Tamil language
| Tamil | |
|---|---|
| Tamiḻ | |
| தமிழ் | |
 The word "Tamil" in the Tamil script | |
| Pronunciation | [t̪amiɻ] ⓘ |
| Native to | India and Sri Lanka |
| Region |
|
| Ethnicity | |
Native speakers | L1: 79 million (2011–2019)[1] L2: 8 million (2011)[1] |
Dravidian
| |
| Dialects | |
| |
Signed Tamil | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ta |
| ISO 639-2 | tam |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:tam – Modern Tamiloty – Old Tamil |
oty Old Tamil | |
| Glottolog | tami1289 Modern Tamiloldt1248 Old Tamil |
| Linguasphere | 49-EBE-a |
 | |
Tamil
Tamil is one of the longest-surviving
In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named
Classification
Tamil belongs to the
The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam; the two began diverging around the 9th century AD.[30] Although many of the differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect,[31] the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century.[32]
History
Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the
Among Indian languages, Tamil has the most ancient non-Sanskritic Indian literature.[34] Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BC–AD 700), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present).[35] In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BC with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions.[20] There are a number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BC, the oldest attestation of the language.[36] John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India.[37]
In 2004, a number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware
Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in
Legend
According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form
Etymology
The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate the
The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BC contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'.[49]
Southworth suggests that the name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech".[50] 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)".[51] However, this is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature.[50]
The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness".[52] S. V. Subramanian suggests the meaning "sweet sound", from tam — "sweet" and il — "sound".[53]
Old Tamil
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.[54] 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.[35][47] 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.[35][47]
Middle Tamil
The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil, which is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century,[35] 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,[55] the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals,[56] and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic.[57] 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.[58]
Modern Tamil
The
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
Geographic distribution
Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in
There are currently sizeable
.Legal status
Tamil is the
In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the
Dialects
Region-specific variations
The
Loanword variations
The dialect of the district of
Spoken and literary variants
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
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,[103][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
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (June 2023) |
After
In addition to the standard characters, six characters taken from the
Numerals and symbols
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ௦ | ௧ | ௨ | ௩ | ௪ | ௫ | ௬ | ௭ | ௮ | ௯ | ௰ | ௱ | ௲ |
| day | month | year | debit | credit | as above | rupee | numeral |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ௳ | ௴ | ௵ | ௶ | ௷ | ௸ | ௹ | ௺ |
Phonology
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveolo-palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal
|
m ம் | ( n̪ ) ந்
|
n ன்
|
ɳ ண் | ɲ ஞ் | (ŋ) ங் | |
Affricate
|
p ப் | t̪ த்
|
( tːr ற்ற)
|
ʈ ட் | t͡ɕ ~ t͡ʃ ச்5 | k க் | |
Fricative
|
(f)1 | s5 ஸ் (z)1 | (ʂ)1 ஷ் | (ɕ)1 ஶ் | (x)2 | (h)2 ஹ் | |
Tap
|
ɾ ர்
|
||||||
| Trill | r ற்
|
||||||
Approximant
|
ʋ வ் | ɻ ழ் | j ய் | ||||
| Lateral approximant | l ல்
|
ɭ ள் |
/f/, /z/, /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i இ | iː ஈ | u உ | uː ஊ | ||
| Mid | e எ | eː ஏ | o ஒ | oː ஓ | ||
| Open | ä அ | äː ஆ | ||||
Tamil has two diphthongs: /aɪ̯/ ஐ and /aʊ̯/ ஔ, the latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items.
Grammar
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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
pōka
go
முடி
muṭi
accomplish
ஆத்
āt
NEG.IMPRS
அ
a
PTCP
வர்
var
NMLZ
கள்
kaḷ
PL
உக்கு
ukku
to
ஆக
āka
for
Morphology
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
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
Tamil is a consistently
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
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 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 effect of purism in Tamil has been on words taken from Sanskrit. During its history, Tamil, along with other Dravidian languages like
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.[65] As of 2019,[update] 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
Words of Tamil origin occur in other languages. A notable example of a word in worldwide use with Dravidian (not specifically Tamil) etymology is
Sample text
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.
உறுப்புரை
Uṟuppurai
urupːurai
Section
1:
1:
ond̺rʉ
1:
மனிதப்
Maṉitap
mənid̪ə
Human
பிறவியினர்
piṟaviyiṉar
piriʋijinər
beings
சகலரும்
cakalarum
səgələrum
all-of-them
சுதந்திரமாகவே
cutantiramākavē
sud̪ən̪d̪irəmaːgəʋeː
freely
பிறக்கின்றனர்;
piṟakkiṉṟaṉar;
pirəkːin̺d̺ranər
are born.
அவர்கள்
avarkaḷ
əvərgəɭ
They
மதிப்பிலும்,
matippilum,
məd̪ipːilum
rights-in-and
உரிமைகளிலும்
urimaikaḷilum
uriməigəɭilum
dignities-in-and
சமமானவர்கள்,
camamāṉavarkaḷ,
səməmaːnəʋərgəɭ
equal-ones.
அவர்கள்
avarkaḷ
əvərgəɭ
They
நியாயத்தையும்
niyāyattaiyum
nijaːjatːəijum
law-and
மனச்சாட்சியையும்
maṉaccāṭciyaiyum
mənətt͡ʃaːʈt͡ʃijəijum
conscience-and
இயற்பண்பாகப்
iyaṟpaṇpākap
ijərpəɳbaːgə
intrinsically
பெற்றவர்கள்.
peṟṟavarkaḷ.
pet̺rəʋərgəɭ
possessed-ones.
அவர்கள்
Avarkaḷ
əvərgəɭ
They
ஒருவருடனொருவர்
oruvaruṭaṉoruvar
oruʋəruɖənoruʋər
among-one-another
சகோதர
cakōtara
sagoːdəɾə
brotherly
உணர்வுப்
uṇarvup
uɳərʋɨ
feeling
பாங்கில்
pāṅkil
paːŋgil
share-in
நடந்துகொள்ளல்
naṭantukoḷḷal
nəɖən̪d̪ʉkoɭɭəl
act
வேண்டும்.
vēṇṭum.
veːɳɖum
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.
See also
- 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
Footnotes
- ^ protected language
- ^ /ˈtæmɪl, ˈtɑːm-/ TAM-il, TAHM-;[8]
- ^ a b Modern Tamil at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Old Tamil at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b Department of Official Languages, Government of Sri Lanka, retrieved 13 September 2012
- 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".
- ISBN 978-90-04-03591-1
- ^ Hart, George L. "Statement on the Status of Tamil as a Classical Language" Archived 10 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine, University of California, Berkeley, Department of South Asian Studies – Tamil
- ^ 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"
- ^ Definitive Editions of Ancient Tamil Works. Classical Tamil, Government of India
- S2CID 153420843
- S2CID 162291987at p. 610
- ^ Subramaniam, T.S. (29 August 2011), "Palani excavation triggers fresh debate", The Hindu, Chennai, India
- ^ "Students get glimpse of heritage", The Hindu, Chennai, India, 22 November 2005, archived from the original on 18 May 2006
- ^ a b "Tamil Brahmi script in Egypt", The Hindu, 21 November 2007, retrieved 5 January 2015
- ^ Mahadevan, Iravatham (24 June 2010), "An epigraphic perspective on the antiquity of Tamil", The Hindu, Chennai, India
- ^ The I.A.S. Tamil Medical Manuscript Collection, UNESCO, retrieved 13 September 2012
- ^ Saiva Manuscript in Pondicherry, UNESCO, retrieved 13 September 2012
- ^ Memory of the World Register: India, UNESCO, retrieved 13 September 2012
- ^ Karthik Madhavan (20 June 2010), "Tamil saw its first book in 1578", The Hindu
- ^ Kolappan, B. (22 June 2014), "Delay, howlers in Tamil Lexicon embarrass scholars", The Hindu, Chennai, retrieved 25 December 2014
- ^ 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.
- ^ Krishnamurti 2003, p. 19
- ^ Perumal, A. K. (2005) Manorama Yearbook (Tamil), pp. 302–318.
- ^ Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World, Elsevier, 2010, p. 297
- S2CID 131480876
- ^ Andronov 1970, p. 21
- ^ Southworth 2005, pp. 249–250
- JSTOR 3516448
- ^ a b c d e Lehmann 1998, pp. 75–76
- ^ Rabin, C. Proceedings of the Second International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies, p. 438
- ^ Scroll.in – News. Politics. Culture., scroll.in, 6 February 2015
- ^ Christy, Agatha (2019). "A Study About Archaeological Survey in Adichanallur" (PDF). International Journal of Research in Engineering, Science and Management. 2: 158–169.
- ^ "KEELADI". Government of Tamil Nadu Department of Archeology.
- ^ Gershon, Livia. "Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Dagger Linked to Enigmatic Indian Civilization". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
- OCLC 191007985, archived from the originalon 20 July 2011
- ^ Mahadevan 2003, pp. 199–205
- ISBN 978-0-7007-1101-7
- ^ Ramaswamy 1997, p. 87.
- ^ Zvelebil 1992, p. x
- ^ ISBN 978-90-04-03591-1.
- ISBN 9781408705391.
- ^ Jain, Sagarmal (1998). "Jain Literature [From earliest time to c. 10th A.D.]". Aspects of Jainology: Volume VI.
- ^ a b Southworth 1998, pp. 129–132
- ^ Zvelebil 1992, p. ix–xvi
- ^ Tamil lexicon, Madras: University of Madras, 1924–36, retrieved 26 October 2022. (Online edition at the University of Chicago)
- ^ Subramanian, S.V (1980), Heritage of Tamils; Language and Grammar, International Institute of Tamil Studies, pp. 7–12
- ^ Mahadevan 2003, pp. 90–95
- ^ Kuiper 1958, p. 194
- ^ Meenakshisundaran 1965, pp. 132–133
- ^ Kuiper 1958, pp. 213–215
- JSTOR 601707at pp. 284–285
- ^ Shapiro & Schiffman 1983, p. 2
- ^ Annamalai & Steever 1998, p. 100
- ^ Steever 2005, pp. 107–8
- ^ Meenakshisundaran 1965, p. 125
- ^ Meenakshisundaran 1965, pp. 122–123
- S2CID 143499414at pp. 65–69
- ^ a b Ramaswamy 1997
- ^ 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."
- ^ a b Krishnamurti 2003, p. 480
- ^ Talbot 2001, pp. 27–37
- ^ Murthy et al. 1990, pp. 85–106
- ^ Ramstedt 2004, p. 243
- ^ Kesavapany, Mani & Ramasamy 2008, p. 60
- ^ Tamil Schools. Indianmalaysian.com. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
- ^ Ghazali, Kamila (2010). UN Chronicle – National Identity and Minority Languages. United Nations, accessed 28 Jan 2021.
- ^ Shahbazi, Ammar (20 March 2012), "Strangers to Their Roots and Those Around Them", The News (Pakistan), archived from the original on 17 June 2013
- ^ Sunny, Sanjesh (21 September 2010) Tamil Hindus in Karachi. Pakistan Hindu Post
- ^ Raman, B. (15 July 2002) Osama's shadow on Sri Lanka?. The Hindu Business Line
- ^ Sumit, Paul (4 November 2018). "For Tamil Cuisine, away in Pakistan." The Hindu. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- ^ McMahon, Suzanne, Overview of the South Asian Diaspora, University of California, Berkeley, retrieved 23 April 2008
- ^ Ghasarian, Christian, Indentured immigration and social accommodation in La Réunion, University of California, Berkeley, retrieved 8 January 2010
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References
- Andronov, M.S. (1970), Dravidian Languages, Nauka Publishing House
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- 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
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- ISBN 978-0-674-01227-1
- Meenakshisundaran, T.P. (1965), A History of Tamil Language, Poona: Deccan College, OCLC 246076230
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Further reading
- 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, S2CID 162294036
- Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116,
External links
- Tamil language at Curlie
- Tamil language at Encyclopædia Britannica
- Tamil language and literature
The dictionary definition of Tamil language at Wiktionary
Tamil language at Wikibooks
Tamil language travel guide from Wikivoyage
