Tamil language
Dravidian language native to South India and Sri Lanka / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tamil is a Dravidian language.[8] It is spoken in the Tamil Nadu and other states of India and parts of Sri Lanka. Many people in Singapore and Malaysia also speak it. Many people speaking Tamil live in various places around the world.
Quick Facts Pronunciation, Native to ...
Tamil | |
---|---|
தமிழ் Tamiḻ | |
Pronunciation | [t̪amiɻ]; pronunciation (help·info) |
Native to | India Sri Lanka |
Ethnicity | Tamil people |
Native speakers | 75 million (2011–2015)[1][2] L2 speakers: 6 million[1] |
Dravidian
| |
Early forms | Old Tamil
|
Tamil (Brahmic) Tamil-Brahmi (historical) Grantha (historical) Vatteluttu (historical) Pallava (historical) Kolezhuthu (historical) Arwi (Abjad) Tamil Braille (Bharati) Latin script (informal) | |
Signed Tamil | |
Official status | |
Official language in | India: Sri Lanka Singapore Organizations |
Recognised minority language in | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | ta |
ISO 639-2 | tam |
ISO 639-3 | Either:tam – Modern Tamiloty – Old Tamil |
Linguist List | oty Old Tamil |
Glottolog | tami1289 Modern Tamiloldt1248 Old Tamil |
Linguasphere | 49-EBE-a |
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. |
Close
The Tamil language is part of the Dravidian language family, which includes Telugu, Odia, Kannada and Malayalam. According to a survey, 1863 newspapers are published in the Tamil language every day.[9][10] The oldest text found in Tamil is a grammatical work called the Tolkāppiyam. Tamil has a long literary history, and is spoken by almost 100 million people.