Tamil /'tm?l/[10] (?????, tami?, [t??m??] ?

) is a Dravidian language spoken predo

minantly by Tamil people of South India and North-east Sri Lanka. It has officia
l status in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu,[11] Puducherry and Andaman and Nico
bar Islands. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka[12] and an official
language of Singapore.[13] It is legalised as one of the languages of medium of
education in Malaysia along with English, Malay and Mandarin.[14][15] It is als
o chiefly spoken in the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman
and Nicobar Islands as one of the secondary languages. It is one of the 22 sched
uled languages of India and was the first Indian language to be declared a class
ical language by the Government of India in 2004. Tamil is also spoken by signif
icant minorities in Malaysia, England, Mauritius, Canada,[16] South Africa,[17]
Fiji,[18] Germany,[19] Philippines, United States, Netherlands, Indonesia,[20] a
nd Runion as well as emigrant communities around the world.
Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world.[21][22]
It has been described as "the only language of contemporary India which is recog
nizably continuous with a classical past."[23] The variety and quality of classi
cal Tamil literature has led to its being described as "one of the great classic
al traditions and literatures of the world".[24] Tamil literature has existed fo
r over 2000 years.[25] The earliest period of Tamil literature, Sangam literatur
e, is dated from ca. 300 BC AD 300.[26][27] It has the oldest extant literature
amongst other Dravidian languages.[21] The earliest epigraphic records found on
rock edicts and hero stones date from around the 5th century BC.[28] The oldest
dated Tamil inscription written in the Tamil-Brahmi script has been found in Pal
ani in Southern India, scientifically dated to 540 BCE - the oldest known Brahmi
inscriptions on the Indian sub-continent.[29] More than 55% of the epigraphical
inscriptions (about 55,000) found by the Archaeological Survey of India are in
the Tamil language.[30] Tamil language inscriptions written c. 1st century BC an
d 2nd century AD have been discovered in Egypt, Sri Lanka and Thailand.[31] The
two earliest manuscripts from India,[32][33] to be acknowledged and registered b
y UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 and 2005 were in Tamil.[34] Tamil
is used as a sacred language of Ayyavazhi and in Tamil Hindu traditions of Shaiv
ism and Vaishnavism. According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers pub
lished in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies.[35]
Contents [hide]
1 Classification
2 History
2.1 Etymology
2.2 Old Tamil
2.3 Middle Tamil
2.4 Modern Tamil
3 Geographic distribution
4 Legal status
5 Dialects
5.1 Region-specific variations
5.1.1 Loanword variations
6 Spoken and literary variants
7 Writing system
8 Phonology
8.1 Vowels
8.2 Consonants
8.3 Aytam
8.4 Numerals and symbols
9 Grammar
9.1 Morphology
9.2 Syntax
10 Vocabulary
11 Influence
12 See also
13 Footnotes
14 References
15 External links