Tamil language#Legal status

The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate the Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-term Tamil Sangams, which researched, developed and made amendments to the Tamil language. Although 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 the 2nd century BCE.{{Harvnb|Zvelebil|1992|p=x}}{{Cite book|last=Zvelebil|first=Kamil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ&q=info:3mNeiVqlnhoJ:scholar.google.com/&pg=PR9|title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India|date=1973|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-03591-1}} The Hathigumpha inscription, inscribed around a similar period (150 BCE) by Kharavela, the Jain king of Kalinga, also refers to a Tamira Samghatta (Tamil confederacy){{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=Charles |title=Coromandel : a personal history of South India |date=2017 |publisher=Little, Brown |location=London |isbn=9781408705391 |page=9}}

The Samavayanga Sutra, dated to the 3rd century BCE contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'.{{cite book|last=Jain|first=Sagarmal|title=Aspects of Jainology: Volume VI|year=1998|chapter=Jain Literature [From earliest time to c. 10th A.D.]}}

Southworth suggests that the name comes from {{IAST|tam-miḻ}} > {{IAST|tam-iḻ}} "self-speak", or "our own speech".{{Harvnb|Southworth|1998|pp=129–132}} Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of {{IAST|tam-iḻ}}, with {{IAST|tam}} meaning "self" or "one's self", and "{{IAST|-iḻ}}" having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests a derivation of {{IAST|tamiḻ}} < {{IAST|tam-iḻ}} < *{{IAST|tav-iḻ}} < *{{IAST|tak-iḻ}}, meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)".{{Harvnb|Zvelebil|1992|p=ix–xvi}} However, this is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature.

The Tamil Lexicon of the University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness".{{Citation|publisher=University of Madras |title=Tamil lexicon |place=Madras |year=1924–36 |url= https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/tamil-lex_query.py?qs=%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%AE%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%B4%E0%AF%8D&searchhws=yes&matchtype=exact|access-date=26 October 2022 |postscript=.}} (Online edition at the University of Chicago) S. V. Subramanian suggests the meaning "sweet sound", from tam – "sweet" and il – "sound".{{Citation|last=Subramanian|first=S.V|title=Heritage of Tamils; Language and Grammar|year=1980|publisher=International Institute of Tamil Studies|pages=7–12}}

David Shulman cites Cuntaramurti's Tevaram, in which he writes to Shiva, "Do you know proper Tamil?" and ascribes it the meaning "Do you know how to behave properly as a male lover should? Can you understand the hints and implicit meaning that a proficient lover ought to be able to decipher?" He also states that at some point in history, Tamil meant something like "knowing how to love", in a poetic sense, and that to "know Tamil" could also mean "to be a civilized being".{{Citation|publisher = Harvard University Belknap Press | title = Tamil: A Biography | year = 2016 | url = https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674059924 | pages = 2}}

{{Main|Dravidian languages}}

Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages, a family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent.{{Harvnb|Krishnamurti|2003|p=19}} It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groupsPerumal, A. K. (2005) Manorama Yearbook (Tamil), pp. 302–318. 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 CE.{{citation|title=Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World|date=2010|publisher=Elsevier|page=297}} Although many of the differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect,{{Citation | doi = 10.1017/S0041977X00021285| title = Some observations on the sub-group Tamil-Malayalam: Differential realizations of the cluster * ṉt| journal = Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies| volume = 53| page = 87| year = 2009| last1 = Menon | first1 = A. G. | s2cid = 131480876}} the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century.{{Harvnb|Andronov|1970|p=21}}

Additionally Kannada is also relatively close to the Tamil language and shares the format of the formal ancient Tamil language. While there are some variations from the Tamil language, Kannada still preserves a lot from its roots. As part of the southern family of Indian languages and situated relatively close to the northern parts of India, Kannada also shares some Sanskrit words, similar to Malayalam. Many of the formerly used words in Tamil have been preserved with little change in Kannada. This shows a relative parallel to Tamil, even as Tamil has undergone some changes in modern ways of speaking.{{sfn|Mahadevan|2003}}{{page needed|date=July 2024}}

File:Civiltà_thamirabani,_reperti_da_adhichanallur,_02.jpg in the Government Museum, Chennai|left]]

File:Keezhadi excavation.jpg|left]]

File:Tamil Inscriptions.jpg Tamil Brahmi inscription in Mangulam, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, dated to Tamil Sangam period ({{Circa|400 BCE|200 CE}})]]

File:Satavahana Bilingual Coin.jpg script in the reverse side of the bilingual silver coin of king Vashishtiputra Sātakarni ({{Circa|160 CE}}) of Deccan. Rev: Ujjain/Sātavāhana symbol, crescented six-arch chaitya hill and river with Tamil Brahmi script{{Citation|last=Nagaswamy |first=N |title=Roman Karur |publisher=Brahad Prakashan |year=1995 |oclc=191007985 |url=http://www.tamilartsacademy.com/books/roman%20karur/chapter04.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720024602/http://www.tamilartsacademy.com/books/roman%20karur/chapter04.html |archive-date=20 July 2011 }}{{Harvnb|Mahadevan|2003|pp=199–205}}{{Citation|last=Panneerselvam|first=R|year=1969|title=Further light on the bilingual coin of the Sātavāhanas|journal=Indo-Iranian Journal|volume=4|issue=11|pages=281–288|doi=10.1163/000000069790078428|doi-access=free}}{{Citation|last=Yandel|first=Keith|title=Religion and Public Culture: Encounters and Identities in Modern South India |publisher=Routledge Curzon |year=2000 |page=235 |isbn=978-0-7007-1101-7}} 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.{{sfn|Ramaswamy|1997|p=87}}

Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the Proto-Dravidian language, which was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of the culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India,{{Harvnb|Southworth|2005|pp=249–250}} but it has also been related to the Harappan civilization.

Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present).{{Harvnb|Lehmann|1998|pp=75–76}}

About 60,000 of the approximately 10,000 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.{{citation |title= Students get glimpse of heritage |url= http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/22/stories/2005112215970400.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060518064346/http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/22/stories/2005112215970400.htm |url-status= dead |archive-date= 18 May 2006 |date = 22 November 2005|work= The Hindu |location=Chennai, India}}

In 2004, a number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns dating from at least 696 BCE in Adichanallur. Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin.{{Cite journal|last=Christy|first=Agatha|date=2019|title=A Study About Archaeological Survey in Adichanallur|url=https://www.ijresm.com/Vol.2_2019/Vol2_Iss11_November19/IJRESM_V2_I11_33.pdf|journal=International Journal of Research in Engineering, Science and Management|volume=2|pages=158–169}} Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi. These were 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 BCE.{{cite web |title=KEELADI |url=https://www.tnarch.gov.in/keeladi|website=Government of Tamil Nadu Department of Archeology}}{{cite web |last1=Gershon |first1=Livia |title=Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Dagger Linked to Enigmatic Indian Civilization |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/excavation-india-may-hold-clues-ancient-civilization-180978414/|access-date=2022-01-29|website=Smithsonian Magazine}}

John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India.{{citation|url=http://scroll.in/article/704603/Step-aside,-Gujaratis:-Tamilians-were-India's-earliest-recorded-maritime-traders|title=Scroll.in – News. Politics. Culture.|date=6 February 2015 |publisher=scroll.in}} Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt.{{Citation |last=Mahadevan |first=Iravatham |title=An epigraphic perspective on the antiquity of Tamil |date=24 June 2010 |newspaper=The Hindu |url=http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/an-epigraphic-perspective-on-the-antiquity-of-tamil/article482654.ece |location=Chennai, India }} In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions.{{citation|title=Tamil Brahmi script in Egypt|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tamil-brahmi-script-in-egypt/article1952611.ece|access-date=5 January 2015|work=The Hindu|date=21 November 2007}} There are a number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language.Rabin, C. Proceedings of the Second International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies, p. 438

{{Main|Old Tamil language}}

File:Mangulam inscription.jpg Tamil Brahmi inscription in Mangulam, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, dated to Tamil Sangam period ({{Circa|400 BCE|200 CE}})|left]]

Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi.{{Harvnb|Mahadevan|2003|pp=90–95}} 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 BCE. 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 BCE and 5th century CE.

File:Tanjavur Tamil Inscription2.jpg inscriptions in Vatteluttu script in stone during Chola period {{circa|1000}} CE at Brahadeeswara temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu|left]]

{{Main|Middle Tamil language}}

The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil, which is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, 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,{{Harvnb|Kuiper|1958|p=194}} the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals,{{Harvnb|Meenakshisundaran|1965|pp=132–133}} and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic.{{Harvnb|Kuiper|1958|pp=213–215}} In grammar, the most important change was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb {{IAST|kil}} ({{lang|ta|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 {{IAST|ṉ}} ({{lang|ta|ன்}}). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – {{IAST|kiṉṟa}} ({{lang|ta|கின்ற}}) – which combined the old aspect and time markers.{{Citation | doi = 10.2307/601707| jstor = 601707| title = The Duration of an Action-Real or Aspectual? The Evolution of the Present Tense in Tamil| journal = Journal of the American Oriental Society| volume = 105| issue = 2| pages = 277–291| year = 1985| last1 = Rajam | first1 = V. S.}} at pp. 284–285

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.{{Harvnb|Shapiro|Schiffman|1983|p=2}} 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{{Harvnb|Annamalai|Steever|1998|p=100}} – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically.{{Harvnb|Steever|2005|pp=107–8}} Modern spoken Tamil also shows a number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions,{{Harvnb|Meenakshisundaran|1965|p=125}} and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic.{{Harvnb|Meenakshisundaran|1965|pp=122–123}}

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.{{Citation | doi = 10.1515/ijsl.1978.16.59| title = Standard Language and Socio-Historical Parameters: Standard Lankan Tamil| journal = International Journal of the Sociology of Language| issue = 16| year = 1978| last1 = Kandiah | first1 = T. | s2cid = 143499414}} at pp. 65–69

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.{{Citation|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tamil-saw-its-first-book-in-1578/article476102.ece|title=Tamil saw its first book in 1578|author=Karthik Madhavan|newspaper=The Hindu|date=2010-06-20}} The Tamil Lexicon, published by the University of Madras, was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages.{{citation|last = Kolappan |first = B. |title = Delay, howlers in Tamil Lexicon embarrass scholars |newspaper = The Hindu| location = Chennai| date = 22 June 2014| url = http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/delay-howlers-in-tamil-lexicon-embarrass-scholars/article6138747.ece |access-date = 25 December 2014}}

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.{{Harvnb|Ramaswamy|1997}} It received some support from Dravidian parties.{{Harvnb|Ramaswamy|1997}}: "Dravidianism, too, lent its support to the contestatory classicist project, motivated principally by the political imperative of countering (Sanskritic) Indian nationalism... It was not until the DMK came to power in 1967 that such demands were fulfilled, and the pure Tamil cause received a boost, although purification efforts are not particularly high on the agenda of either the Dravidian movement or the Dravidianist idiom of tamiḻppaṟṟu." This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain.{{Harvnb|Krishnamurti|2003|p=480}}

According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies.India 2001: A Reference Annual 2001. Compiled and edited by Research, Reference and Training Division, Publications Division, New Delhi: Government of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

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, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India 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 CE. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century CE.{{Harvnb|Talbot|2001|pp=27–37}} Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar, Mysore, Mandya and Bengaluru.{{Harvnb|Murthy|Rao|Veluthat|Bari|1990|pp=85–106}}

There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Mauritius, South Africa, Indonesia,{{Harvnb|Ramstedt|2004|p= 243}} Thailand,{{Harvnb|Kesavapany|Mani|Ramasamy|2008|p= 60}} Burma, Brunei, and Vietnam. Tamil is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia, along with English, Malay and Mandarin.[http://www.indianmalaysian.com/education.htm Tamil Schools]. Indianmalaysian.com. Retrieved 28 July 2013.Ghazali, Kamila (2010). [https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/national-identity-and-minority-languages UN Chronicle – National Identity and Minority Languages]. United Nations, accessed 28 Jan 2021. A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi, Pakistan, which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus{{Citation

|url=http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-98530-Strangers-to-their-roots-and-those-around-them

|title=Strangers to Their Roots and Those Around Them

|author=Shahbazi, Ammar

|date=20 March 2012

|work=The News (Pakistan)

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617043012/http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-98530-Strangers-to-their-roots-and-those-around-them

|archive-date=17 June 2013

}}Sunny, Sanjesh (21 September 2010) [http://pakistanhindupost.blogspot.com/2010/09/picture-of-tamil-hindus-in-karachi.html Tamil Hindus in Karachi]. Pakistan Hindu Post as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka.Raman, B. (15 July 2002) [http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2002/07/15/stories/2002071500050800.htm Osama's shadow on Sri Lanka?]. The Hindu Business Line There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi.{{Cite news |last=Paul |first=Sumit |date=2018-11-03 |title=For Tamil cuisine, away in Pakistan |url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/for-tamil-cuisine-away-in-pakistan/article25414464.ece |access-date=12 July 2019 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}} Many in Réunion, Guyana, Fiji, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins,{{Citation|url=http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/SSEAL/SouthAsia/overview.html |title=Overview of the South Asian Diaspora |access-date=23 April 2008 |last=McMahon |first=Suzanne |publisher=University of California, Berkeley }} 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.{{Citation|url= http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/SSEAL/SouthAsia/tamil.html |title= Indentured immigration and social accommodation in La Réunion |access-date=8 January 2010 |last= Ghasarian |first=Christian |publisher=University of California, Berkeley }} Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia.

{{see also|States of India by Tamil speakers}}

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.{{cite web|title=Eighth Schedule|url=https://www.mea.gov.in/Images/pdf1/S8.pdf|publisher=Government of India|access-date=5 December 2023}} It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.{{citation | last = Ramamoorthy | first = L | publisher = Language in India | url = http://www.languageinindia.com/feb2004/multilingual.html | date = February 2004 | title = Multilingualism and Second Language Acquisition and Learning in Pondicherry | access-date =16 August 2007}}{{citation | last = Sunwani | first = Vijay K | publisher = Language in India | url = http://www.languageinindia.com/feb2007/northeasternstates.pdf | date = February 2007 | title = Amazing Andamans and North-East India: A Panoramic View of States, Societies and Cultures | access-date =16 August 2007}} 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.{{citation|url=http://www.languagesdept.gov.lk |title=Department of Official Languages|publisher=Government of Sri Lanka|access-date=13 September 2012}} 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.Bharadwaj, Ajay (7 March 2010) [http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1356124/report-punjabi-edges-out-tamil-in-haryana Punjabi edges out Tamil in Haryana]. DNA India

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,{{citation |last=Dutta |first=Sujan |title=Classic case of politics of language |date=28 September 2004 |work=The Telegraph |url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040928/asp/frontpage/story_3813391.asp |access-date=20 April 2007 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130203214540/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040928/asp/frontpage/story_3813391.asp |archive-date=3 February 2013 |url-status=dead |place=Kolkata, India |quote=Members of the committee felt that the pressure was being brought on it because of the compulsions of the Congress and the UPA government to appease its ally, M. Karunanidhi's DMK.}}{{Citation |last=Viswanathan |first=S. |title=Recognising a classic |date=October 2004 |work=The Hindu |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/static/html/fl2122/stories/20041105004310600.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926212522/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2122/stories/20041105004310600.htm |archive-date=26 September 2007}} 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 Tami himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004.{{Citation |last=Thirumalai |first=MS |title=Tradition, Modernity and Impact of Globalization – Whither Will Tamil Go? |date=November 2004 |journal=Language in India |volume=4 |url=http://www.languageinindia.com/nov2004/tamilglobalization1.html |access-date=17 November 2007}}{{Cite news |date=2004-09-17 |title=India sets up classical languages |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3667032.stm |language=en-GB}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20051030050314/http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/28/stories/2005102809281200.htm "Sanskrit to be declared classical language"]. The Hindu. 28 October 2005.

In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction.{{citation|url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/sparadox/sparadox.html |title=Language Shift in the Tamil Communities of Malaysia and Singapore: the Paradox of Egalitarian Language Policy |publisher=Ccat.sas.upenn.edu |access-date=13 September 2012}} 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.{{Cite news |date=2014-03-06 |title=Myanmar's Tamils seek to protect their identity |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25438275 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} 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.{{citation|url=http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2017/01/14/statement-prime-minister-canada-thai-pongal|title=Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on Thai Pongal|date=13 January 2017}}{{citation|url=http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/canada-officially-declares-pride-its-tamils-passes-bill-calling-tamil-heritage-month-51059|title=Canada officially declares pride in its Tamils, passes Bill calling for Tamil Heritage Month|date=8 October 2016|work=The News Minute|access-date=6 August 2017}} 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.{{citation|url=http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/constitution/english-web/ch1.html|title=Constitutional Court of South Africa – The Constitution|website=www.constitutionalcourt.org.za|access-date=5 August 2017}}{{citation|url=http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/five-indian-languages-reinstated-as-official-subjects-in-south-african-schools-1395392591-1|title=Five Indian languages reinstated as official subjects in South African schools|date=21 March 2014|work=Jagranjosh.com|access-date=6 August 2017}} Recently, it has been rolled out as a subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion.{{citation|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/For-these-islanders-a-reunion-with-Tamil/article17009446.ece|title=For these islanders, a reunion with Tamil|work=The Hindu|date=8 January 2017|access-date=6 August 2017|last1=Srivatsa|first1=Sharath S.}}

{{See also|Tamil cinema}}

Tamil language paper media such as newspapers are very common with a 2001 survey claiming there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. Tamil language digital media is also abundant with films being especially common.{{Cite book |title=Linguistic Survey of India Tamil Nadu |publisher=Language Division Office of the Registrar General, India |pages=48-66 |language=en}}

File:Jambai Tamil Brahmi.jpg near Tirukkoyilur in Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu dated to the early Tamil Sangam age ({{Circa|400 BC}})]]

{{Listen

| type = speech

| header =

| filename = Oppaari Song.ogg

| title = Colloquial Tamil 'Oppaari song'

| description = Oppaari song lamenting death, sung by women during a death ceremony. Here it is the death of a son lamented by the mother.

| filename2 = Ta-ponnagaram.ogg

| title2 = Pudumaipithan's short story 'Pon Nagaram'

| description2 = Audio recording of Pudumaipithan's short story 'Pon Nagaram' (showing a few loanwords).

}}

{{see also|Sri Lankan Tamil dialects|Indian Tamil dialect of Sri Lanka}}

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.Arokianathan, S. [http://www.ciil-ebooks.net/html/piil/acharya2.html Writing and Diglossic: A Case Study of Tamil Radio Plays] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928092717/https://www.ciil-ebooks.net/html/piil/acharya2.html |date=28 September 2007 }}. ciil-ebooks.net{{Citation | doi = 10.2307/414796| jstor = 414796| title = Diglossia: A Study of the Theory, with Application to Tamil| journal = Language| volume = 64| issue = 1| pages = 152–155| year = 1988| last1 = Steever | first1 = S. B. | last2 = Britto | first2 = F. }} 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"—{{IAST|iṅku}} in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into {{IAST |iṅkū}} in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore, inga in the dialects of Thanjavur and Palakkad, and {{IAST |iṅkai}} in some dialects of Sri Lanka. Old Tamil's {{IAST|iṅkaṇ}} (where {{IAST|kaṇ}} means place) is the source of {{IAST |iṅkane}} in the dialect of Tirunelveli, Old Tamil {{IAST |iṅkiṭṭu}} is the source of {{IAST |iṅkuṭṭu}} in the dialect of Madurai, and {{IAST |iṅkaṭe}} in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear "{{IAST|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,{{Harvnb|Annamalai|Steever|1998|pp=100–28}} and use many other words slightly differently.{{Citation | doi = 10.1163/000000066790086440| title = Some features of Ceylon Tamil| journal = Indo-Iranian Journal| volume = 9| issue = 2| page = 113| year = 1966| last1 = Zvelebil | first1 = K. }} 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.

{{See also|Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil|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.Thiru. Mu (1978). Kovintācāriyar, {{IAST|Vāḻaiyaṭi vāḻai}} Lifco, Madras, pp. 26–39. 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.Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2013) [http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581953/Tamil-language "Tamil dialects"] in Tamil language. Encyclopædia Britannica Online For example, Tamil Brahmins tend to speak a variety of dialects that are all collectively known as Brahmin Tamil. These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many Sanskrit loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese, Dutch, and English.

{{Listen

| type = speech

| header =

| filename = Thiruppugazh - Umbartharu - Hamsadhwani.wav

| title = Thiruppugazh – Umbartharu – Hamsadhwani

| description = Literary Tamil in hymn 'Umbartharu' (Hamsadhwani) on lord Ganesha from Thiruppugazh (c. 1400s).

| filename2 =Ta - குளிர் காய நேரமில்லை - அறிவுக் கதைகள் - ம.பொ.சிவஞானம்.ogg

| title2 = Sivagnanam's 'Arivuk kadhaigal'.

| description2 =Literary Tamil pronunciation. Reading an excerpt from Ma. Po. Si.'s book 'Arivuk kadhaigal' (1900s).

| filename3 = Ta-Senthamizh Nadu.ogg

| title3 = Bharathi's 'Senthamil nadu ennum' song

| description3 =Literary Tamil pronunciation in song written by Subramanya Bharathi, 'Senthamizh naadennum pothinile' (1900s ).

}}

In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on the ancient language ({{IAST|sankattamiḻ}}), a modern literary and formal style ({{IAST|centamiḻ}}), and a modern colloquial form ({{IAST|koṭuntamiḻ}}). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write {{IAST|centamiḻ}} with a vocabulary drawn from {{IAST|caṅkattamiḻ}}, or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking {{IAST|koṭuntamiḻ}}.Schiffman, Harold (1997). "[http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/messeas/diglossia/handbuk.html Diglossia as a Sociolinguistic Situation]", in Florian Coulmas (ed.), The Handbook of Sociolinguistics. London: Basil Blackwell, Ltd. pp. 205 ff.

In modern times, {{IAST|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, {{IAST|koṭuntamiḻ}} has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of {{IAST|centamiḻ}}. Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example, is in {{IAST|koṭuntamiḻ}}, and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of {{IAST|koṭuntamiḻ}} in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken dialects. In India, the 'standard' {{IAST|koṭuntamiḻ}}, rather than on any one dialect,{{Citation | last1 = Schiffman | first1 = Harold | year = 1998 | title = Standardization or restandardization: The case for 'Standard' Spoken Tamil | url =http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/public/stantam/STANTAM.HTM | journal = Language in Society | volume = 27 | issue = 3| pages = 359–385 |doi=10.1017/S0047404598003030 | postscript = .}}{{clarify|date=May 2022}} but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai. In Sri Lanka, the standard is based on the dialect of Jaffna.

There are some words that are only used in Literary Tamil such as: annai (mother), a:rava:ram (din and bustle), ali (offer),

tarmam (charity), iyalum (possible), illam (house), kata (cross), and karpi (teach).

There are also some words only used in Colloquial Tamil and these include: Le:cu (easy), rompa (much), vantava:lam (unpleasant facts), va:ttiya:r (boss/leader), tatave (times/occasion).

{{more citations needed section|date=June 2023}}

{{main|Tamil script|Tamil braille}}

{{see also|Vatteluttu|Grantha script|Pallava script|Arwi|}}

File:History of Tamil script.jpg near the top to the current Tamil script at bottom]]

File:Tirukkural manuscript.jpg palm leaf manuscript]]

After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called Vatteluttu alphabet 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 × 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel a, as with other Indic scripts. This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a {{IAST|puḷḷi}}, to the consonantal sign. For example, {{lang|ta|ன}} is ṉa (with the inherent a) and {{lang|ta|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.{{citation|last=Fowler|first=Murray|title=The Segmental Phonemes of Sanskritized Tamil |journal=Language |volume=30 |pages=360–367 |doi=10.2307/410134 |year=1954 |jstor=410134 |issue=3}} at p. 360. 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.

{{main|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.

{{Main|Tamil phonology}}

{{IPA|/h/}}, {{IPA|/x/}}, {{IPA|/f/}}, {{IPA|/z/}}, {{IPA|/ʂ/}} and {{IPA|/ɕ/}} are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic.

Tamil has two diphthongs: {{IPA|/aɪ̯/}} {{lang|ta|ஐ}} and {{IPA|/aʊ̯/}} {{lang|ta|ஔ}}, the latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items.

Tamil has no consonant clusters at the beginning of words and the consonant clusters which do occur are: /mp/, /rt/, /ɳʈ/, /Ƞk/, /ṇt/, /ll/, /ɭɭ/, /pp/, /cc/, /tt/, /kk/, /rr/, /ɾk/, /mm/, and /nn/.

== Grammar ==

{{Tamils}}

{{Dravidian}}

{{Listen

| type = speech

| header = Tamil tongue twisters.

| filename = நா நெகிழ் பயிற்சி வாக்கியம் 7.ogg

| title = ல-கரம், ழ-கரம்.

| description = 'குலை குலையாய் வாழைப்பழம், மழையில் அழுகி கீழே விழுந்தது.'

| filename2 = நா நெகிழ் பயிற்சி 2.ogg

| title2 = (பேச்சுத் தமிழில்) ந-கரம், ட-கரம்.

| description2 =கொக்கு நெட்ட கொக்கு. நெட்ட கொக்கு இட்ட முட்ட, கட்ட முட்ட.

| filename3 = Tamil tongue twister.ogg

| title3 = ழ-கரம்.

| description3 = ஏழை கிழவன் வாழைப் பழத் தோல் மேல் சருசருக்கி வழுவழுக்கி கீழே விழுந்தான்.

| filename4 = நா நெகிழ் பயிற்சி வாக்கியம் 10.ogg

| title4 = ல-கரம், ள-கரம்.

| description4 ='அவள் அவலளந்தால், இவள் அவலளப்பாள். இவள் அவலளந்தால், அவள் அவலளப்பாள். அவளும் இவளும் அவல் அளக்காவிட்டால், எவள் அவலளப்பாள் ?'

}}

{{main|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.{{citation |last=Zvelebil |first=Kamil |title=The Smile of Murugan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VF2VMUoY_okC&pg=PA4 |publisher=BRILL |year=1973 |page=4 |isbn=978-90-04-03591-1}}Ramanujam, A. K.; Dharwadker, V. (eds.) (2000) The collected essays of A.K. Ramanujam, Oxford University Press, p. 111. {{ISBN|0-19-563937-5}}

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 {{IAST|Naṉṉūl}} which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam, with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely {{IAST|eḻuttu}}, {{IAST|col}}, {{IAST|poruḷ}}, {{IAST|yāppu}}, {{IAST|aṇi}}. Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry.{{citation |title=Five fold grammar of Tamil |url=http://www.southasia.upenn.edu/tamil/lit.html |url-status=dead |work=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=1 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609115617/http://www.southasia.upenn.edu/tamil/lit.html |archive-date=9 June 2007}}

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:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|போக முடி ஆத் அ வர் கள் உக்கு ஆக

|pōka muṭi āt a var kaḷ ukku āka

|go accomplish {{gcl|NEG|negation}}.IMPRS PTCP {{gcl|NMLZ|nominalizer ("he/she who does")}} PL to for

|}}

Tamil nouns (and pronouns) are classified into two super-classes ({{IAST|tiṇai}})—the "rational" ({{IAST|uyartiṇai}}), and the "irrational" ({{transliteration|ta|ISO|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.{{Citation

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AfwCAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Classes+of+nouns+in+Tamil%22&pg=RA1-PA156

| title = Classes of nouns in Tamil

| access-date =1 June 2007

| publisher = Trübner

| last1 = Caldwell | first1 = Robert

| year = 1875}}

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,{{citation|title=Dravidian Case-Suffixes: Attempt at a Reconstruction|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|date=April–June 1972|first=K. V.|last=Zvelebil|volume=92|issue=2|pages=272–276 |jstor=600654|quote=The entire problem of the concept of "case" in Dravidian will be ignored in this paper. In fact, we might posit a great number of "cases" for perhaps any Dravidian language once we departed from the familiar types of paradigms forced upon us by traditional, indigenous and European grammars, especially of the literary languages. It is, for instance, sheer convention based on Tamil grammatical tradition (influenced no doubt by Sanskrit) that, as a rule, the number of cases in Tamil is given as eight.|doi=10.2307/600654}} and that Tamil usage is best understood if each suffix or combination of suffixes is seen as marking a separate case. 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 {{IAST|ām}}.{{Citation |first=Sanford B. |last=Steever | editor-last=Güldemann | editor-first=Tom | editor2-last=von Roncador | editor2-first=Manfred | contribution=Direct and indirect discourse in Tamil |title=Reported Discourse: A Meeting Ground for Different Linguistic Domains |year=2002 |page=105 | place=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |isbn=978-90-272-2958-8}} Verb inflection is shown below using example aḻintukkoṇṭiruntēṉ; (அழிந்துக்கொண்டிருந்தேன்); "(I) was being destroyed".

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.{{Citation |last=Lehmann |first=Thomas |title=A Grammar of Modern Tamil |year=1989 |publisher=Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture |location=Pondicherry|pages= 9–11}} Tamil has many ideophones that act as adverbs indicating the way the object in a given state "says" or "sounds".{{Citation |last=Swiderski |first = Richard M. |title=The metamorphosis of English: versions of other languages |publisher=Bergin & Garvey |location=New York |year=1996 |page=61 |isbn=978-0-89789-468-5 }}

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.{{Harvnb|Annamalai|Steever|1998|p=109}} In the first person plural, Tamil makes a distinction between inclusive pronouns {{lang|ta|நாம் }} {{IAST|nām}} (we), {{lang|ta|நமது}} {{IAST|namatu}} (our) that include the addressee and exclusive pronouns {{lang|ta|நாங்கள் }} {{IAST|nāṅkaḷ}} (we), {{lang|ta|எமது}} {{IAST|ematu}} (our) that do not.

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).{{Citation|url=http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/schuh/lx001/Discussion/d02.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030919235821/http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/schuh/lx001/Discussion/d02.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 September 2003 |title=Tamil is a head-final language |access-date=1 June 2007 }}{{Citation|url=http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_tml |title=WALS – Tamil |publisher=Wals.info |access-date=13 September 2012}} 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 {{IAST|muṭintuviṭṭatu}} ("completed")—or only a subject and object, without a verb such as {{IAST|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.

The vocabulary of Tamil is mainly Dravidian. A strong sense of linguistic purism is found in Modern Tamil,{{Citation | doi = 10.1017/S0010417500018673| title = En/gendering Language: The Poetics of Tamil Identity| journal = Comparative Studies in Society and History| volume = 35| issue = 4| page = 683| year = 2009| last1 = Ramaswamy | first1 = S. | s2cid = 145729544}} which opposes the use of foreign loanwords.{{Harvnb|Krishnamurti|2003|p=480}}. 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 Malay (e.g. {{IAST|cavvarici}} "sago" from Malay {{IAST|sāgu}}), Chinese (for example, {{IAST|campān}} "skiff" from Chinese san-pan) and Greek (for example, {{IAST|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.{{Harvnb|Meenakshisundaran|1965|pp=169–193}}

The strongest effect 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,"Literature in all Dravidian languages owes a great deal to Sanskrit, the magic wand whose touch raised each of the languages from a level of patois to that of a literary idiom" (Sastri 1955, p. 309); Trautmann, Thomas R. (2006). Languages and nations: the Dravidian proof in colonial Madras. Berkeley: University of California Press. "The author endeavours to demonstrate that the entire Sangam poetic corpus follows the "Kavya" form of Sanskrit poetry" – {{Harvnb|Tieken|2001|p=18}}.{{Citation | doi = 10.2307/597587| jstor = 597587| title = Indo-Aryan Loan Words in the Cīvakacintāmaṇi| journal = Journal of the American Oriental Society| volume = 87| issue = 4| pages = 430–434| year = 1967| last1 = Vaidyanathan | first1 = S.}}{{Harvnb|Caldwell|1974|pp=87–88}}Takahashi, Takanobu. (1995). Tamil love poetry and poetics. Brill's Indological Library, v. 9. Leiden: E. J. Brill, pp. 16, 18. {{ISBN|90-04-10042-3}}. reflecting the increased trend of Sanskritisation in the Tamil country.Pollock, Sheldon (1996). "The Sanskrit Cosmopolis 300–1300: Transculturation, vernacularisation and the question of ideology" in Jan E. M. Houben (ed.), The ideology and status of Sanskrit: Contributions to the history of the Sanskrit language. E. J. Brill, Leiden. pp. 209–217. {{ISBN|90-04-10613-8}}. 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.{{Citation|last=Trautmann|first=Thomas R.|title=Hullabaloo About Telugu|journal=South Asia Research| volume=19| issue=1 |year=1999 | pages=53–70|doi=10.1177/026272809901900104|s2cid=144334963}} at p. 64{{Harvnb|Caldwell|1974|p=50}}Ellis, F. W. (1820), "Note to the introduction" in Campbell, A.D., A grammar of the Teloogoo language. Madras: College Press, pp. 29–30. In addition, Sanskritisation was actively resisted by a number of authors of the late medieval period,See Ramaswamy's analysis of one such text, the {{transliteration|ta|ISO|Tamiḻ viṭututu}}, in {{Citation | doi = 10.2307/2659024| jstor = 2659024| title = Language of the People in the World of Gods: Ideologies of Tamil before the Nation| journal = The Journal of Asian Studies| volume = 57| issue = 1| pages = 66–92| year = 1998| last1 = Ramaswamy | first1 = S. | s2cid = 162469583}} culminating in the 20th century in a movement called Tanittamil Iyakkam (meaning "pure Tamil movement"), led by Parithimaar Kalaignar and Maraimalai Adigal, which sought to remove the accumulated influence of Sanskrit on Tamil.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." 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,{{harvnb|Ramaswamy|1997|loc = "[http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=ft5199n9v7&chunk.id=ch4 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." under some estimates having fallen from 40 to 50% to about 20%. 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.Meenakshisundaram, T. P. (1982) A History of Tamil Language, Sarvodaya Ilakkiya Pannai. (translated) pp. 241–2

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. {{as of|2019|post=,}} 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.{{cite news

| title = By govt. order: 9,000 words to enter Tamil vocabulary

| newspaper = The Hindu

| location = Chennai

| pages = 2

| publisher = Kasturi & Sons

| date = 9 November 2019

| url = https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tamil-to-get-9000-new-words/article29919044.ece

| access-date = 29 December 2019}}

{{Main|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 {{IAST|nāraṅga}} from a Dravidian predecessor of Tamil {{transliteration|ta|ISO|nārttaṅkāy}} 'fragrant fruit'. One suggestion as to the origin of the word anaconda is the Tamil {{transliteration|ta|ISO|anaikkonda}} 'having killed an elephant'.[https://www.etymonline.com/word/anaconda "Origin and Meaning of Anaconda"]. Online Etymology Dictionary. Examples in English include cheroot ({{transliteration|ta|ISO|curuṭṭu}} meaning 'rolled up'),{{Citation| url = http://dictionary.oed.com| title = Oxford English Dictionary Online| access-date =14 April 2007| work = Oxford English Dictionary}} mango (from {{transliteration|ta|ISO|māṅgāy}}), mulligatawny (from {{transliteration|ta|ISO|miḷaku taṇṇīr}} 'pepper water'), pariah (from {{transliteration|ta|ISO|paṟaiyar}}), curry (from {{transliteration|ta|ISO|kaṟi}}),"curry, n.²", The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 14 August 2009 catamaran (from {{transliteration|ta|ISO|kaṭṭu maram}} 'bundled logs'), and congee (from {{transliteration|ta|ISO|kañji}} 'rice porridge' or 'gruel').{{citation|title=congee|url=http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/mwc/12703/congee|website=academic.ru}}

The following is a sample text in literary Tamil of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first line is the Tamil script; the second is romanized Tamil; the third is the International Phonetic Alphabet; the fourth is the gloss.

{{fs interlinear|lang=ta|indent=2|italics3=yes

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

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

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

|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.

|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.}}

• 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
• Tamil Shorthand
• Geolinguistics
• Language geography

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{{InterWiki|code=ta}}

• [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tamil-language Tamil language] at Encyclopædia Britannica
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