Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Muruggapillai Nallathambi was a Sri Lankan Tamil poet, scholar and teacher. He was born on 13 September 1899 and died on 8 May 1951. He is popular for translating the Sri Lankan national anthem into Tamil which is an official language of the country along with Sinhalese. Translation was officially accepted from 1950 and is still being used in ...
The Tamil language is spoken by native Sri Lankan Tamils and is also spoken by Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka and by most Sri Lankan Moors. Tamil speakers number around 4.8 million (29% of the population), making it the second largest language in Sri Lanka. There are more than 40,000 speakers of the Sri Lankan Malay language.
Sri Lankan Tamil dialects are classified into three major subgroups: the Jaffna Tamil, the Batticaloa Tamil, and the Negombo Tamil dialects. These dialects are also used by ethnic groups other than Tamils such as the Sinhalese, Moors and Veddhas. Tamil loan words in Sinhala also follow the characteristics of Sri Lankan Tamil dialects. [154]
Sri Lankan Tamil dialects are distinct from the Tamil dialects used in Tamil Nadu, India.They are used in Sri Lanka and in the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora.Linguistic borrowings from European colonizers such as the Portuguese, English and the Dutch have also contributed to a unique vocabulary that is distinct from the colloquial usage of Tamil in the Indian mainland.
The spoken Tamil varieties in Sri Lanka although different from those of Tamil Nadu in India share some common features with the southern dialects of Tamil Nadu. Sri Lankan Tamil dialects retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in Tamil Nadu, [5] [6] and use many other words slightly differently. [7]
In spite of the continual contact with India by sea, Sri Lankan Tamils have over the centuries become a distinct people developing dialects that differ in several aspects from the Indian Tamil dialects. [5] The Jaffna Tamil dialect is also distinct to a lesser extent from that of the Eastern, Western and Upcountry Tamil dialects of Sri Lanka. [6]
Valentine Joseph - was a Sri Lankan Tamil mathematician, noted for his contributions to education Rajini Thiranagama - murdered human rights activist and author of books; head of the Department of Anatomy, University of Jaffna ; member of University Teachers for Human Rights assassinated by Tamil Tigers.
The statistics reveal a more than 50 per cent fall in the Indian Tamil population between 1971 and 1981. The main reason for the fall was the repatriation of Indian citizens to India. Another fact is that many Indian Tamils, after acquiring Sri Lankan citizenship, declared themselves as Sri Lankan Tamils.