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	100	1000
௦	௧	௨	௩	௪	௫	௬	௭	௮	௯	௰	௱	௲

day	month	year	debit	credit	as above	rupee	numeral
௳	௴	௵	௶	௷	௸	௹	௺

Grammar

Main article: Tamil grammar

Much of Tamil grammar is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam. Much of Tamil grammar is extensively described in the oldest available grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam. Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. The Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம் is a work on the Grammar of the Tamil language and the earliest extant work of Tamil Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam, with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu, col, poruḷ, yāppu, aṇi. Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry. ^[60]

Similar to other Dravidian languages, Tamil is an agglutinative language. An agglutinative language is a Language that uses Agglutination extensively most Words are formed by joining Morphemes together ^[61] Tamil is characterised by its use of retroflex consonants, like the other Dravidian languages. In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada It also uses a liquid l (ழ) (example Tamil), which is also found in Malayalam (example Kozhikode), but disappeared from Kannada at around 1000 AD (but present in Unicode), and was never present in Telugu. Kannada (kn [[wiktಕನ್ನಡ ಕನ್ನಡ]] Kannaḍa) is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, spoken predominantly in the state ^[62] Tamil words consist of a lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. For its use in the context of Computer Science see Lexical analysis. An affix is a Morpheme that is attached to a stem to form a word Most Tamil affixes are suffixes. In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person, number, mood, tense, etc. In Linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination, which can lead to long words with a large number of suffixes. In Linguistics, agglutination is the morphological process ofadding Affixes to the base of a Word.

Morphology

Tamil nouns (and pronouns) are classified into two super-classes (tiṇai)—the "rational" (uyartiṇai), and the "irrational" (aḵṟiṇai)—which include a total of five classes (pāl, which literally means ‘gender’). Humans and deities are classified as "rational", and all other nouns (animals, objects, abstract nouns) are classified as irrational. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus See also List of deities A deity is a Postulated Preternatural or Supernatural Being, who is always The "rational" nouns and pronouns belong to one of three classes (pāl)—masculine singular, feminine singular, and rational plural. The "irrational" nouns and pronouns belong to one of two classes - irrational singular and irrational plural. The pāl is often indicated through suffixes. The plural form for rational nouns may be used as an honorific, gender-neutral, singular form. An honorific is a word or expression that conveys esteem or respect when used in addressing or referring to a person ^[63]

Suffixes are used to perform the functions of cases or postpositions. In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. Traditional grammarians tried to group the various suffixes into eight cases corresponding to the cases used in Sanskrit. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical These were the nominative, accusative, dative, sociative, genitive, instrumental, locative, and ablative. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive The dative case is a Grammatical case generally used to indicate the Noun to whom something is given This case in Hungarian language can express the person in whose company (cf In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another The instrumental case (also called the eighth case) is a Grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the Locative (also called the seventh case) is a Grammatical case which indicates a location In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic Modern grammarians argue that this classification is artificial, and that Tamil usage is best understood if each suffix or combination of suffixes is seen as marking a separate case. ^[64] Tamil nouns can take one of four prefixes, i, a, u and e which are functionally equivalent to the demonstratives in English. An affix is a Morpheme that is attached to a stem to form a word English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States

Tamil verbs are also inflected through the use of suffixes. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. A typical Tamil verb form will have a number of suffixes, which show person, number, mood, tense and voice. In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word

• Person and number are indicated by suffixing the oblique case of the relevant pronoun. In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word An oblique case (casus generalis in Linguistics is a Noun case of Synthetic languages that is used generally when a Noun is the object In Linguistics and Grammar, a pronoun is a Pro-form that substitutes for a (including a noun phrase consisting of a single Noun) with or The suffixes to indicate tenses and voice are formed from grammatical particles, which are added to the stem. In Linguistics, the term particle is a word lacking a strict definition but has the function of changing the relation of the parts of the sentence to one another and is therefore
• Tamil has two voices. The first indicates that the subject of the sentence undergoes or is the object of the action named by the verb stem, and the second indicates that the subject of the sentence directs the action referred to by the verb stem.
• Tamil has three simple tenses—past, present, and future—indicated by the suffixes, as well as a series of perfects indicated by compound suffixes. Mood is implicit in Tamil, and is normally reflected by the same morphemes which mark tense categories. In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. Tamil verbs also mark evidentiality, through the addition of the hearsay clitic ām. In Linguistics, evidentiality is broadly the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement that is whether Evidence exists for the statement and/or In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word. ^[65]

Traditional grammars of Tamil do not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs, including both of them under the category uriccol, although modern grammarians tend to distinguish between them on morphological and syntactical grounds. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the ^[66] Tamil has a large number of ideophones that act as adverbs indicating the way the object in a given state "says" or "sounds". Ideophones are a type of words used by speakers to evoke a vivid impression of a certain sensation or sensory perception e ^[67]

Tamil has no articles. Definiteness and indefiniteness are either indicated by special grammatical devices, such as using the number "one" as an indefinite article, or by the context. ^[68] In the first person plural, Tamil makes a distinction between inclusive pronouns நாம் nām (we), நமது namatu (our) that include the addressee and exclusive pronouns நாங்கள் nāṅkaḷ (we), எமது ematu (our) that do not. In Linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person Pronouns and Verbal morphology, ^[68]

Syntax

Tamil is a consistently head-final language. In Linguistics, branching is the general tendency towards a given order of Words within sentences and smaller grammatical units within sentences (such as The verb comes at the end of the clause, with typical word order Subject Object Verb (SOV). In Linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and Verb of a sentence appear or usually ^[69] However, Tamil also exhibits extensive scrambling (word order variation), so that surface permutations of the SOV order are possible with different pragmatic effects. Pragmatics is the study of the ability of Natural language speakers to communicate more than that which is explicitly stated Tamil has postpositions rather than prepositions. In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. Demonstratives and modifiers precede the noun within the noun phrase. Subordinate clauses precede the verb of the matrix clause.

Tamil is a null subject language. In Linguistic typology, a null subject language is a Language whose Grammar permits an Independent clause to lack an explicit subject Not all Tamil sentences have subjects, verbs and objects. It is possible to construct valid sentences that have only a verb—such as muṭintuviṭṭatu ("completed")—or only a subject and object, without a verb such as atu eṉ vīṭu ("That, my house"). Tamil does not have a copula (a linking verb equivalent to the word is). The word is included in the translations only to convey the meaning more easily.

Vocabulary

See also: Wiktionary:Category:Tamil language, Wiktionary:Category:Tamil derivations, and List of loan words in Sri Lankan Tamil

The vocabulary of Tamil is mainly Dravidian. Loan words in Sri Lankan Tamil came about mostly due contact between colonial powers and the native population A strong sense of linguistic purism is found in Modern Tamil^[70], which opposes the use of foreign loan-words. Linguistic purism (or linguistic protectionism) is the definition of one language variety as purer than other varieties often in reference to a perceived decline ^[71] Nonetheless, a number of words used in classical and modern Tamil indicate borrowing from languages of neighbouring groups, or with whom the Tamils had trading links, including Munda (e. g. tavaḷai "frog" from Munda tabeg), Malay (e. g. cavvarici "sago" from Malay sāgu), Chinese (e. g. campān "skiff" from Chinese san-pan) and Greek (e. g. ora from Greek ὥρα). In more modern times, Tamil has imported words from Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Marathi, reflecting groups that have ruled the Tamil area at various points of time, and from neighbouring languages such as Telugu, Kannada and Sinhala. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Urdu ( ur '''{{Nastaliq اردو}}''' trans Urdū, historically spelled Ordu) is a Central Indo-Aryan language Urdu is a standardised Marathi (mr मराठी Marāṭhī) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of what is considered western India. Kannada (kn [[wiktಕನ್ನಡ ಕನ್ನಡ]] Kannaḍa) is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, spoken predominantly in the state During the modern period, words have also been borrowed from European languages, such as Portuguese, French and English. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States ^[72]

The strongest impact of purism in Tamil has been on loanwords from Sanskrit. During its history, Tamil, along with other Dravidian languages like Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam etc. Kannada (kn [[wiktಕನ್ನಡ ಕನ್ನಡ]] Kannaḍa) is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, spoken predominantly in the state Not to be confused with the Malay language. Malayalam (മലയാളം malayāḷaṁ) is a Dravidian language used , was influenced by Sanskrit in terms of vocabulary, grammar and literary styles,^{[73][74] [14][15]} reflecting the increased trend of Sanskritisation in the Tamil country. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Sanskritisation may also refer to introduction of Sanskrit vocabulary in another language or dialect (such as Khariboli) ^[75] Tamil vocabulary never became quite as heavily Sanskritised as that of the other Dravidian languages, and unlike in those languages, it was and remains possible to express complex ideas - including in science, art, religion and law - without the use of Sanskrit loan words. ^[76] In addition, Sanskritisation was actively resisted by a number of authors of the late medieval period,^[77] culminating in the 20th century in a movement called taṉit tamiḻ iyakkam (meaning pure Tamil movement), led by Parithimaar Kalaignar and Maraimalai Adigal, which sought to remove the accumulated influence of Sanskrit on Tamil. The Thanittamil Iyakkam (தனித் தமிழ் இயக்கம் ( Pure Tamil Movement, Only Tamil Movement)is a movement of Linguistic Parithimaar Kalaignyar was a Vedic scholar and priest born in a Brahmin Iyer family as Suryanarayana Sastri who lived in the 19th century Maraimalai Adigal (மறைமலை அடிகள் (1876-1950 was an important Tamil scholar who was also well read in Sanskrit and English. ^[78] As a result of this, Tamil in formal documents, literature and public speeches has seen a marked decline in the use Sanskrit loan words in the past few decades,^[79] under some estimates having fallen from 40-50% to about 20%^[80]. As a result, the Prakrit and Sanskrit loan words used in modern Tamil are, unlike in some other Dravidian languages, restricted mainly to some spiritual terminology and abstract nouns. ^[81]

In the twentieth century, institutions and learned bodies have, with government support, generated technical dictionaries for Tamil containing neologisms and words derived from Tamil roots to replace loan words from English and other languages. A neologism (from Greek neo = "new" + logos = "word" is a word that although devised relatively recently in a specific time period has been

Words of Tamil origin occur in other languages. Popular examples in English are cash (kaasu, meaning "money"), cheroot (curuṭṭu meaning "rolled up"),^[82] mango (from mangai),^[82] mulligatawny (from miḷaku taṉṉir meaning pepper water), pariah (from paraiyar), ginger (from ingi), curry (from kari),^[83] and catamaran (from kaṭṭu maram, கட்டு மரம், meaning "bundled logs"),^[82] pandal (shed, shelter, booth),^[82] tyer (curd),^[82] coir (rope). bethrothal candy cool cry culvert ^[84]

See also

• Date of the Tolkappiyam
• Official languages of India
• Indian languages in Singapore
• Arwi language
• List of Indian languages by total speakers

References

Footnotes

External links

General

• Ethnologue report
• Omniglot resource
• Language Museum report
• UCLA Tamil Profile
• CIIL website
• International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil

Online learning resources

• Tamil Language In Context – A project providing online Tamil lessons, including video lessons.
• Tamil Virtual University – Online Education Basic level to B. A. Tamilology for Tamil only.
• Web Assisted Learning and Teaching of Tamil – University of Pennsylvania’s web based lessons for learning Tamil. The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn) is a private University located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

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