When one of a couple of dwelling definitive languages, Tamil has an unbroken literary tradition of over deuce millennia. A written language has changed little when you took this period of time, by having a effect that definitive literature is when much a section of everyday Tamil as modern literature. Tamil schoolchildren, e.g., come however taught a alphabet using the átticúdi, an alphabet rhyme written around a first century CE.

A title 'Tamil' is an anglicised form of the indigene title தமிழ� (IPA ). A final letter of a title, commonly transcribed when the lowercase l or even zh, occurs as retroflex r. Within phonetic transcriptions, these are normally represented per retroflex approximant.

History

Such as a more Dravidian languages, but unlike virtually all of the more constituted literary languages of India, the origins of Tamil come independent of Sanskrit. Tamil has a hanker unbroken literary tradition amongst a Dravidian languages. Tamil tradition dates a oldest works to many millennia ago, but a earliest examples of Tamil writing i have now come around inscriptions from either a 3rd century BCE, which are written around an altered form of the Brahmi script (Mahadevan, 2003). Dating a earliest literary works themselves is hard, inside prominent a share because it were preserved either around palm leaf manuscripts (implying repeated copying & recopying) or even across unwritten transmission. Internal linguistic grounds to believe, nonetheless, indicates that a oldest extant works were probably composed former between a 2nd century BCE and the 3rd century CE. A earliest available text is the TolkÄ?ppiyam, a operate in poetics & grammar which describes a language of the definitive cycle, portions of which date back to around 200 BCE. Archaelogical grounds to believe found from either inscriptions excavated within 2005 dates the language to as much as 1000 BCE.^{[http://www.hindu.com/2005/04/03/stories/2005040301931400.htm]} The virtually all important epic written in the ancient Tamil language is the Silappadikaram, composed around 200-300 CE.

Linguists categorise Tamil literature and language into three periods: ancient (200 BCE to 700 CE), medieval (700 CE to 1500 CE) and modern (1500 CE to the present). When you took the mediaeval cycle, a total of Sanskrit loan words were absorbed by Tamil, which many 20th century purists, notably Parithimaar Kalaignar and Maraimalai Adigal, later sought to dislodge. This movement was known as thanith thamizh iyakkam (meaning pure Tamil movement). Following of this, Tamil inside formal documents, public speeches & scientific discourses is largely unhampered Sanskrit loan words. Between 800 and 1000 CE, Malayalam is believed to have evolved into the distinct language.

Classification
Tamil occurs as member of the Tamil language family, which includes the Irula, Kaikadi, Betta Kurumba, Sholaga, and Yerukula languages. This class action occurs as subgroup of the Tamil-Malayalam languages, which falls under the subgroup of the Tamil-Kodagu languages, which in turn occurs as subgroup of the Tamil-Kannada languages. A Tamil-Kannada languages belong to the southern branch of the Dravidian language family.

Malayalam, spoken by the humans of Kerala state (which borders Tamil Nadu) closely resembles Tamil in vocabulary, syntax and writing system.

Geographic distribution
Tamil is the number one language of the majority in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, & within northern and northeastern Sri Lanka. A language is too spoken inside more area one deuce countries, virtually all notably in the Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra, and within Colombo and the hill united states around Sri Lanka.

When you took a 19th and early 20th centuries, Tamil-speaking indentured servants from India and Sri Lanka were sent to numbers of area of the British empire where they founded Tamil-speaking communities. There are presently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from either the children within Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, and Mauritius. Numerous humans within Guyana, Fiji, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins, but the language is spoken merely by a little total there.

Groups of further recent emigrants - refugees from either a Sri Lankan civil war, when well as economic migrator like engineering, IT, medical agents & academics - survive inside Canada (especially Toronto), Australia, the USA and most american European countries.

Legal status
Tamil is the official language of a Indianorth state of Tamil Nadu, and is one of Twenty-two nationally recognised languages under the Indian Constitution. Tamil is too an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and has constitutional recognition inside South Africa.

Additionally, Tamil was recognised as a authoritative language per Government of India in 2004, following the campaign by many Tamil associations supported by academician from either India & overseas, virtually all notably Professor George L. Hart, who occupies the Chair in Tamil Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. (View [http://tamil.berkeley.edu/Tamil%20Chair/TamilClassicalLanguage/TamilClassicalLgeLtr.html his statement].) It was a number 1 Indian language to become then recognised. A recognition was announced per President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam, in the joint sitting of each houses of the Indian Parliament on June 6, 2004. (View item 41 of [http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/eventslatest1.jsp?id=587 his address] & a BBC news item on the [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3667032.stm formal approval by the Indian Cabinet].)

Spoken and literary variants
Additionally to its various accent, Tamil too exhibits the like sharply diglossia between its formal or classic kind, known as centamil, & its colloquial form, called koduntamil, the wide term which traditionally referred to completely spoken Tamil accent like than any of these standard form. Diglossia has existed inside a language since ancient days - the language utilized in early temple inscriptions differs quite significantly from a language of authoritative poetry. Inside effect, standard centamil is non according to a speech of any of these vicinity, a fact which has helped keep a written language mostly the equivalent through various Tamil speaking regions.

Around modern days, centamil is usually utilized around formal writing & speech. These are, for instance, a language of text, of lot of Tamil literature & of public speaking and debate. Within recent days, notwithstanding, koduntamil has been making inroads into areas that keep around traditionally been considered a province of centamil. Virtually all contemporary cinema, theatre & popular entertainment around television & radio, for instance, is in koduntamil, and several politicians use it to bring themselves nearer to their audience.

Spoken idiom did non own great deal prestigiousness: A rule of grammar of literary centamil were believed to use been formulated per gods & so seen when existence a sole right speech (watch, e.g., Kankeyar, 1840). Within direct contrast to virtually all European languages, therefore, Tamil did non have a standard spoken form for very much of its history. Within modern days, still, a increasing utilize of koduntamil has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken idiom. Inside India, the 'standard' koduntamil is according to 'enlightened non-brahmin speech', like than in any 1 accent (Schiffman, 1998), but has been significantly influenced per accent of Thanjavur and Madurai. Inside Sri Lanka a standard is based on the accent of Jaffna.

Dialects
Tamil idiom come chiefly differentiated from either either both more per fact that it develop undergone different phonologic changes & healthy shifts around evolving from Old Tamil. So a word for "here" - inge in chentamil (a classic kind) - has evolved into inga in the idiom of Thanjavur, ingane in the dialect of Tirunelveli, inguttu in the dialect of Ramanathapuram, ingale and ingade in various northern idiom & ingai in a bit of idiom of Jaffna.

Although virtually all Tamil idiom don't differ super significantly in their vocabulary, there are two or three exceptions. A idiom spoken inside Sri Lanka retainside many words that are non inside everyday utilize in India, and have numerous more words slightly otherwise. A idiom of the Iyers of Palakkad has a big total of Malayalam loanwords, and has too been influenced by Malayalam syntax. Eventually, a Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in the 11th century, retains many features of the Vainava paribasai, a favorite form of Tamil intentional in the 9th and 10th centuries to reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values.

Tamil accent alter based on data from each vicinity & community. Many castes have their own accent which virtually all members of that caste traditionally utilized disregardless of in which it are from either. the bit of one differences keep close at h& begun to dissolve inside recent years following of the anti-casteist movement, however numerous traces remain and these are typically imaginable to identify a human's caste by their speech.

A Ethnologue lists twenty-two todays accent of Tamil, including Adi Dravida, Aiyar, Aiyangar, Arava, Burgandi, Kasuva, Kongar, Korava, Korchi, Madrasi, Parikala, Pattapu Bhasha, Sri Lanka Tamil, Malaya Tamil, Burma Tamil, South Africa Tamil, Tigalu, Harijan, Sanketi, Hebbar, Tirunelveli and Madurai. More known idiom come Kongu and Kumari.

Although non a accent, the Tamil spoken inside Chennai (Capital of Tamil Nadu) infuses English words and is known as Madras Bashai.

Writing system
Tamil writing is phonetic, and is subject to easily-chiseled system of elision and euphony. A present script utilized to write Tamil text is believed to stand evolved from either a Brahmi script of the Ashoka era. Late, a southern variant of the Brahmi script evolved into the Grantha script, which was used to write each Sanskrit and Tamil texts. Between a 6th and 10th centuries, a recently script known as vettezhuthu (meaning letters that come cut) evolved sequentially to produce it convenient for creating inscriptions in stone. A few population likewise call for this vattezhuthu (meaning curving letters). A select few major changes, like a introduction of a overdot diacritical for pure consonants & the ligatures for the compounds of the vowel "E", etc., were mass produced to the script in suggestions from either Veeramaamunivar. In the area of 1935, Periyar suggested some changes to produce it amenable to printing. Occasionally one suggestions were incorporated by the M.G. Ramachandran government in 1975.

When a script was however evolving, several Sanskrit words were borrowed into Tamil. To help writing these words, a bit of characters from either a Grantha script come however retained. Nonetheless, there are numbers of purists world health organization would argue against a utilize of such characters when there are easily-chiseled rule out the Tolkāppiyam for Tamilising loan words.

Sounds
A Tamil alphabet has 12 vowels and Xviii consonants. These combine to form 216 compound characters. There exists a single favorite character (aaytha ezutthu), generating the amount of 247 characters.

Vowels
A vowels come known as uyir ezhuthu (uyir - life, ezhuthu - letter). A vowels come classified into short & hanker (5 of every nature & severity) and deuce diphthongs.

A yearn (nedil) vowels come astir twice when yearn when a short (kuRil) vowels. A diphthongs are normally pronounced astir Single.Fivesome days when hanker when a short vowels, though virtually all grammatical texts place a babies using the yearn vowels.

! rowspan=Two |   ! colspan=Triplet | Short ! colspan=Tercet | Long |- ! Front ! Central ! Back ! Front ! Central ! Back |- ! Close | align=center| |   | align=center| | align=center| |   | align=center| |- ! Mid | align=center| | align=center| | align=center| | align=center| |   | align=center| |- ! Open |   | align=center| |   | align=center| | align=center| | align=center| |}

A diphthongs of Tamil are A vowels come computer peripheral to the phonemics of Tamil, occurring exclusively inside loanwords.

Consonants
A consonants are classified into three categories by using sixer within every category: vallinam - difficult, mellinam - soft or even nasal, and idayinam - medium. Tamil has super restricted consonant clustering (eg: never word initial etc.) & has neither aspirated nor sonant stops. A select few scholars use at times suggested that around Chenthamil (which refers to Tamil when it existed prior to Sanskrit words were borrowed), stops were voiceless while at first of the word & sonant allophonically otherwise. Yet, there is no such distinction is found by virtually all modern Tamil speakers.

The chart of the Tamil consonant phonemes in the International Phonetic Alphabet follows:

!   ! Labial ! Dental ! Alveolar ! Retroflex ! Palatal ! Velar |- ! Stop | align=center | | align=center | | align=center | | align=center | | align=center | | align=center | |- ! Nasal | align=center | | align=center | |   | align=center | | align=center | |   |- ! Fricative | align=center | |   |   | align=center | | align=center | |   |- ! Approximant | align=center | | align=center | |   | align=center | | align=center | | align=center | |- ! Lateral approximant |   | align=center | |   | align=center | |   |   |}

A sounds come peripheral device to the phonemics of Tamil, existence discovered single within loan & oft replaced by native sounds.

Special character
A favorite character 'ஃ' (pronounced 'akh') is known as āytham in the Tolkāppiyam (look at Tolkāppiyam 1:1:2). A thēytham is seldom utilized by itself: it unremarkably serves a strictly grammatical work as an independent vowel form, the same of the overdot diacritic of plain consonants. A system of pronunciation given in the Tolkāppiyam indicate that the āytham stand glottalised the sounds it was combined with. Although a character was green around definitive Tamil, it fell blocked within the early modern time & is at present super uncommon in written Tamil. These are once in the while utilized sustaining a 'p' (when ) to represent a phoneme [f].

A thēytham is too known as ahenam (literally, 'a "ah" healthy'). Its resemblance to the troika dots that were noticed in shields in mediaeval days, & the similarity of the title āytham to the word thēyutham meaning 'weapon' or even 'thing' has resulted inside it typically existence known as āyutha ezhuthu (literally, 'a war-weapon letter').

Numerous research worker currently sense that the āytham is actually wont to represent a voiced implosive (or even closing the share or a 1st half) of geminated sonant stop within a word. For instance, the word written when 'mu-thēytham-dee-dhu' (from either MuLL+dheedhu) should become scroll through when 'muddeedhu' (MuLL+dheedhu). (This derivation is in accordance with a puṇarci rules for agglutination in Tamil.) Thus a letter doesn't have a unique pronunciation ('akh') every bit unremarkably believed, however requires its pronunciation from either a future plosive consonant in the word. So it doesn't have a separate place of origin in a oral cavity in its have, it shares the place of origin of the next stop consonant. This is the understanding how come Tolkaappiyam calls it a 'Saarbezhuthu' (the dependent letter/sound).

Phonology
Unlike virtually all more Indian languages, Tamil doesn't use aspirated consonants. A Tamil script doesn't keep close at h& distinct letters for soft and unverbalised plosive consonant, although two come present in the spoken language. Soft & unverbalised plosive consonant come indeed allophones. It infact form, complementation by non occuring at both more's place. For instance, a unspoken plosive 'p'occurs at a beginning of a words & the soft plosive 'b' doesn't occur in that location.Within words,only unspoken plosive speech sound occur unremarkably when geminated pair rather -pp- , however sonant stop ordinarily don't are when pairs.A soft plosive 'b' comes fallowing corresponding rhinal'm' however a unexpressed occlusive doesn't came then. a soft plosive consonant comes when a vowel however the unuttered doesn't came then.So each a soft & unspoken stop consonant may be represented per equivalent script inside Tamil,script denoting just a place of origwithin of healthy in oral cavity & besides whether a healthy is stop consonant or even even nasal or a second.Sonant or even unsaid existence determined per context. A Tolkāppiyam cites elaborate system whenever to after the letter is to become pronounced by using voice & when these are to exist as pronounced unstated. A rule is monovular for a lot plosive speech sound.

Using a exception of of these rule - a pronunciation of a letter c at the beginning of the word - these system come largely followed potentially now around pronuncing centamil. A position is, notwithstanding, lot extra complex around relation to spoken koduntamil. A pronunciation of southern idiom & a idiom of Sri Lanka continues to reflect these rules to the big extent, though non totally. Around northern accent, still, healthy shifts keep close at hand changed several words then substantially that these system there is no yearn describe how else words come pronounced. Additionally numbers of, but not tons, Sanskrit loan words are pronounced inside Tamil when it were inside Sanskrit, possibly whenever this means that consonants which should become unexpressed based on data from a Tolkāppiyam come voiced.

Phonologists are divided in their opinion over how come written Tamil did non distinguish between soft & unuttered characters. A single point of review is that Tamil never experienced conjunct consonants or voiced stops - voice was rather a effect of elision or sandhi. Consequently unlike Indo-European languages and other Dravidian languages, Tamil did not require separate characters for sonant consonants. a slightly different theory holds that sonant consonants were at one stage allophones of unverbalised consonants, & the deficiency of distinction between them in the modern script but reflects that.

Elision
Elision is the reduction in the duration of sound of the phoneme when preceded by or followed by certain more sounds. There are easily-chiseled system for elision within Tamil. It is categorized into different classes according to a phoneme which undergoes elision.