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Tamil is one of the Dravidian languages. It is one of the Classical languages of the world.
The 'l' in the word 'Tamil' is pronounced like a retroflex 'r', and is often transliterated as "zh". The letter 'ழ' which is found in 'தமிழ்' (Tamil) is believed to have unique pronunciation and not found in any other languages. See Tamil alphabet.
| Tamil (தமிழ்) | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation (Approximate; no phonetic symbol available yet for the unique final 'l'): | tha-mi-zh SAMPA: /t{mIl/ IPA: /tæmɪl/ |
| Spoken in: | India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia |
| Region: | Tamil Nadu and neighboring states |
| Total speakers: | 63 million |
| Ranking: | 18 |
| Genetic classification: |
Dravidian |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1: | ta |
| ISO 639-2: | tam |
| SIL: | TCV |
Tamil's origins are independent of Sanskrit (which is from the Indo-European language family and the ancestor of many Indian languages). The oldest available book on Tamil Grammar is Tolkaappiyam.
The earliest records date from inscriptions from 200 BC. Other early works exist ,which were preserved on manuscripts made by palm-leaf and through oral transmission. Part of this rich and varied literary output includes a Tamil indigenous grammatical tradition independent of that of the ancient Sanskrit grammarians. The earliest text which describes the language of the classical period is the Tolkappiyam (dating from around 200 BC); another dates from the year 1000 AD.
Three stages appear in the written records: ancient (200 BC to 700), medieval (700 - 1500) and modern (1500 to the present). Sometime between 800 AD and the turn of the millennium, Malyalayam, a very closely related Dravidian language, split off and became a distinct language.
During the medieval period, Tamil absorbed many loan words from Sanskrit in the verbal system, but in the 1900s attempts were made to purge Tamil of its Sanskrit loans with the result that modern scientific and bureaucratic terminology is Tamil-based and not Sanskrit-based as in other Indic languages.
Main article: Tamil alphabet
The Tamil script evolved from the Grantha script of the Southern Indian group of scripts. Interestingly, the Tamil language is one of the oldest recorded languages in southern India. The earliest texts, written in a southern variant of Brahmi, date from just before the 1st century CE. Later, the Grantha script was employed to write the Tamil language until the 8th century CE when a distinctive script evolved to exclusively write the language. The system has changed little since; Thanthai Periyar suggested certain reforms to the alphabets in 1935 and a few of them were implemented around 1975 by MG Ramachandran and followed since then.
According to Today Translations, a British translation service, the Tamil word "செல்லாதிருப்பவர்" (sellaathiruppavar, meaning certain type of truancy †) is ranked 8th in The Most Untranslatable Word In The World list. It is also the only Indian word listed.
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