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Historical map of the Chola Empire, where Tamil was the language of administration. The following is a list of sovereign states and territories where Tamil is an official language or language of government. Tamil is the 17th most spoken language in the world. Tamil language speakers make up approximately 1.06% of the world population.
In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam, thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published. [57] The Tamil Lexicon , published by the University of Madras , was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages.
Although the first known text by native speakers dates to 1885, the first record of the language is a list of words recorded in 1793 by Alexander MacKenzie. 1885: Motu: grammar by W.G. Lawes: 1886: Guugu Yimidhirr: notes by Johann Flierl, Wilhelm Poland and Georg Schwarz, culminating in Walter Roth's The Structure of the Koko Yimidir Language ...
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 16 January 2025. Dravidian ethnolinguistic group Ethnic group Tamils Tamilar Total population c. 77 million Regions with significant populations India 69,026,881 (2011) Sri Lanka 3,108,770 (2012) Malaysia 1,800,000 (2016) United States 238,699+ (2017) Canada 237,890 (2021) [note 2] Singapore 174,708 ...
The Dravidian Languages. Routledge. pp. 75– 99. ISBN 978-0-415-10023-6. Mahadevan, Iravatham (2003). Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. Harvard Oriental Series vol. 62. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01227-1. Meenakshisundaran, TP (1965). A history of Tamil language. Poona: Linguistic Society of ...
The Tamil language is one of the longest-surviving classical languages, with over two thousand years of written history, dating back to the Sangam period (between 300 BCE and 300 CE). Tamils constitute about 5.7% of the Indian population and form the majority in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry.
The two earliest manuscripts from India, [185] [186] acknowledged and registered by UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 and 2005, are in Tamil. [187] Tamil is an official language of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka and Singapore.
Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning from the 3rd century BCE to the seventh century CE. [4] [5] Prior to Old Tamil, the period of Tamil linguistic development is termed as Proto-Tamil. After the Old Tamil period, Tamil becomes Middle Tamil. The earliest records in Old Tamil are inscriptions from between the 3rd and 1st ...