Back Tamil Afrikaans ታሚልኛ Amharic Idioma tamil AN तमिल भाषा ANP اللغة التاميلية Arabic التاميليه ARZ তামিল ভাষা Assamese Idioma tamil AST तमिल AWA Tamil dili Azerbaijani
Tamil[b] (தமிழ், Tamiḻ, pronounced [t̪amiɻ] ⓘ), also written as Thamizh, is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,[12][13] attested since c. 300 BCE.[14][15][16][17][18]
Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders in South India, with Tamil inscriptions found outside of the Indian subcontinent, such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Egypt. The language has a well-documented history with literary works like Sangam literature, consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later, the vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations.
Tamil is the official language of the state of Tamil Nadu and union territory of Puducherry in India. It is also one of the official languages of Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil-speaking diaspora communities exist in several countries across the world. Tamil was the first to be recognized as a classical language of India by the Central Government in 2004.[19]
- ^ Talbot 2001, pp. 27–37
- ^ Tamil language at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025)
- ^ Tamil language at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025)
- ^ Tamil language at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025)
- ^ Official languages of Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu Government, archived from the original on 21 October 2012, retrieved 1 May 2007
- ^ Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India: 50th report (delivered to the Lokh Sabha in 2014) (PDF), National Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India., p. 155, archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016, retrieved 8 June 2017
- ^ "Official Languages Policy". languagesdept.gov.lk. Department of Official Languages. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ^ Republic of Singapore Independence Act 1965 (No. 9 of 1965, 1985 Rev. Ed.), s7.
- ^ "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 – Chapter 1: Founding Provisions", www.gov.za, South African Government
- ^ School languages, LINGUAMON, archived from the original on 2 September 2015, retrieved 26 March 2016
- ^ "Tamil, n. and adj". OED Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
- ^ Stein, B. (1977), "Circulation and the Historical Geography of Tamil Country", The Journal of Asian Studies, 37 (1): 7–26, doi:10.2307/2053325, JSTOR 2053325, S2CID 144599197. "Tamil is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India" (p. 7).
- ^ Steever 1998, p. 6. "one of India's two classical languages, alongside the more widely known Indo-Aryan language Sanskrit".
- ^ Definitive Editions of Ancient Tamil Works
- ^ Abraham, S.A. (2003), "Chera, Chola, Pandya: Using Archaeological Evidence to Identify the Tamil Kingdoms of Early Historic South India" (PDF), Asian Perspectives, 42 (2): 207, doi:10.1353/asi.2003.0031, hdl:10125/17189, S2CID 153420843
- ^ Zvelebil 1992, p. 12: "...the most acceptable periodisation which has so far been suggested for the development of Tamil writing seems to me to be that of A Chidambaranatha Chettiar (1907–1967): 1. Sangam Literature – 200BC to AD 200; 2. Post Sangam literature – AD 200 – AD 600; 3. Early Medieval literature – AD 600 to AD 1200; 4. Later Medieval literature – AD 1200 to AD 1800; 5. Pre-Modern literature – AD 1800 to 1900"
- ^ Maloney, C. (1970), "The Beginnings of Civilization in South India", The Journal of Asian Studies, 29 (3): 603–616, doi:10.2307/2943246, JSTOR 2943246, S2CID 162291987 at p. 610
- ^ Subramaniam, T.S. (29 August 2011), "Palani excavation triggers fresh debate", The Hindu, Chennai, India
- ^ "Haryana's South connect: When it made Telugu second language in school". The Indian Express. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
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