TAMIL LANGUAGE...AN ANCIENT LANGUAGE
(தமிழ் ஒரு
சரித்திரபூர்வமான மொழி)
HISTORY தமிழ் மொழியின் சரித்திரம்
The origins of Tamil, like the other Dravidian languages but
unlike most of the other established literary languages of India,
are independent of Sanskrit.
Tamil has the oldest literature amongst the Dravidian
languages.
The history of the Tamil language may conveniently be divided
into three periods,
·
Early
Tamil, comprising the period between the sixth century before and the sixth
century after Christ;
·
Mediaeval
Tamil, between the sixth century and the twelfth century; and
·
Modern
Tamil, from the twelfth century down to the present day.
EIGHTEENTH MOST WIDELY SPOKEN LANGUAGE
Tamil is spoken predominantly by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, andSingapore.
It also has smaller communities of speakers in many other countries like Indonesia, United Kingdom, Canada, Mauritius, Australia, USA, South Africa
It is the eighteenth most spoken language, with over 80 million speakers worldwide.
It is one of the official languages of India, Singapore and Sri
Lanka.
WORLD MAP OF MAJOR COUNTRIES WHERE TAMIL IS SPOKEN
தமிழர்கள் வாழும்
நாடுகள்
TAMIL TEXT தமிழ்
எழுத்துகள்
Origin
The earliest known Tamil inscriptions date back to at least
500 BC.
The oldest literary text in Tamil, Tolkāppiyam, was composed
around 200 BC.
The Tamil alphabet is is thought to have evolved from the
Brahmi script, though some scholars believe that its origins go back to the
Indus script.
The alphabet is well suited to writing literary Tamil, centamil. However it is
ill-suited to writing colloquial Tamil, koduntamil.
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.
Notable features
·
Type of writing system:
syllabic alphabet
·
Direction of writing:
left to right in horizontal lines
·
When they appear the 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 didn't rip the leaves.
Used to write:
Tamil, a
Dravidian language spoken by around 80 million people in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, the
USA, UK and Australia.
It is the first language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and is spoken by a significant minority of people (2 million)
in north-eastern Sri Lanka.