How is Tamil written?
Tamil is written in a non-Latin script. Tamil text used in this article is transliterated into the Latin script according to the ISO 15919 standard. pronunciation (help·info)) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. A recorded Tamil literature has been documented for over 2000 years.
Is Tamil a classical language?
In 2004 Tamil was declared a classical language of India, meaning that it met three criteria: its origins are ancient; it has an independent tradition; and it possesses a considerable body of ancient literature. In the early 21st century more than 66 million people were Tamil speakers.
How old is Tamil written language?
Tamil (5000 years old) Indian Language Tamil is 5000 years old and is the official language of Sri Lanka as well as Singapore. It is the part of the Dravidian family and is also the only language that has survived all the way to the modern world.
Who Changed Tamil letters?
The paper notes the major script revisions effected by the Italian Jesuit priest Constantine Joseph Beschi (Veeramamunivar) in the 18{+t}{+h}century, when printing technology was brought to South India.
Which is the 2nd oldest language in India?
Sanskrit
Sanskrit – 1500 BC With its oldest texts dating back to around 1500 BCE, Sanskrit is probably the second oldest language in the world still being used today.
What are the six classical languages?
Six languages in India namely Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia have been given the status of classical language.
Is Tamil the mother of all languages?
“Tamil is not only an international language, it is like a mother of all languages in the world,”‘ he said. Tamil scholar Devaneya Pavanar had established that Tamil is the primary classical language of the world, he said. Hence, Tamil has the status of the mother tongue in the world,” the CM said.
Which is world first language?
As far as the world knew, Sanskrit stood as the first spoken language because it dated as back as 5000 BC. New information indicates that although Sanskrit is among the oldest spoken languages, Tamil dates back further.
What kind of vocabulary does the Tamil language have?
Modern Tamil vocabulary is largely based on that of classical Tamil. This makes classical Tamil comprehensible to speakers of modern Tamil. The language has also retained some loanwords from Sanskrit, especially in the area of religion and spirituality. Tamil also has some loanwords from Persian and Arabic.
Which is the oldest text in Tamil language?
The earliest extant text in Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, a work on poetics and grammar which describes the language of the classical period, the oldest portions of this book may date back to around 200 BCE (Hart, 1975).
Are there any inscriptions in the Tamil language?
More than 55% of the epigraphical inscriptions (about 55,000) found by the Archaeological Survey of India are in the Tamil language. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. The two earliest manuscripts from India,…
Where was the first Tamil script written in India?
Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. The two earliest manuscripts from India, acknowledged and registered by the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 and 2005, were written in Tamil.