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Tamil (தமிழ்)
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| Tamil (தமிழ்) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil
people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in India, Sri
Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in
Malaysia, Mauritius, Vietnam, Réunion as well as emigrant communities
around the world. It is the administrative language of the Indian state
of Tamil Nadu, and the first Indian language to be declared as a
classical language by the government of India in 2004.
Tamil literature has existed for over two thousand years. The earliest
epigraphic records found date from around the third century BCE. |
The earliest period of Tamil literature, Sangam literature, is dated from the 300 BCE – 300 CE.Inscriptions in Tamil Language from 1st century BCE and 2nd century CE have been discovered in Egypt and Thailand. The first two ancient manuscripts from India, to be acknowledged and registered by UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 & 2005 were in Tamil. According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. More than 55% of the epigraphical inscriptions, about 55,000, found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil language
History
The earliest epigraphic attestations of Tamil date to c. the 3rd century BCE. It flourished in India as a language with a rich literature during the Sangam period (300 BCE to 300 CE). With an estimated 30,000 inscriptions, Tamil has the largest number of inscriptions in South Asia.
The Tamil Sangam literature is the oldest extant literature in any Dravidian language Literary works in India were preserved either in palm leaf manuscripts (implying repeated copying and recopying) or through oral transmission, making direct dating impossible. External chronological records and internal linguistic evidence, however, indicate that the oldest extant works were probably compiled sometime between the 2nd century BCE and the 10th century CE.
Tamil scholars categorize the history of the language into three periods,
* Old Tamil (300 BC - 700 CE),
* Middle Tamil (700 - 1600)
* Modern Tamil (1600–present).
Old Tamil
Epigraphic attestation of Tamil begins with rock inscriptions from the 3rd century BC, written in Tamil-Brahmi, an adapted form of the Brahmi script. The earliest extant literary text is the Tolkāppiyam, a work on poetics and grammar that describes the language of the classical period, dated variously between the 3rd century BCE and 5th century CE.
The Sangam literature contains about 50,000 lines of poetry contained in 2,381 poems attributed to 473 poets including many women poets.[37][38] Many of the poems of Sangam period were also set to music.
During the post-Sangam period of Old Tamil, important works like Thirukkural and epic poems were composed, including Silappatikaram, Manimekalai, Sīvakacintāmani, Valaiyapathi and Kundalakesi. These latter five works are known as the five great epics.
Middle Tamil
The Bhakthi period is known for the great outpouring of devotional songs set to pann music, including over eight thousand Tevaram verses on Saivism and Nalayira Divya Prabandham (four thousand verses) on Vaishnavism. The mediaeval period gave rise to a popular adaptation of the Ramayana in Tamil, known as Kamba Ramayanam (12th century) and a story of 63 Nayanmars known as Periyapuranam (13th century).
In the later medieval period (14th to 16th century), Tamil became increasingly Sanskritized, to the point of the emergence of a mixed language known as maṇippiravāḷam.
Modern Tamil
In the early 20th century, the Pure Tamil Movement called for removal of all Sanskritic and other foreign elements from Tamil.It received some support from Dravidian parties and nationalists who supported Tamil independence.This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents.
Geographic distribution
Tamil is the first language of the majority in Tamil Nadu, India and North Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. The language is spoken by small groups of minorities in other parts of these two countries such as Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur and Maharashtra in case of India and Colombo, the hill country, north and east in case of Sri Lanka.
There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Vietnam, South Africa, and Mauritius. Some people in Guyana, Fiji, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins,[45] but only a small number speak the language there. Groups of more recent migrants from Sri Lanka and India exist in Canada (especially Toronto), USA, Australia, many Middle Eastern countries, and most of the western European countries.
Legal status
Tamil is the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Pondicherry and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands It is one of 23 nationally recognised languages in the Constitution of India. Tamil is also one of the official languages of Sri Lanka and Singapore. In Malaysia, primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil medium.
In addition, with the creation in 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations Tamil became the first legally recognized Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the then President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on June 6, 2004.
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Posted : 15 Apr 2009
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By: Kirima |
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