Vannakkam!Vanthanam!Swakatham! to my Tamil Page.Tamil is one of the ancient languages of the world.
It is in the same league as Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek, Latin
and Chinese. Of these six languages Sanskrit and Latin
are not spoken anymore. Some of the Tamil literature is
more than 2000 years old. Most of the ancient Tamil
literature has to do with moral codes, religious works
and stories reinforcing the values of those times.
Tamil is spoken by almost 60 million people around
the world. The Tamil speaking population is found in
Tamil Nadu,(formerly Madras state) India, and in
some pockets of other states of India, as well as in
Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Lately, the Tamilians have emigrated to Australia,
United Kingdom, Canada,South Africa, France, and
the United States. The Tamil speaking people of
India identify themselves as the Tamilians.
However, they are known as the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
The Tamils can be defined as people, having Tamil as
their mother tongue. Tamil language is a member of the
Dravidian/ South Indian family of languages. The four
southern most states of India- Tamizh Nadu, Kerala, Karnadaka
and Andra Pradesh- are predominantly linguistically Dravidian,
each state carved out on the basis of predominance of the
four major Dravidian languages. The Dravidian languages
are mother tongues of about a quarter of the Indian population.
Though about 80% of the speakers are found within the
borders of these four South Indian states, a number
of Dravidian languages have been identified in other parts of
South Asia. Among the tribal languages of Central India, almost extending to the
borders of Bengal, distinct from the Austro-Asiatic family of languages,
many Dravidian languages have been identified.
The northern
reaches of this family have been located in isolated settlements in Nepal
and Pakistan. The Brahui speakers are found in the hills of Baluchistan,
almost on the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. So, the Dravidian
family of languages is a South Asian family of languages in one sense. About
22 languages are classified as belonging to the Dravidian family and on
criteria, sub-division as North, Central and South Dravidian are made.
Tamils alone number about 60 million people.
South India and Sri Lanka
have been homelands of the Tamils, from the beginning of recorded history.
The region, roughly covered by the modern states of Tamiz Nadu and Kerala are
identified as ancient tamizakam up to about 10th century AD. Even though some
evidence exists for Tamil influence , and Tamil presence in Sri
Lanka is noticeable from very early times, strong Tamil presence
and influence in Sri Lanka, from about the 10th century. In the
19th and early 20th centuries, Tamils migrated to some British colonies
in search of employment and thus there are substantial Tamil populations
in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji and South Africa. After the World
War II, a movement of Tamil professionals to UK, USA, Australia and New
is proceeding continuously. Due to the recent civil war type situation in Sri
Lanka, many thousands of Tamils in about 20 countries,
with large numbers in Canada, Germany, France, and Switzerland.
Within the Nordic countries, Norway and Denmark have more Tamils than Sweden.
Read Tamil Stories Online.
Read Tamil Writings Online.
Tamil Electronic Library.
Tamil Nation Website.
Directory India Site.
Siddhart's Tamil Page.
New Zealand Tamil Page.
