Tamil
75+ million speakers · Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Sri Lanka, Singapore and the world
Has the special sound ழ, as in தமிழ் itself.
திண்ணை LearnThe story of Tamil
Tamil and its family
Tamil (தமிழ், say “ta-mizh”) is a very, very old language that people still speak every day. Kings, poets and grandmothers have spoken it for more than two thousand years, and today more than 75 million people around the world speak it. When you learn Tamil, you join a long, long story.
⏳ Tamil through time
- More than 2,200 years ago
Writing on cave rocks
The oldest Tamil we can read is carved into rocks in caves near Madurai, in letters called Tamil-Brahmi. Some even older finds, like writing scratched on pots dug up at Keezhadi, are still being studied.
- About 2,000 years ago
The Sangam poets
More than 400 poets wrote over 2,000 poems about love, flowers, hills, the sea, brave kings and kind friends. These Sangam poems are still read in schools today.
- Very long ago (scholars still discuss when)
A book of rules: Tolkāppiyam
The Tolkāppiyam is the oldest Tamil grammar book we have. It explains how Tamil sounds are made, the same hard, soft and in-between sounds you learn in this app!
- About 1,500 to 2,000 years ago
Thirukkural
Thiruvalluvar wrote 1,330 tiny two-line poems about being kind, honest and wise. The Thirukkural has been translated into dozens of languages, and people still quote it every day.
- About 1,000 years ago
Temples and kings
Chola kings built the Big Temple in Thanjavur (finished in 1010) and covered its walls with Tamil writing. Around this time, the Tamil spoken on the west coast slowly grew into a new language: Malayalam.
- 1578
The first printed book
“Thambiran Vanakkam” was printed in Tamil letters in 1578. It was the first book ever printed in the letters of an Indian language.
- 1978
Easier letters
Tamil Nadu made a few letters simpler to write and print, like லை and ணா. The letters you learn in this app are these modern shapes.
- 2004
A Classical Language
India named Tamil its very first Classical Language, because it is so old, has so much old writing, and grew up on its own.
- Today
Tamil on phones and computers
Today people type Tamil on phones, read Tamil news online, watch Tamil films and learn Tamil with apps like this one!
Tamil around the world
Tamil is an official language in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in India, in Sri Lanka and in Singapore. Look at an Indian rupee note or a Singapore dollar note: you will find Tamil words on it!
Tamil families also live in Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa, Réunion, Fiji, Canada, the UK, the USA, Australia, the Gulf countries and many more places. Wherever they go, they take Tamil with them, and that might include you!
Tamil keeps changing, slowly
Every language changes a little over hundreds of years, like a tree that keeps growing new branches. Scholars split Tamil into Old Tamil (the Sangam age), Middle Tamil (about 700 to 1600) and Modern Tamil (from about 1600). A child today can understand many old words, but needs a teacher for the old poems.
The letters changed too. They started as Tamil-Brahmi, became rounder in a script called Vaṭṭeḻuttu (“round letters”), and slowly turned into the letters we write today.
Tamil has two ways of speaking at the same time: book Tamil, used for writing and the news, and everyday Tamil, used at home and with friends. Both are real Tamil! (See the lesson “Written and spoken Tamil”.)
Words travel too! Tamil borrowed words from Sanskrit, Portuguese and English. And English borrowed words from Tamil: catamaran comes from கட்டுமரம் (“tied logs”, a raft), and curry from கறி.
What is a language family?
Think of your own family. Your grandparents had children, and those children had children: you and your cousins. Cousins often look a little alike, because they come from the same grandparents.
Languages are the same! Long, long ago, perhaps four or five thousand years ago, people spoke one language that scholars call Proto-Dravidian, the “grandparent” language. As groups of people moved apart, their speech slowly changed, until it became many different languages. These “grandchildren” are the Dravidian languages: about 80 of them, spoken by around 250 million people.
Proto-Dravidian, the grandparent language
- South
- Tamil
- Malayalam
- Kannada
- Tulu
- Kodava
- Toda
- Badaga
- Irula
- South-Central
- Telugu
- Gondi
- Kui
- Kuvi
- Central
- Kolami
- Parji
- Gadaba
- North
- Kurukh
- Malto
- Brahui
Only some of the about 80 Dravidian languages are shown. The four in bold have the oldest and biggest written literatures.
🔍 Spot the cousins
Here are the same words in Tamil and its three big cousins. Can you see how alike they are? That is the family likeness!
| Meaning | தமிழ் | Malayalam | Kannada | Telugu |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eye | kaṇ | കണ്ണ് kaṇṇŭ | ಕಣ್ಣು kaṇṇu | కన్ను kannu |
| two | iraṇṭu | രണ്ട് raṇṭŭ | ಎರಡು eraḍu | రెండు reṇḍu |
| three | mūṉṟu | മൂന്ന് mūnnŭ | ಮೂರು mūru | మూడు mūḍu |
| honey | tēṉ | തേൻ tēn | ಜೇನು jēnu | తేనె tēne |
| come! | vā | വാ vā | ಬಾ bā | రా rā |
Different families
English, Hindi, Latin and German belong to a different family, called Indo-European. Look how their words for “two” and “three” look alike: two, do, duo, zwei; three, tīn, trēs, drei. Now look at Tamil: இரண்டு, மூன்று. Not the same at all! That is how we can tell Tamil is not in their family.
But neighbours share! Over thousands of years, Tamil borrowed words from Sanskrit, and Indian languages like Hindi picked up sounds like ட and ண that are typical of Dravidian languages.
Some scholars think the writing of the Indus Valley, a great old civilisation, might have been a Dravidian language. Nobody can read that writing yet, so it is still a mystery. Maybe you will solve it one day!
| English | Hindi | Latin | German | தமிழ் |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| two | दो do | duo | zwei | இரண்டு |
| three | तीन tīn | trēs | drei | மூன்று |
🗺️ Where Dravidian languages are spoken
Each colour shows where one of the big four is spoken most. The purple dots show smaller Dravidian languages, spoken by communities in hills and forests across India. Can you find Brahui? It is far away in Pakistan, a clue that Dravidian languages may once have been spoken much further north.
- Tamil Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, north and east Sri Lanka
- Malayalam Kerala, Lakshadweep
- Kannada Karnataka
- Telugu Andhra Pradesh, Telangana
- Smaller Dravidian languages
- Mostly other language families (such as Indo-European)
Simplified: each state is coloured by its main language, and every state has speakers of many languages. India’s boundary as officially shown by India. Map data: Natural Earth.
Telugu
about 80 million · Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
The Dravidian language with the most speakers. Many of its words end in a vowel, so it sounds very musical.
Kannada
about 45 million · Karnataka
Its letters look a lot like Telugu letters: the two scripts are cousins too.
Malayalam
about 35 million · Kerala and Lakshadweep
Tamil’s closest cousin: it grew out of the Tamil of the west coast. Its name is a palindrome in English letters: Malayalam!
🤝 What the family shares
✨ Fun facts
- The word தமிழ் has the special ழ sound in it, which very few languages in the world have.
- Tamil has no word for “the” or “a” in the English way: மரம் can mean “tree”, “a tree” or “the tree”.
- In Tamil you can often leave out “I” or “you”, because the end of the verb already tells who is doing it: வந்தேன் means “I came”.
- Tamil has its own number signs too: ௧ ௨ ௩ are 1 2 3. Today most people write 1 2 3, but you can still see ௧ ௨ ௩ on old buildings and in calendars. (See the ISO 15919 page.)
🎯 Quick quiz
Which language family is Tamil in?
How old is the oldest Tamil writing we can read?
Which language is Tamil’s closest cousin?
Which of these is NOT a Dravidian language?