# Tamil language

| Tamil |
| --- |
| தமிழ் **Tamiḻ** |
|  |
| Pronunciation | [t̪amiɻ]; pronunciation |
| Native to | India Sri Lanka |
| Ethnicity | Tamil people |
| Native speakers | 75 million (2011–2015) L2 speakers: 6 million |
| Language family | Dravidian
* Southern
	+ Tamil–Kannada
		- Tamil–Kodagu
			* Tamil–Malayalam
				+ Tamil languages
					- **Tamil**
 |
| Early forms | Old Tamil
* Middle Tamil
 |
| Writing system | Tamil (Brahmic) Tamil-Brahmi (historical) Grantha (historical) Vatteluttu (historical) Pallava (historical) Kolezhuthu (historical) Arwi (Abjad) Tamil Braille (Bharati) Latin script (informal) |
| Signed forms | Signed Tamil |
| Official status |
| Official language in |  India:
* Tamil Nadu
* Puducherry

---

 Sri Lanka  Singapore
**Organizations**
 ASEAN |
| Recognised minority language in |  Malaysia  South Africa |
| Language codes |
| ISO 639-1 | `ta` |
| ISO 639-2 | `tam` |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: `tam` – Modern Tamil `oty` – Old Tamil |
| Linguist List | `oty` Old Tamil |
| *Glottolog* | `tami1289`  Modern Tamil `oldt1248`  Old Tamil |
| Linguasphere | `49-EBE-a` |
|  |
|

Man speaking Tamil (Wikitongues Project).
Spoken Tamil
**Tamil** is a Dravidian language. It is spoken in the Tamil Nadu and other states of India and parts of Sri Lanka. Many people in Singapore and Malaysia also speak it. Many people speaking Tamil live in various places around the world.

| Part of a series on |
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 |
| Constitutionally recognised languages of India |
| Category |
| Scheduled Languages |
| **A**

Assamese

**B**

Bengali

Bodo

**D**

Dogri

**G**

Gujarati

**H**

Hindi

**K**

Kannada

Kashmiri

Konkani

**M**

Maithili

Malayalam

Marathi

Meitei (Manipuri)

**N**

Nepali

**O**

Odia (Oriya)

**P**

Punjabi

**S**

Sanskrit

Santali

Sindhi

**T**

Tamil

Telugu

**U**

Urdu |
| Related |
|
Official languages of India

Languages with official status in India |

The Tamil language is part of the Dravidian language family, which includes Telugu, Odia, Kannada and Malayalam. According to a survey, 1863 newspapers are published in the Tamil language every day. The oldest text found in Tamil is a grammatical work called the Tolkāppiyam. Tamil has a long literary history, and is spoken by almost 100 million people.

## Tamil script

The modern Tamil script is an abugida, much like the other brahmic scripts that surround it and from whom it developed from. The Tamil script has 18 consonants and 12 vowels and the *āytam* ஃ,. The *āytam is* used with other letters to represent sounds not native to the language (usually with the English sound *f.)* The vowels are written as symbols above, below or on either side of the consonant. There are 247 letters in its alphabet. Much like other brahmic scripts, it is written from left to right.

Tamil is the dominant language in the state of Tamil Nadu which is situated in India, and Northern provinces of Sri Lanka. It is also spoken by significant immigrant communities and the historical Tamil diaspora in like the United States, Germany, Fiji, Indonesia, France, Africa and Thailand and much more.

## Other websites

 Tamil at Wikibooks

* Tamil script stylistic text demonstration

* Media related to Tamil language at Wikimedia Commons