1.History

The Tamil language is thought to be one of the oldest classical languages in the world. Whilst historians have been unable to provide an exact date of origin, there is evidence in the form of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, which were found in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka suggesting it has been spoken since 500BC. Tamil was also one of the dominant languages of trade during the pre-colonial era.

2.Facts and numbers

In the ancient world, the land of the Tamil language and its people was ruled by three lines of kings, the Chera, Chola and Pandiya. The lands they ruled were called Chera Nadu, Chola Nadu and Pandiya Nadu. In today’s world, Tamil is spoken in Tamil Nadu, south east India and northern Shri Lanka as well as other parts of the world such as Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji and South Africa. Tamil is the 15th most spoken language in the world and Tamil speakers make up 1% of the world’s population.

3.Origin

Tamils are of Dravidian origin and there are four major Dravidian languages in south Asia – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam. There are approximately 220 million native speakers of Dravidian languages in the world, and they form the majority of the population of south India. Dravidian-speaking people are natively found in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

4.Diet

The Tamils are mainly rice eaters and a typical Tamil meal will often consist of many spicy and non-spicy dishes, including Sambar, Rasam and Thayir ‘curd’ or Mor ‘buttermilk’. The curd or buttermilk is mixed with  rice and potatoes with other vegetable dishes served on the side. Although the majority of Tamils are non-vegetarian, they do eat a mainly vegetarian diet.

5.Diglossia – spoken and written

When a language community such as Tamil uses two dialects or languages, it is known as diglossia. In linguistic speak, these are usually referred to as the H or ‘high’ type and the L or ‘low’ type. They are used in different ways for example, the H-type is more formal, conservative and prestigious and is found in elements of life such as education, literature and religion. The L-type is used in elements such as everyday conversation and, in the case of Tamil, TV and cinema. The L-type is learnt at home and the H-variety is taught later in life.