Tamil (தமிழ்)

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken by about 86 million people mainly in southern India and Sri Lanka, and also in Malaysia, the UK, South Africa, Canada, the USA, Singapore, France, Mauritius, and many other countries. There are about 79 million native speakers of Tamil, and another 7 million people who speak it as a second language.

In India Tamil is spoken mainly in the state of Tamil Nadu, and the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. There are also significant numbers of Tamil speakers in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands..

Tamil is used as a language of education in Malaysia, and Singapore, and Tamil medium education is being establised in Myanmar. Tamil is an official language in Tamil Nadu, and one of the official languages of India. It has official status in the Indian union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and in Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Written Tamil

The earliest known inscriptions in Tamil date back to about 500 BC. Tamil literature started to apper in 300 BC, and the language used until the 700 AD is known as Old Tamil. From 700-1600 AD the language is known as Middle Tamil, and since 1600 the language has been known as Modern Tamil.

Tamil was originally written with a version of the Brahmi script known as Tamil Brahmi. By the 5th century AD this script had become more rounded and developed into the Vaṭṭeḻuttu script. In the 6th century during the Pallava dynasty (275-897 AD), a new script for Tamil, known as the Chola-Pallava script, was devised. It also used some letters from Vaṭṭeḻuttu in Sanskrit loanwords. By the 8th century, the Chola-Pallava script was used instead of Vaṭṭeḻuttu in the northern part of the Tamil-speaking area, although Vaṭṭeḻuttu continued to be used in the south until the 11th century. During the next few centuries the modern Tamil script evolved from the Chola-Pallava script.

During the 19th century the Tamil script was simplified to make it easier to typeset. Further simplifications in the 20th century included the regularisation of vowel markers.

The Tamil alphabet is well suited to writing literary Tamil, centamiḻ (செந்தமிழ்). However it is ill-suited to writing colloquial Tamil, koṭuntamiḻ (கொடுந்தமிழ்). During the 19th century, attempts were made to create a written version of the colloquial spoken language. Nowadays the colloquial written language appears mainly in school books and in passages of dialogue in fiction.

Tamil is also written with a version of the Arabic script known as Arwi by Tamil-speaking muslims.

Notable features

• Type of writing system: Abugida / Syllabic Alphabet, however, Tamil speakers think of it more as a syllabary.
• Writing direction: left to right in horizontal lines
• Script family: Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Brāhmī, Tamil-Brahmi, Pallava, Tamil
• When they appear at the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written as independent letters.
• Some of the non-standard consonant-vowel combinations are not used in official documents.
• The alphabet was originally written on palm leaves. As a result, the letters are made up mainly of curved strokes which did not rip the leaves.

Tamil alphabet

Non-standard consonant-vowel combinations

Notes

• The Grantha letters are used to write consonants borrowed from Sanskrit, and also some words of English origin. They are not considered part of the standard Tamil alphabet.
• ச is pronounced [s] medially
• [s] and [ɕ] are allophones of initial /t͡ɕ/ in some dialects.
• The sounds /f/, /z/ and /ʂ/ are found only in loanwords and frequently replaced by native sounds
• [ɦ] and [x] are allophones of /k/ in some dialects

Some consonants have different pronunciations depending on their position in a word, or the letters next to them.

• க் is pronounced [k] in initial position, [x~ɡ] in medial position, [kː] when geminate (doubled) and [ɡ] after a nasal
• ச் is pronounced [t͡ɕ] in initial position, [s] in medial position, [tːɕ] when geminate, and [dʑ] after a nasal
• ட் is pronounced [ʈ] in initial position, [ɖ~ɽ] in medial position, [ʈː] when geminate and [ɖ] after a nasal
• ற்ற is pronounced [r] in medial position, [tːr] when geminate and [(d)r] after a nasal
• த் is pronounced [t̪] in initial position, [d̪~ð] in medial position, [t̪ː] when geminate and [d̪] after a nasal
• ப் is pronounced [p] in initial position, [b~β] in medial position, [pː] when geminate and [b] after a nasal

Numerals

The numerals rarely appear in modern Tamil texts. Instead, 'Arabic' numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) are used.

Other symbols

Download script charts for Tamil (Excel)

Sample text in Tamil

Transliteration

Maṉitap piṟiviyiṉar cakalarum cutantiramākavē piṟakkiṉṟaṉar; avarkaḷ matippilum, urimaikaḷilum camamāṉavarkaḷ, avarkaḷ niyāyattaiyum maṉaccāṭciyaiyum iyaṟpaṇpākap peṟṟavarkaḷ. Avarkaḷ oruvaruṭaṉoruvar cakōtara uṇarvup pāṅkil naṭantukoḷḷal vēṇṭum.

Hear recording of this text by Muralikrishnan Ramasamy

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Sample video in Tamil

Information about Tamil | Arwi Arabic script for Tamil | Phrases | Numbers | Time | Family words | Tower of Babel | Books about Tamil on: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk [affilate links]

Links

Information about Tamil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_phonology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_literature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_people
https://sites.google.com/site/sarvabhashin/en/ta
https://www.howtolearnalanguage.info/languages/tamil/alphabet

Online Tamil lessons
https://www.learntamil.com/
http://ilanguages.org/tamil.php
https://mylanguages.org/learn_tamil.php
http://ilovelanguages.org/tamil.php
https://bhashafy.com/
https://www.imaginetamil.com/

Online Tamil dictionaries
https://agarathi.com/
http://www.dictionary.tamilcube.com
http://www.tamildict.com
https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/tamil/
https://www.shabdkosh.com/dictionary/english-tamil
https://www.shabdkosh.com/dictionary/english-tamil
https://www.lexilogos.com/english/tamil_dictionary.htm

Free Tamil fonts
http://www.azhagi.com/freefonts.html
http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Tamil.html

Online Tamil radio
http://www.slbc.lk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tamil/
http://www.ctbc.com

Tamil names
http://tamilcube.com/babynames/tamil-baby-names.aspx
http://babynames.tamilstar.com/

Tamil songs
http://tamilsongslyrics.in
https://samadada.com/tamil-folk/

Dravidian languages

Badaga, Brahui, Dhundari, Gondi, Irula, Jatapu, Kannada, Kodava, Kolam, Konda, Koya, Kurukh, Malayalam, Malto, Mukha Dora, Ravula, Sankethi, Savara, Sunuwar, Suriyani Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Toda, Tulu, Yerukula

Languages written with the Tamil alphabet

Irula, Tamil, Toda

Abugidas / Syllabic alphabets

Ahom, Aima, Arleng, Badagu, Badlit, Basahan, Balinese, Balti-A, Balti-B, Batak, Baybayin, Bengali, Bhaiksuki, Bhujimol, Bilang-bilang, Bima, Blackfoot, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Carrier, Chakma, Cham, Cree, Dehong Dai, Devanagari, Dham Lipi, Dhankari / Sirmauri, Ditema, Dives Akuru, Dogra, Ethiopic, Evēla Akuru, Fox, Fraser, Gond, Goykanadi, Grantha, Gujarati, Gunjala Gondi, Gupta, Gurmukhi, Halbi Lipi, Hanifi, Hanuno'o, Hočąk, Ibalnan, Incung, Inuktitut, Jaunsari Takri, Javanese, Kaithi, Kadamba, Kamarupi, Kannada, Kawi, Kharosthi, Khema, Khe Prih, Khmer, Khojki, Khom Thai, Khudabadi, Kirat Rai, Kōchi, Kodava Lipi, Komering, Kulitan, Kurukh Banna, Lai Tay (Tai Yo), Lampung, Lanna, Lao, Leke, Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Lota Ende, Magar Akkha, Mahajani, Malayalam, Meitei (Modern), Manpuri (Old), Marchen, Meetei Yelhou Mayek, Meroïtic, Masarm Gondi, Modi, Mon, Mongolian Horizontal Square Script, Multani, Nandinagari, Newa, New Tai Lue, Ojibwe, Odia, Ogan, Pahawh Hmong, Pallava, Phags-pa, Purva Licchavi, Qiang / Rma, Ranjana, Rejang (Kaganga), Sasak, Savara, Satera Jontal, Shan, Sharda, Sheek Bakrii Saphaloo, Siddham, Sinhala, Sorang Sompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sukhothai, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagbanwa, Tai Noi, Takri, Tamil, Tanchangya (Ka-Pat), Tani, Thaana, Telugu, Thai, Thirke, Tibetan, Tigalari, Tikamuli, Tocharian, Tolong Siki, Vatteluttu, Warang Citi

Other writing systems

Page last modified: 06.10.26