The Language & the People

Tamil (தமிழ்) is the Dravidian language spoken predominantly in India and Sri Lanka. It is also spoken in Malaysia, Burma, South Africa, Singapore, United Kingdom, Réunion, Canada, Mauritius, United States and Italy with the population of at least 1 million. It is the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Indian union territory of Puducherry, Sri Lanka and Singapore. According to 1997 estimate, Tamils population was about 74 million. Now in the year of 2010, the population is over 80 million. It is one of the scheduled languages of India and the first language to be declared as classical by the Indian government in the year 2004.

Dialects of Tamil
·         Arwi or Arabic-Tamil (لسان الأروي lisān-ul-arwī; அரபு-தமிழ் arabu-tamil) is an Arabic-influenced dialect of the Tamil language written with an extension of the Arabic alphabet, with extensive lexical and phonetic influences from the Arabic language.
·         Brahmin Tamil (பிராமண தமிழ்) is the name for a series of closely-related Tamil dialects spoken by Tamil Brahmin communities.
·         The Central Tamil dialect is considered to be one of the purest forms of spoken Tamil along with Madurai Tamil and is considered to be the basis of standard spoken Tamil. It is spoken in Thanjavur and Tiruchirapalli of Tamil Nadu.
·         Iyengar Tamil is a dialect of Kannada-Tamil language spoken mostly in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and the adjoining areas in South India.
·         Junoon Tamil (जुनून तमिल; ஜுனூன் தமிழ்) is a Tamil dialect spoken with Hindi grammar. It is spoken by Hindi people in Tamil Nadu. This dialect is named after a Hindi drama Junoon which was dubbed in Tamil with Hindi grammar to promote lip sinking. Hindi people naturally choose this form and thus formed a new dialect of Tamil!
·         Kongu Tamil is a dialect spoken by people who belong to the caste Gounder. This dialect is spoken widely in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem, Karur, and Erode.
·         Madras Tamil or Madras bashai (மெட்ராஸ் பாஷை), is a colloquial slang of Tamil language spoken in the city of Chennai, India. It is a loose polyglot blend of Tamil and English, with loanwords from Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Urdu.
·         Madurai Tamil is the dialect spoken in the city of Madurai and over a vast geographical area of South Tamil Nadu, the area once ruled by the Pandiya Kings. It differs substantially from Nellai Tamil, a region which was also part of the Pandiya domain.
·         Malayalam Tamil (മലയാളത് തമിഴ്; மலையாளத் தமிழ்) is a Tamil spoken in Malayalam accent. It is spoken by Malayalees in Tamil Nadu. This form of dialect often resembles Sri Lankan Tamil.
·         Nellai Tamil, also known as Tirunelveli Tamil, is one of the dialects of Tamil which is spoken in the districts of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi as well as over the vast area of south Tamil Nadu which was once ruled by the Pandiya Kings.
·         Sankethi is a Tamil dialect spoken by a Brahmin sect known as Sankethis who originated from Sengottai (literally: Red Fort in Tamil) in Tamil Nadu. Historically, they are known to have migrated to Karnataka from Sengottai sometime in the last 200-400 years. Many still call it as dialect of Kannada while Kannada speakers hardly understand Sankethi. It is now declared as an independent language; nevertheless, Tamils find it very easy to comprehend the language.
·         Sri Lankan Tamil or Ealam Tamil (ஈழத் தமிழ்) is a Tamil dialect which is spoken by Sri Lankan Tamils. This dialect is known for its purity. Even now, it is spoken very similar to Old Tamil. The accent of this dialect resembles Malayalam.
·         Tanglish is a form of colloquial Tamil that has too many English loan words. The name of the dialect itself is the blend of Tamil and English. It is spoken only in metropolitan cities where the speakers overuse English even when conversing in Tamil.
Spoken Tamil versus Written Tamil
                Spoken Tamil is heavily nasalized and the long words are abridged colloquially. For example, He comes is translated as varugirán in Formal Tamil but, colloquially it is shortened as varán. Note that colloquially –án is pronounced as -ant in French avant. Tamil script does not support this phenomenon and hence Tamil speakers choose Formal Tamil while writing. This led to the state that Tamil is not spoken the way it is written. However, Formal Tamil is used in news report, public meetings, political speeches, formal gatherings etc.
Malayalam, the Sister of Tamil
                Malayalam is one of the 4 major Dravidian languages. It is one of the 22 of the scheduled languages of India with official status in the Indian state of Kerala and union territories of Lakshadweep and Mahé. Malayalam originated from ancient Tamil in the 6th century, of which Modern Tamil was also derived. An alternative theory proposes a split in more ancient times. But, Malayalam was heavily Sanskritised through the ages and today, over eighty percent words of modern Malayalam are from pure Sanskrit. Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and courts of a region called Tamilagam, a famous example being Silappatikaram.
                Linguists say that anciently, Malayalam was derived by simplifying complex Tamil grammar. For example, in Tamil, verb is capable of telling tense and gender whereas in Malayalam, like English, verb denoted only tense. To understand it clearly, see the following table.
English                    Modern Tamil                            Malayam
He comes                avan varán                                  Avan varunnu
She comes               ava vará                                      Aval varunnu
It comes                  adhu varudhu                              Adhu varunnu
                If you look at the above table it is clear that Tamil uses three unique verbs for comes, which tells both gender and tenses; whereas in Malayalam, all the three examples have the same verb form which just tells the tense.
                For comparison, Tamil and Malayalam can be thought analogous to the lingual closeness of Hindi and Urdu, and Spanish and Portuguese. Both Malayalam speakers and Tamil speakers can understand each other’s language very easily than others.
Tamil People

·         Indian Tamils mostly live in the state of Tamil Nadu. Tamils are the majority in the union territory of Pondicherry, a former French colony. Pondicherry is a subnational enclave situated within Tamil Nadu. Tamils account for at least one-sixth of the population in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

·         Sri Lankan Tamils There are two groups of Tamils in Sri Lanka: the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils. The Sri Lankan Tamils (or Ceylon Tamils) are descendants of the Tamils of the old Jaffna Kingdom and east coast chieftaincies called Vannimais. The Indian Tamils (or Hill Country Tamils) are descendants of bonded laborers sent from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka in the 19th century to work on tea plantations. Furthermore, there is a significant Tamil-speaking Muslim population in Sri Lanka; however, unlike Tamil Muslims from India, they are not ethnic Tamils and are therefore listed as a separate ethnic group in official statistics. 

·         Tamil emigrant communities Significant Tamil emigration began in the 18th century, when the British colonial government sent many poor Tamils as indentured labourers to far-off parts of the Empire, especially Malaya, South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius and the Caribbean. At about the same time, many Tamil businessmen also immigrated to other parts of the British Empire, particularly to Burma and East Africa. Many Tamils still live in these countries, and the Tamil communities in Singapore, Reunion Island, Malaysia and South Africa have retained much of their culture and language. Many Malaysian children attend Tamil schools, and a significant portion of Tamil children in Mauritius and Reunion are brought up with Tamil as their first language. In Singapore, Tamil students learn Tamil as their second language in school, with English as the first. To preserve the Tamil language, the Singapore government has made it an official language despite Tamils comprising only about 5% of the population, and has also introduced compulsory instruction of the language for Tamils. Other Tamil communities, such as those in South Africa and Fiji, no longer speak Tamil as a first language, but still retain a strong Tamil identity, and are able to understand the language, while most elders speak it as a first language.

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