Tamil

What the oldest texts show

Old Tamil runs from the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE and begins with short inscriptions in Tamil Brahmi. The Tolkāppiyam, a grammar and poetics whose oldest layers may date to the late 2nd century BCE, is the earliest long text and carries the first attested use of the name Tamil. Modern writing follows the Naṉṉūl, a 13th-century grammar that restated its rules. Tamil inscriptions in Brahmi have turned up in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt, left by the maritime traders who used Tamil as a lingua franca.

How the script counts its letters

The current script has 12 vowels, 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam. Each consonant combines with each vowel, which gives 216 compound characters and 247 in all. A dot called the puḷḷi removes a consonant's inherent a, and Tamil nearly always shows it where other Indic scripts would form a ligature. The script does not separate voiced from voiceless plosives. Six characters borrowed from Grantha are sometimes used for sounds in loanwords.

Why formal Tamil sounds old

Tamil has a stylistic continuum: caṅkattamiḻ, modelled on the classical language; centamiḻ, the formal register of textbooks and public debate; and koṭuntamiḻ, the colloquial form. Written Tamil is conservative enough that inscriptions from the 8th century can be read with it. Cinema, television and many politicians now use koṭuntamiḻ.

Where India recognises it

India's national record does not list Tamil, but its constitution includes it among the 22 languages of the Eighth Schedule. It is the official language of Tamil Nadu and one of the official languages of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In October 2004 the Government of India created a legal status for classical languages, and Tamil was the first to receive it.