Tamil language

Dravidian language of South Asia

Tamil

Tamiḻ
தமிழ்
File:Word Tamil.svg

The word "Tamil" in Tamil script

Pronunciation| [t̪amiɻ]; Audio file "Tamil.ogg" not found
Native to| India and Sri Lanka
Region| Tamil Nadu[a] (India)
Northern and Eastern Provinces (Sri Lanka)
Ethnicity| Tamils

Native speakers

| 75 million (2011–2019)[1][2]
L2 speakers: 8 million (2011)[1]

Language family

Dravidian

* Southern
* Tamil–Kannada
* Tamil–Kodagu
* Tamil–Malayalam
* Tamil languages
* Tamil

Early forms

Old Tamil

* Middle Tamil

Writing system

| Tamil (Brahmic)
Tamil-Brahmi (historical)
Grantha (historical)
Vatteluttu (historical)
Pallava (historical)
Kolezhuthu (historical)
Arwi (Abjad)
Tamil Braille (Bharati)
Latin script (informal)

Signed forms

| Signed Tamil
Official status

Official language in

|  India

* Tamil Nadu[3]
* Puducherry[4]

* * *

Sri Lanka[5]
Singapore[6]

* * *

Organizations
File:Infobox ASEAN flag.svg ASEAN[7]

Recognised minority
language in

Malaysia[8]
South Africa[b][9]

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
Glottolog| `tami1289` Modern Tamil
`oldt1248` Old Tamil
Linguasphere| `49-EBE-a`
File:Idioma tamil.png
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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File:Tamil A.svg

Tamil is written in a non-Latin script. Tamil text used in this article is transliterated into the Latin script according to the ISO 15919 standard.

Tamil (/ˈtæmɪl/; தமிழ் Tamiḻ [t̪amiɻ], Audio file "Tamil.ogg" not found) is a  classical Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore,[10][6] and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in the four other South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also spoken by the Tamil diaspora found in many countries, including Malaysia, Myanmar, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and Mauritius. Tamil is also natively spoken by Sri Lankan Moors. One of 22 scheduled languages in the Constitution of India, Tamil was the first to be classified as a classical language of India.

Tamil is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world.[11][12][13] A. K. Ramanujan described it as "the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past".[14] The variety and quality of classical Tamil literature has led to it being described as "one of the great classical traditions and literatures of the world".[15] Recorded Tamil literature has been documented for over 2000 years.[16] The earliest period of Tamil literature, Sangam literature, is dated from c. 300 BC until AD 300.[17][18] It has the oldest extant literature among Dravidian languages.[12] The earliest epigraphic records found on rock edicts and 'hero stones' date from around the 3rd century BC.[19][20] About 60,000 of the 100,000 odd inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages.[21] Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt.[22][23] The two earliest manuscripts from India,[24][25] acknowledged and registered by the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 and 2005, were written in Tamil.[26]

In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam, thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published.[27] The Tamil Lexicon, published by the University of Madras, was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages.[28] According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies.[29]

## Contents

* 1 Classification
* 2 History
* 2.1 Legend
* 2.2 Etymology
* 2.3 Old Tamil
* 2.4 Middle Tamil
* 2.5 Modern Tamil
* 3 Geographic distribution
* 4 Legal status
* 5 Dialects
* 5.1 Region-specific variations
* 5.1.1 Loanword variations
* 6 Spoken and literary variants
* 7 Writing system
* 7.1 Numerals and symbols
* 8 Phonology
* 9 Grammar
* 9.1 Morphology
* 9.2 Syntax
* 10 Vocabulary
* 11 Influence
* 12 Sample text
* 13 See also
* 14 Footnotes
* 15 References
* 16 Further reading
* 17 External links

## Classification[edit | edit source]

Main article: Dravidian languages

Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages, a family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent. [30] It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups[31] such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue).

The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam; the two began diverging around the 9th century AD.[32] Although many of the differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic split of the western dialect,[33] the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century.[34]

## History[edit | edit source]

File:Civiltà thamirabani, reperti da adhichanallur, 02.jpg

Findings from Adichanallur in the Government Museum, Chennai

File:Keezhadi excavation.jpg

Keezhadi excavation site

According to Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Tamil, as a Dravidian language, descends from Proto-Dravidian, a proto-language. Linguistic reconstruction suggests that Proto-Dravidian was spoken around the third millennium BC, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin in peninsular India. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of the culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India.[35]

Among Indian languages, Tamil has the most ancient non-Sanskritic Indian literature.[36] Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (600 BC–AD 700), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present).[37] In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BC with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions.[22] There are a number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BC, the oldest attestation of the language.[38] John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India.[39]

In 2004, a number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns in Adichanallur. Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin.[40]

Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi. These sent to Beta Analytic in Miami, Florida for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. One sample containing Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions was claimed to be dated to around 580 BC.[41][42]

### Legend[edit | edit source]

File:Tamil Inscriptions.jpg

Explanation for Mangulam Tamil Brahmi inscription in Mangulam, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, dated to Tamil Sangam period (c. 400 BC to c. 200 AD)

File:Satavahana Bilingual Coin.jpg

Tamil Brahmi script in the reverse side of the bilingual silver coin of king Vashishtiputra Sātakarni (c. AD 160) of Deccan. Rev: Ujjain/Sātavāhana symbol, crescented six-arch chaitya hill and river with Tamil Brahmi script[43][44][45][46] Obv: Bust of king; Prakrit legend in the Brahmi script

According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil) was created by Lord Shiva. Murugan, revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya, brought it to the people.[47]

### Etymology[edit | edit source]

The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate the Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-termed Tamil Sangams, which researched, developed and made amendments in Tamil language. Even though the name of the language which was developed by these Tamil Sangams is mentioned as Tamil, the period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. The earliest attested use of the name is found in Tholkappiyam, which is dated as early as late 2nd century BC.[48][49] The Hathigumpha inscription, inscribed around a similar time period (150 BCE), by Kharavela, the Jain king of Kalinga, also refers to a Tamira Samghatta (Tamil confederacy)[50]

The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BC contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'.[51]

Southworth suggests that the name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech".[52] Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iḻ, with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and "-iḻ" having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests a derivation of tamiḻ < tam-iḻ < *tav-iḻ < *tak-iḻ, meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)".[53] However, this is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature.[52]

The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness".[54] S. V. Subramanian suggests the meaning "sweet sound", from tam — "sweet" and il — "sound".[55]

### Old Tamil[edit | edit source]

Main article: Old Tamil language

File:Mangulam inscription.jpg

Mangulam Tamil Brahmi inscription in Mangulam, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, dated to Tamil Sangam period (c. 400 BC to c. 200 AD)

Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BC to the 8th century AD. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BC to 700 AD. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi.[56] The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BC.[37][49] Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature. These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BC and 5th century AD.[37][49]

### Middle Tamil[edit | edit source]

File:Tanjavur Tamil Inscription2.jpg

Middle Tamil inscriptions in Vatteluttu script in stone during Chola period c.1000 AD at Brahadeeswara temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

Main article: Middle Tamil language

The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil, which is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century,[37] was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme,[57] the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals,[58] and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic.[59] In grammar, the most important change was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil (கில்), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ (ன்). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟa (கின்ற) – which combined the old aspect and time markers.[60]

### Modern Tamil[edit | edit source]

File:Goddess Meenakshi Wedding.JPG

An 18th-century Nayaka era sculpture depicting the wedding of Goddess Meenakshi

The Nannūl remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil.[61] Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil[62] – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically.[63] Modern spoken Tamil also shows a number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions,[64] and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic.[65]

Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with the introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the syntactic argument structure of English.[66] Simultaneously, a strong strain of linguistic purism emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil.[67] It received some support from Dravidian parties.[68] This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain.[69]

## Geographic distribution[edit | edit source]

Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, (in India) and in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. The language is spoken among small minority groups in other states of India which include Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and in certain regions of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and the hill country. Tamil or dialects of it were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century AD. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century AD.[70] Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar, Mysore, Mandya and Bangalore.[71]

There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Mauritius, South Africa, Indonesia,[72] Thailand,[73] Burma, and Vietnam. Tamil is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia, along with English, Malay and Mandarin.[74][75] A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi, Pakistan, which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus[76][77] as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka.[78] There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi.[79] Many in Réunion, Guyana, Fiji, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins,[80] but only a small number speak the language. In Reunion where the Tamil language was forbidden to be learnt and used in public space by France it is now being relearnt by students and adults.[81] Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada, the United States (especially New Jersey and New York City), the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia.

## Legal status[edit | edit source]

See also: States of India by Tamil speakers and List of countries and territories where Tamil is an official language

Tamil is the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages under schedule 8 of the constitution of India.[82] It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.[83][84] Tamil is also one of the official languages of Singapore. Tamil is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, along with Sinhala.[10] It was once given nominal official status in the Indian state of Haryana, purportedly as a rebuff to Punjab, though there was no attested Tamil-speaking population in the state, and was later replaced by Punjabi, in 2010.[85] In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction.[86] The establishment of Tamil-medium schools has been in process in Myanmar to provide education completely in Tamil language by the Tamils who settled there 200 years ago.[87] Tamil language is available as a course in some local school boards and major universities in Canada and the month of January has been declared "Tamil Heritage Month" by the Parliament of Canada.[88][89] Tamil enjoys a special status of protection under Article 6(b), Chapter 1 of the Constitution of South Africa and is taught as a subject in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province.[90][91] Recently, it has been rolled out as a subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion.[92]

In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the Government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations,[93][94] Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the contemporaneous President of India, Abdul Kalam, who was a Tamilian himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004.[95][96][97]

## Dialects[edit | edit source]

File:Jambai Tamil Brahmi.jpg

Jambai Tamil Brahmi inscription near Tirukkoyilur in Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu dated to the early Tamil Sangam age (c. 400 BC)

### Region-specific variations[edit | edit source]

The socio-linguistic situation of Tamil is characterised by diglossia: there are two separate registers varying by socioeconomic status, a high register and a low one.[98][99] Tamil dialects are primarily 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. Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli, Old Tamil iṅkiṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in the dialect of Madurai, and iṅkaṭe in some northern dialects. Even now, in the 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,[37][100] and use many other words slightly differently.[101] Tamil dialects include Central Tamil dialect, Kongu Tamil, Madras Bashai, Madurai Tamil, Nellai Tamil, Kumari Tamil in India; Batticaloa Tamil dialect, Jaffna Tamil dialect, Negombo Tamil dialect in Sri Lanka; and Malaysian Tamil in Malaysia. Sankethi dialect in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by Kannada.

#### Loanword variations[edit | edit source]

See also: Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil and Loan words in Sri Lankan Tamil

The dialect of the district of Palakkad in Kerala has many Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from Kanyakumari district is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in the 11th century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai, a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values.[102] Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech.[103] Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese, Dutch, and English.

## Spoken and literary variants[edit | edit source]

In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on the ancient language (sankattamiḻ), a modern literary and formal style (centamiḻ), and a modern colloquial form (koṭuntamiḻ). 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.[104]

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. 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. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial ‘standard' spoken dialects. In India, the ‘standard' koṭuntamiḻ, rather than on any one dialect,[105][clarification needed] but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai. In Sri Lanka, the standard is based on the dialect of Jaffna.

## Writing system[edit | edit source]

Main articles: Tamil script and Tamil braille

See also: Vatteluttu, Grantha script, Pallava script, and Arwi

File:History of Tamil script.jpg

Historical evolution of Tamil writing from the earlier Tamil Brahmi near the top to the current Tamil script at bottom

File:Tirukkural manuscript.jpg

Thirukkural palm leaf manuscript

After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called vaṭṭeḻuttu amongst others such as Grantha and Pallava. The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels, 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam. The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 x 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel a, as with other Indic scripts. This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a puḷḷi, to the consonantal sign. For example, ன is ṉa (with the inherent a) and ன் is ṉ (without a vowel). Many Indic scripts have a similar sign, generically called virama, but the Tamil script is somewhat different in that it nearly always uses a visible puḷḷi to indicate a 'dead consonant' (a consonant without a vowel). In other Indic scripts, it is generally preferred to use a ligature or a half form to write a syllable or a cluster containing a dead consonant, although writing it with a visible virama is also possible. The Tamil script does not differentiate voiced and unvoiced plosives. Instead, plosives are articulated with voice depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology.

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 adopted from Sanskrit, Prakrit, and other languages. 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.[106] ISO 15919 is an international standard for the transliteration of Tamil and other Indic scripts into Latin characters. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to Latin script, and thus the alphabets of various languages, including English.

### Numerals and symbols[edit | edit source]

Main article: Tamil numerals

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

zero | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | nine | ten | hundred | thousand

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௦ | ௧ | ௨ | ௩ | ௪ | ௫ | ௬ | ௭ | ௮ | ௯ | ௰ | ௱ | ௲
day | month | year | debit | credit | as above | rupee | numeral

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௳ | ௴ | ௵ | ௶ | ௷ | ௸ | ௹ | ௺

## Phonology[edit | edit source]

Main article: Tamil phonology

## Grammar[edit | edit source]

Part of a series on

Tamils
File:Tamil distribution.png

History

* History of Tamil Nadu
* History of Sri Lanka
* Sources of ancient Tamil history
* Sangam period
* Keezhadi excavation site
* Tamilakam
* Agriculture
* Economy
* Education
* Industry
* Chronology of Tamil history
* Eelam
* Tamil Kingdoms
* Tamilization

Culture

* Language
* Literature
* Philosophy
* Script
* Numeral system
* Medicine
* Music
* Architecture
* Cuisine
* Calendar
* Cinema

People

* Indian Tamils
* Sri Lankan Tamils
* Malaysian Tamils
* Singapore Tamils

Tamil diaspora

* Indian Tamil diaspora
* Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora
* Malaysian Tamil diaspora

* * *

Tamil Australians, French Tamils, British Tamils, Tamil Italians, Tamil Indonesians, Tamil Canadians, Tamil Americans, Tamil South Africans, Myanmar Tamils, Tamil Mauritians, Tamil Germans, Tamil Pakistanis, Tamil Seychellois, Tamil New Zealanders, Swiss Tamils, Dutch Tamils

Religion

* Religion in ancient Tamil country
* Tamil Hindu
* Hinduism in Tamil Nadu
* Hinduism in Sri Lanka
* Tamil Buddhism
* Tamil Jain
* Tamil Muslim
* Christianity in Tamil Nadu

Politics

* Politics of Tamil Nadu
* Dravidian nationalism
* Tamil Nationalism
* Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism

* v
* t
* e

Part of a series on

Dravidian culture and history

Origin

Indus Valley civilisation Keezhadi excavation site

History

* History of South India
* Ancient history of Sri Lanka

* * *

Dravidian dynasties

* Chola
* Chera
* Pandyan
* Satavahana
* Rashtrakuta
* Chalukya
* Pallava
* Kakatiya
* Hoysala
* Sangama
* Saluva
* Tuluva
* Aravidu
* Nayak
* Reddy
* Aryacakravarti
* Western Ganga
* Eastern Ganga

Culture

* Dravidian civilization
* South Indian culture
* Dravidian architecture
* Dravidian studies

Language

* Dravidian languages
* History of Dravidian languages
* Proto-Dravidian language
* Elamo-Dravidian languages

Religion

* Dravidian folk religion
* Hinduism
* Jainism
* Buddhism
* Śramaṇa
* Ājīvika
* Charvaka

Regions

* South India (Dravida)
* Sri Lanka
* South Asia

People

* Dravidian peoples
* Brahui people
* Gondi people
* Kannadigas
* Kodavas
* Malayalis
* Telugus
* Tamils
* Tuluvas
* Irulas
* Nagas (Extinct)
* Giraavarus (Extinct)
* Cholanaikkans
* Khonds
* Kodavas
* Kurukhs
* Paniyas
* Malar
* Soligas
* Koragas

Politics

* Kannada language rights
* Tulu Nadu state movement
* Telugu Desam Party
* Tamil nationalism
* Dravidian nationalism
* Dravidian parties
* Dravida Nadu

Portal:Dravidian civilizations

* v
* t
* e

Main article: Tamil grammar

Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class, number, and case, verb tense and other grammatical categories. Tamil's standard metalinguistic terminology and scholarly vocabulary is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most Indo-Aryan languages.[107][108]

Much of Tamil grammar is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam. 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.[109]

Tamil words consist of a lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes. 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. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination, which can lead to long words with many suffixes, which would require several words or a sentence in English. To give an example, the word pōkamuṭiyātavarkaḷukkāka (போகமுடியாதவர்களுக்காக) means "for the sake of those who cannot go" and consists of the following morphemes:

போக | முடி | ஆத் | அ | வர் | கள் | உக்கு | ஆக

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pōka | muṭi | āt | a | var | kaḷ | ukku | āka
go | accomplish | negation
(impersonal) | participle marker | nominalizer
he/she who does | plural marker | to | for

### Morphology[edit | edit source]

Tamil nouns (and pronouns) are classified into two super-classes (tiṇai)—the "rational" (uyartiṇai), and the "irrational" (akṟiṇai)—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. 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.[110]

peyarccol (Name-words)[111]

uyartiṇai
(rational)  | aḵṟiṇai
(irrational)
āṇpāl
Male  | peṇpāl
Female  | palarpāl
Collective  | oṉṟaṉpāl
One  | palaviṉpāl
Many
Example: the Tamil words for "doer"
ceytavaṉ
He who did  | ceytavaḷ
She who did  | ceytavar(kaḷ)
They who did  | ceytatu
That which did  | ceytavai
Those ones which did

Suffixes are used to perform the functions of cases or postpositions. Traditional grammarians tried to group the various suffixes into eight cases corresponding to the cases used in Sanskrit. These were the nominative, accusative, dative, sociative, genitive, instrumental, locative, and ablative. Modern grammarians argue that this classification is artificial,[112] and that Tamil usage is best understood if each suffix or combination of suffixes is seen as marking a separate case.[105] Tamil nouns can take one of four prefixes: i, a, u, and e which are functionally equivalent to the demonstratives in English. For example, the word vazhi (வழி) meaning "way" can take these to produce ivvazhi (இவ்வழி) "this way", avvazhi (அவ்வழி) "that way", uvvazhi (உவ்வழி) "the medial way" and evvazhi (எவ்வழி) "which way".

Tamil verbs are also inflected through the use of suffixes. A typical Tamil verb form will have a number of suffixes, which show person, number, mood, tense, and voice.

* Person and number are indicated by suffixing the oblique case of the relevant pronoun. The suffixes to indicate tenses and voice are formed from grammatical particles, which are added to the stem.
* 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. Tamil verbs also mark evidentiality, through the addition of the hearsay clitic ām.[113] Verb inflection is shown below using example aḻintukkoṇṭiruntēṉ; (அழிந்துக்கொண்டிருந்தேன்); "(I) was being destroyed".

அழி | ந்து | கொண்டு | இரு | ந்த் | ஏன்

|
|
|
|
|

aḻi | ntu | koṇṭu | iru | nt | ēn
root
destroy  | transitivity marker
intransitive  | aspect marker
continuous  | aspect marker
continuous  | tense marker
past tense  | person marker
first person,
singular

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.[114] Tamil has many ideophones that act as adverbs indicating the way the object in a given state "says" or "sounds".[115]

Tamil does not have 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.[116] 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.[116]

### Syntax[edit | edit source]

Tamil is a consistently head-final language. The verb comes at the end of the clause, with a typical word order of subject–object–verb (SOV).[117][118] However, word order in Tamil is also flexible, so that surface permutations of the SOV order are possible with different pragmatic effects. Tamil has postpositions rather than prepositions. 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. Not all Tamil sentences have subjects, verbs, and objects. It is possible to construct grammatically valid and meaningful sentences which lack one or more of the three. For example, a sentence may only have a verb—such as muṭintuviṭṭatu ("completed")—or only a subject and object, without a verb such as atu eṉ vīṭu ("That [is] 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[edit | edit source]

The vocabulary of Tamil is mainly Dravidian. A strong sense of linguistic purism is found in Modern Tamil,[119] which opposes the use of foreign loanwords.[120] Nonetheless, a number of words used in classical and modern Tamil are loanwords from the languages of neighbouring groups, or with whom the Tamils had trading links, including Munda (for example, tavaḷai "frog" from Munda tabeg), Malay (e.g. cavvarici "sago" from Malay sāgu), Chinese (for example, campān "skiff" from Chinese san-pan) and Greek (for example, ora from Greek ὥρα). In more modern times, Tamil has imported words from Urdu and Marathi, reflecting groups that have influenced the Tamil area at times, and from neighbouring languages such as Telugu, Kannada, and Sinhala. During the modern period, words have also been adapted from European languages, such as Portuguese, French, and English.[121]

The strongest impact of purism in Tamil has been on words taken from Sanskrit. During its history, Tamil, along with other Dravidian languages like Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam etc., was influenced by Sanskrit in terms of vocabulary, grammar and literary styles,[122][123][124][125] reflecting the increased trend of Sanskritisation in the Tamil country.[126] 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.[127][128][129] In addition, Sanskritisation was actively resisted by a number of authors of the late medieval period,[130] 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.[131] 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,[132] under some estimates having fallen from 40 to 50% to about 20%.[69] 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.[133]

In the 20th 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.[67] As of 2019, the language had a listed vocabulary of over 470,000 unique words, including those from old literary sources. In November 2019, the state government issued an order to add 9,000 new words to the vocabulary.[134]

## Influence[edit | edit source]

Main article: Tamil loanwords in other languages

Words of Tamil origin occur in other languages. A notable example of a word in worldwide use with Dravidian (not specifically Tamil) etymology is orange, via Sanskrit nāraṅga from a Dravidian predecessor of Tamil nartaṅkāy "fragrant fruit". One suggestion as to the origin of the word anaconda is the Tamil anaikkonda, "having killed an elephant".[135] Examples in English include cheroot (churuṭṭu meaning "rolled up"),[136] mango (from māngāi),[136] mulligatawny (from miḷaku taṇṇīr, "pepper water"), pariah (from paraiyan), curry (from kari),[137] catamaran (from kaṭṭu maram, "bundled logs"),[136] and congee (from kanji – rice porridge or gruel).[138]

## Sample text[edit | edit source]

The following is a sample text in literary Tamil of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Tamil in the Tamil script:

உறுப்புரை 1: மனிதப் பிறவியினர் சகலரும் சுதந்திரமாகவே பிறக்கின்றனர்; அவர்கள் மதிப்பிலும், உரிமைகளிலும் சமமானவர்கள், அவர்கள் நியாயத்தையும் மனச்சாட்சியையும் இயற்பண்பாகப் பெற்றவர்கள். அவர்கள் ஒருவருடனொருவர் சகோதர உணர்வுப் பாங்கில் நடந்துகொள்ளல் வேண்டும்.।

Romanized Tamil:

Uṟuppurai 1: Maṉitap piṟaviyiṉar cakalarum cutantiramākavē piṟakkiṉṟaṉar; avarkaḷ matippilum, urimaikaḷilum camamāṉavarkaḷ, avarkaḷ niyāyattaiyum maṉaccāṭciyaiyum iyaṟpaṇpākap peṟṟavarkaḷ. Avarkaḷ oruvaruṭaṉoruvar cakōtara uṇarvup pāṅkil naṭantukoḷḷal vēṇṭum.

Tamil in the International Phonetic Alphabet:

urupːurai ond̺rʉ | mənid̪ə piriʋijinər səgələrum sud̪ən̪d̪irəmaːgəʋeː pirəkːin̺d̺ranər | əvərgəɭ məd̪ipːilum uriməigəɭilum səməmaːnəʋərgəɭ | əvərgəɭ nijaːjatːəijum mənətt͡ʃaːʈt͡ʃijəijum ijərpəɳbaːgə pet̺rəʋərgəɭ | əvərgəɭ oruʋəruɖənoruʋər sagoːdəɾə uɳərʋɨ paːŋgil nəɖən̪d̪ʉkoɭɭəl veːɳɖum |

Gloss:

Section 1: Human beings all-of-them freely are born. They rights-in-and dignities-in-and equal-ones. They law-and conscience-and intrinsically possessed-ones. They among-one-another brotherly feeling share-in act must.

Translation:

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They possess conscience and reason. Therefore, everyone should act in a spirit of brotherhood towards each other.

## See also[edit | edit source]

* List of countries where Tamil is an official language
* List of languages by first written accounts
* Tamil keyboard
* Tamil population by cities
* Tamil population by nation
* Tamil Loanwords in other languages

## Footnotes[edit | edit source]

1. ^ as well as the enclaves of the Puducherry and Karaikal districts in the Union territory of Puducherry
2. ^ protected language

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128. ^ Caldwell 1974, p. 50
129. ^ Ellis, F. W. (1820), "Note to the introduction" in Campbell, A.D., A grammar of the Teloogoo language. Madras: College Press, pp. 29–30.
130. ^ See Ramaswamy's analysis of one such text, the Tamiḻ viṭututu, in Ramaswamy, S. (1998), "Language of the People in the World of Gods: Ideologies of Tamil before the Nation", The Journal of Asian Studies, 57 (1): 66–92, doi:10.2307/2659024, JSTOR 2659024
131. ^ Varadarajan, M. A History of Tamil Literature, transl. from Tamil by E. Sa. Viswanathan, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1988. p. 12: "Since then the movement has been popularly known as the tanittamil iyakkam or the Pure Tamil movement among the Tamil scholars."
132. ^ Ramaswamy 1997, "Laboring for language": "Nevertheless, even impressionistically speaking, the marked decline in the use of foreign words, especially of Sanskritic origin, in Tamil literary, scholarly, and even bureaucratic circles over the past half century is quite striking."
133. ^ Meenakshisundaram, T. P. (1982) A History of Tamil Language, Sarvodaya Ilakkiya Pannai. (translated) pp. 241–2
134. ^ "By govt. order: 9,000 words to enter Tamil vocabulary". The Hindu. Chennai: Kasturi & Sons. 9 November 2019. p. 2. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
135. ^ “Origin and Meaning of Anaconda.” Online Etymology Dictionary.
136. ^ a b c "Oxford English Dictionary Online", Oxford English Dictionary, retrieved 14 April 2007
137. ^ "curry, n.2", The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 14 August 2009
138. ^ "congee", academic.ru

## References[edit | edit source]

* Andronov, M.S. (1970), Dravidian Languages, Nauka Publishing House
* Annamalai, E.; Steever, S.B. (1998), "Modern Tamil", in Steever, Sanford (ed.), The Dravidian Languages, London: Routledge, pp. 100–128, ISBN 978-0-415-10023-6
* Caldwell, Robert (1974) [1856], A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corp., ISBN 8170690382
* Hart, George L. (1975), The poems of ancient Tamil : their milieu and their Sanskrit counterparts, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-02672-8
* Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003), The Dravidian Languages, Cambridge Language Surveys, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-77111-5
* Kesavapany, K.; Mani, A; Ramasamy, Palanisamy (2008), Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, ISBN 978-981-230-799-6
* Kuiper, F. B. J. (1958), "Two problems of old Tamil phonology I. The old Tamil āytam (with an appendix by K. Zvelebil)", Indo-Iranian Journal, 2 (3): 191–224, doi:10.1007/BF00162818, S2CID 161402102
* Lehmann, Thomas (1998), "Old Tamil", in Steever, Sanford (ed.), The Dravidian Languages, London: Routledge, pp. 75–99, ISBN 978-0-415-10023-6
* Mahadevan, Iravatham (2003), Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D, Harvard Oriental Series vol. 62, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-01227-1
* Meenakshisundaran, T.P. (1965), A History of Tamil Language, Poona: Deccan College, OCLC 246076230
* Murthy, Srinivasa; Rao, Surendra; Veluthat, Kesavan; Bari, S.A. (1990), Essays on Indian History and culture: Felicitation volume in Honour of Professor B. Sheik Ali, New Delhi: Mittal, ISBN 978-81-7099-211-0
* Ramstedt, Martin (2004), Hinduism in modern Indonesia, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-7007-1533-6
* Rajam, VS (1992), A Reference Grammar of Classical Tamil Poetry, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, ISBN 978-0-87169-199-6
* Ramaswamy, Sumathy (1997), "Laboring for language", Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891–1970, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-585-10600-7
* Shapiro, Michael C.; Schiffman, Harold F. (1983), Language and society in South Asia, Dordrecht: Foris, ISBN 978-90-70176-55-6
* Schiffman, Harold F. (1999), A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-64074-9
* Southworth, Franklin C. (1998), "On the Origin of the word tamiz", International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 27 (1): 129–132
* Southworth, Franklin C. (2005), Linguistic archaeology of South Asia, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-33323-8
* Steever, Sanford (1998), "Introduction", in Steever, Sanford (ed.), The Dravidian Languages, London: Routledge, pp. 1–39, ISBN 978-0-415-10023-6
* Steever, Sanford (2005), The Tamil auxiliary verb system, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-34672-6
* Tharu, Susie; Lalita, K., eds. (1991), Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the present – Vol. 1: 600 B.C. to the early twentieth century, Feminist Press, ISBN 978-1-55861-027-9
* Talbot, Cynthia (2001), Precolonial India in practice: Society, Region and Identity in Medieval Andhra, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-513661-6
* Tieken, Herman (2001), Kavya in South India: Old Tamil Cankam Poetry, Gonda Indological Studies, Volume X, Groningen: Egbert Forsten Publishing, ISBN 978-90-6980-134-6
* Varadarajan, Mu. (1988), A History of Tamil Literature, translated by E.Sa. Viswanathan, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, OCLC 20170197
* Zvelebil, Kamil (1992), Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-09365-2

## Further reading[edit | edit source]

* Fabricius, Johann Philip (1933 and 1972), Tamil and English Dictionary. based on J.P. Fabricius Malabar-English Dictionary, 3rd and 4th Edition Revised and Enlarged by David Bexell. Evangelical Lutheran Mission Publishing House, Tranquebar; called Tranquebar Dictionary.
* Freeman, Rich (February 1998), "Rubies and Coral: The Lapidary Crafting of Language in Kerala", The Journal of Asian Studies, 57 (1): 38–65, doi:10.2307/2659023, JSTOR 2659023
* Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001549

## External links[edit | edit source]

Tamil edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

* Tamil language at Curlie
* Tamil language at Encyclopædia Britannica
* Tamil Language & Literature
* The dictionary definition of Tamil language at Wiktionary
* Tamil language at Wikibooks
* Tamil language travel guide from Wikivoyage

* v
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Tamil language

History|

* Old Tamil
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* Manipravalam
* Proto-Dravidian
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* Tamil Sangams
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Dialects|

| Indian|

* Bangalore Tamil dialects
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|

Sri Lankan|

* Negombo
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* Jaffna

Sociolects|

* Brahmin Tamil
* Arwi
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Global organizations|

* World Tamil Conference
* World Classical Tamil Conference 2010

Literature|

| Classics|

* Sangam literature
* Tamil books of Law
* The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature
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* Ponniyin Selvan
* List of Sangam poets
* Commentaries in Tamil literary tradition

|

Devotional
Literature|

* Cīrappurānam
* Kampa Irāmāyaṉam
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Poetry|

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Grammars and
Dictionaries|

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History|

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Mathematics and
Natural Science|

* Yerambam

Tamil and
other languages|

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Scripts|

* Megalithic graffiti symbols
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Lexis and
grammar|

* Tamil grammar
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Phonology|

* Tamil phonology
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Transliteration|

* ISO
* Mozhi

Events|

* Standardisation of Tamil script
* Tanittamil Iyakkam
* Simplified Tamil script
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* Ancient manuscript digitalisation
* Formation of CICT
* Project Madurai

* v
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File:..Tamil Nadu Flag(INDIA).png State of Tamil Nadu

Capital: Chennai

State
symbols|

* Seal: Srivilliputhur Andal temple
* Animal: Nilgiri tahr
* Bird: Emerald dove
* Flower: Gloriosa lily
* Fruit: Jackfruit
* Tree: Palm tree
* Butterfly: Cirrochroa Thais

Governance|

* Governors
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Major cities|

* Chennai
* Coimbatore
* Madurai
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* Tiruppur

Districts|

* Ariyalur
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* Chennai
* Coimbatore
* Cuddalore
* Dharmapuri
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* Karur
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* Nagapattinam
* Namakkal
* Nilgiris
* Perambalur
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* Ranipet
* Salem
* Sivaganga
* Tenkasi
* Thanjavur
* Theni
* Thoothukudi
* Tiruchirappalli
* Tirunelveli
* Tirupathur
* Tiruppur
* Tiruvallur
* Tiruvannamalai
* Tiruvarur
* Vellore
* Viluppuram
* Virudhunagar

Lists|

* Districts in Tamil Nadu by HDI
* Cities in Tamil Nadu by population
* Towns in Tamil Nadu by population
* Revenue divisions in Tamil Nadu

Links to related articles

* v
* t
* e

Dravidian languages

South|

| Tamil –
Kannada|

| Kannada
\- Badaga|

| Kannada|

* Kannada
* Holiya
* Urali
* Sholaga
* Betta Kurumba
* Alu Kurumba
* Jennu Kurumba

|

* Badaga · Moundadan Chetty

Toda-Kota|

* Toda
* Kota

Kodagu|

* Kodava
* Kurumba
* Wayanad Chetti

Irula|

* Irula
* Attapady Kurumba
* Muduga

Tamil -
Malayalam|

| Tamil|

* Tamil
* Sankethi
* Eravallan
* Kaikadi
* Kanikkaran
* Malapandaram
* Mala Malasar
* Malasar
* Muthuvan
* Paliyan
* Yerukala

|

Malayalam|

* Malayalam
* Jeseri
* Arabi Malayalam (Mappila Malayalam)
* Judeo-Malayalam
* Suriyani Malayalam
* Aranadan
* Beary
* Kadar
* Malaryan
* Malavedan
* Mullu Kurumba
* Paniya
* Ravula
* Allar
* Malankuravan
* Vishavan
* Kalanadi
* Kunduvadi
* Kurichiya
* Pathiya
* Thachanadan
* Ullatan

Tulu|

* Tulu
* Bellari
* Koraga
* Kudiya

Others|

* Kumbaran
* Kakkala
* Pattapu

South-Central|

| Telugu|

* Telugu
* Chenchu
* Waddar

|

Gondi-Kui|

| Gondi|

* Gondi
* Madiya
* Muria
* Koya
* Nagarchal
* Pardhan
* Khirwar

|

Kui|

* Kui
* Kuvi
* Manda
* Pengo
* Konda
* Mukha-Dora

Central|

| Kolami-Naiki|

* Kolami
* Naiki

|

Parji–Gadaba|

* Duruwa
* Ollari
* Kondekor

North|

| Kurukh-Malto|

* Kurukh
* Malto

|

* Brahui

Unclassified|

* Bharia

Proto-languages|

* Proto-Dravidian
* Proto-South Dravidian

Italics indicate extinct languages (no surviving native speakers and no spoken descendant)

* v
* t
* e

Languages of India

Official
languages|

| Union-level|

* Hindi
* English

|

8th schedule to the
Constitution of India|

* Assamese
* Bengali
* Bodo
* Dogri
* Gujarati
* Hindi
* Kannada
* Kashmiri
* Konkani
* Maithili
* Malayalam
* Meitei (Manipuri)
* Marathi
* Nepali
* Odia
* Punjabi
* Sanskrit
* Santali
* Sindhi
* Tamil
* Telugu
* Urdu

State-level only|

* Angika
* Bhojpuri
* Chhattisgarhi
* Garo
* Gurung
* Ho
* Kamatapuri
* Kharia
* Khasi
* Khortha
* Kokborok
* Kurmali
* Kurukh
* Lepcha
* Limbu
* Magahi
* Magar
* Mizo
* Mundari
* Newari
* Rai
* Rajbangshi
* Sadri
* Sherpa
* Sikkimese
* Sunwar
* Tamang

Major
unofficial
languages|

| Over 1 million
speakers|

* Awadhi
* Bagheli
* Bagri
* Bajjika
* Bhili
* Bundeli
* Dhundhari
* Garhwali
* Gondi
* Harauti
* Haryanvi
* Kangri
* Khandeshi
* Kumaoni
* Lambadi
* Malvi
* Marwari
* Mewari
* Nimadi
* Rajasthani
* Surjapuri
* Tulu
* Wagdi
* Varhadi

|

100,000 – 1 million
speakers|

* Adi
* Angami
* Ao
* Badaga
* Dimasa
* Halbi
* Karbi
* Khotta
* Kodava
* Kolami
* Konyak
* Korku
* Koya
* Kui
* Kuvi
* Ladakhi
* Lotha
* Malto
* Mising
* Nishi
* Phom
* Rabha
* Sema
* Sora
* Tangkhul
* Thadou

* v
* t
* e

Languages of Singapore

Main languages|

| National|

* Malay

|

Official|

* English
* Malay
* Mandarin
* Tamil

Indigenous languages|

* Johor-Riau Malay
* Orang Seletar

Creole languages|

* Baba Malay
* Bazaar Malay
* Chitty Malay
* Kristang
* Singlish
* Singdarin

Immigrant languages|

| Chinese|

* Sinitic
* Cantonese
* Hainanese
* Hakka
* Henghwa
* Hokchew
* Hokkien
* Teochew

|

Indian|

* Dravidian
* Kannada
* Malayalam
* Telugu
* Indo-Aryan
* Bengali
* Gujarati
* Hindi
* Punjabi
* Sindhi
* Sinhala

Indonesian|

* Acehnese
* Banjarese
* Batak
* Angkola
* Mandailing
* Toba
* Baweanese
* Buginese
* Javanese
* Minangkabau

Other|

* Arabic
* Armenian
* Burmese
* Filipino
* Japanese
* Korean
* Nepali
* Thai
* Vietnamese

Sign languages|

* Singaporean Sign Language

* v
* t
* e

Languages of South Africa

* Pan South African Language Board
* Commission for Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Community Rights
* Department of Arts and Culture

Official|

| West Germanic|

* Afrikaans
* English

|

Southern Bantu|

| Sotho–Tswana|

* Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa)
* Southern Sotho (Sesotho)
* Tswana (Setswana)

|

Nguni|

* Southern Ndebele (isiNdebele)
* Swazi (siSwati)
* Xhosa (isiXhosa)
* Zulu (isiZulu)

Tswa–Ronga|

* Tsonga (Xitsonga)

Venda|

* Venda (Tshivenḓa)

Recognised
unofficial languages
mentioned in the
1996 constitution|

| Indigenous|

* Bhaca
* Khoe
* Khoisan
* Lala
* Lozi
* Nama
* Nhlangwini
* Northern Ndebele
* Phuthi
* Tuu

|

Foreign|

* German
* Greek
* Gujarati
* Hindi
* Portuguese
* Malay (historical)
* Tamil
* Telugu
* Urdu

Religious|

* Arabic
* Hebrew
* Sanskrit

Other|

| LGBT slang|

* Gayle
* IsiNgqumo

|

Other|

* Tsotsitaal and Camtho
* Oorlams Creole
* Fanagalo
* Pretoria Sotho
* Scamto
* SA Sign Language
* Angloromani
* Kaaps

* v
* t
* e

Languages of Sri Lanka

Official languages|

* Sinhala
* Tamil

Others|

* Sri Lankan Tamil
* Sri Lankan English1
* Sri Lankan Malay
* Pali2
* Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole
* Vedda
* Sri Lankan sign languages

Formerly spoken and extinct|

* Arwi
* Ceylon Dutch
* Rodiya3

1Recognized as a "link" language 2a liturgical language 3a dialect of Sinhala

* v
* t
* e

Languages of Bahrain

Official language|

* Arabic (Bahrani, Gulf)

Semiofficial language|

* English

Minority languages|

* Armenian
* Balochi
* Hindi
* Malayalam (Indians)
* Pashto
* Persian (Ajams)
* Punjabi
* Tamil
* Telugu
* Urdu

Sign languages|

* Arabic Sign Language

* v
* t
* e

Languages spoken in Kerala

Non-tribal languages|

* Arabi Malayalam
* Kannada
* Konkani
* Malayalam
* Tamil
* Telugu
* Tulu

Tribal languages|

* Allar
* Bellari
* Eravallan
* Irula
* Kadar
* Kalanadi
* Kanikkaran
* Kodava
* Koraga
* Kota
* Kudiya
* Kumbaran
* Kunduvadi
* Kurumba
* Attapady Kurumba
* Betta Kurumba
* Jennu Kurumba
* Mullu Kurumba
* Malapandaram
* Malaryan
* Malasar
* Mala Malasar
* Malavedan
* Mannan
* Muduga
* Muthuvan
* Paliyan
* Paniya
* Pathiya
* Ravula
* Thachanadan
* Toda
* Ullatan
* Urali
* Wayanad Chetti
* Yerukala

Other languages and creoles|

* Aranadan
* Beary
* Cannanore Portuguese creole
* Cochin Portuguese creole
* English
* Judeo-Malayalam
* Suriyani Malayalam

Related topics|

* Dravidian languages
* Languages of India
* Languages of South Asia

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Languages of Malaysia

Main|

| Official|

* Malaysian
* English
* comparison with British English

|

Significant
minority|

| Chinese|

* Sino-Tibetan
* Yue
* Cantonese
* Malaysian Cantonese
* Hakka
* Min
* Eastern Min
* Fuqing
* Fuzhou
* Hainanese
* Pu-Xian Min
* Southern Min
* Hokkien
* Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien
* Penang Hokkien
* Chaoshan Min
* Teochew
* Mandarin Chinese
* Malaysian Mandarin

|

Indian|

* Dravidian
* Malayalam
* Tamil
* Malaysian Tamil
* Telugu
* Indo-European
* Gujarati
* Hindi
* Punjabi
* Urdu

Indonesian
archipelago|

* Acehnese
* Banjar
* Baweanese
* Buginese
* Javanese
* Kerinci
* Mandailing
* Minangkabau
* Rawa

Philippine|

* Philippine
* Iranun
* Maranao
* Molbog
* Suluk

Families|

* Austroasiatic
* Aslian
* Austronesian
* North Bornean
* Kayan–Murik
* Land Dayak
* Malayic
* Philippine
* Sama–Bajaw
* Tai-Kadai
* Tai

Creoles|

* Chavacano
* Kristang
* Manglish
* Malay trade and creole languages
* Baba Malay
* Chetty Malay
* Cocos Malay
* Sabah Malay

Natives &
Indigenous|

| Nationwide|

* Malay
* Malayic

|

Peninsular
Malaysia|

* Batek
* Cheq Wong
* Duanoʼ
* Jah Hut
* Jahai
* Jakun
* Jedek
* Kedah Malay
* Kelantan-Pattani Malay
* Kenaboi1
* Kensiu
* Kintaq
* Kristang
* Lanoh
* Mah Meri
* Minriq
* Mintil
* Negeri Sembilan Malay
* Mos
* Orang Kanaq
* Orang Seletar
* Pahang Malay
* Perak Malay
* Reman Malay
* Sabüm1
* Semai
* Semaq Beri
* Semelai
* Semnam
* Southern Thai
* Temiar
* Temoq2
* Temuan
* Terengganu Malay
* Wila'1

East
Malaysia|

* Abai
* Bahau
* Bajau
* Belait
* Berawan
* Biatah
* Bintulu
* Bonggi
* Bookan
* Bruneian/Kedayan Malay
* Brunei Bisaya
* Bukar–Sadong
* Bukitan
* Coastal Kadazan
* Daro-Matu
* Dumpas
* Dusun
* Eastern Kadazan
* Ganaʼ
* Iban
* Ida'an
* Jagoi
* Jangkang
* Kajaman
* Kalabakan
* Kanowit
* Kayan
* Kelabit
* Kendayan
* Keningau Murut
* Kinabatangan
* Kiput
* Klias River Kadazan
* Kota Marudu Talantang
* Kuijau
* Lahanan
* Lelak1
* Lengilu1
* Lotud
* Lun Bawang
* Mainstream Kenyah
* Melanau
* Momogun
* Murik Kayan
* Narom
* Nonukan Tidong
* Okolod
* Paluan
* Papar
* Punan Bah-Biau
* Punan Batu2
* Penan
* Remun
* Sa'ban
* Sabah Bisaya
* Sama
* Sarawak Malay
* Sebop
* Sekapan
* Selungai Murut
* Sembakung
* Seru1
* Serudung
* Sian
* Sungai
* Tagol
* Timugon
* Tombonuwo
* Tring
* Tringgus
* Tutoh
* Ukit2
* Umaʼ Lasan

Mixed & Others|

* Rojak
* Tanglish
* Esperanto

Immigrants|

* African
* Arab
* Bangladeshi
* Burmese
* Cambodian
* East Timorese
* Filipino
* Indonesian
* comparison with Malaysian
* Iranian
* Japanese
* Korean
* Laotian
* Nepalese
* Pakistani
* Sri Lankan
* Thai
* Vietnamese

Signs|

| Main|

* Malaysian Sign Language
* Manually Coded Malay

|

By states|

* Penang Sign Language
* Selangor Sign Language

* 1 Extinct languages
* 2 Nearly extinct languages

* v
* t
* e

Languages of Mauritius

Official languages|

* English
* French

Vernacular languages|

* Mauritian Creole
* Rodriguan creole

Immigrant languages|

* Bhojpuri
* Tamil
* Telugu
* English
* French
* Punjabi
* Spanish
* German
* Italian
* Hindi
* Hebrew
* Arabic
* Chinese
* Portuguese
* Japanese
* Romani
* Russian
* Danish
* Dutch

Sign languages|

* Mauritian Sign Language

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