Tamil

E6357

Tamil is a classical Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in parts of Sri Lanka, with a rich literary tradition spanning over two millennia.

All labels observed (12)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (55)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Dravidian language
classical language
language
belongsToSubgroup Tamil–Kannada subgroup
countryWhereOfficialLanguage India
Singapore
Sri Lanka
countryWhereRecognisedMinorityLanguage Malaysia
earliestLiteratureDate circa 300 BCE
family Dravidian languages
surface form: Dravidian language family
hasAncientForm Old Tamil
hasDialect Indian Tamil dialects in Sri Lanka
Jaffna Tamil
Tamil self-linksurface differs
surface form: Kongu Tamil

Madurai Tamil
Tamil self-linksurface differs
surface form: Sri Lankan Tamil
hasLiteraryTraditionDuration over two millennia
hasMajorLiteraryCorpus Sangam literature
hasMajorWork Manimekalai
Manimekalai
surface form: Silappatikaram

Tirukkural
hasMedievalForm Tamil self-linksurface differs
surface form: Middle Tamil
hasModernForm Tamil self-linksurface differs
surface form: Modern Tamil
hasMorphologicalType agglutinative
hasNativeSpeakers over 70 million
hasOfficialStatusInInternationalBody one of the official languages of Singapore
hasPhonologicalFeature retroflex consonants
hasScriptOrigin Brahmi script
hasScriptUnicodeBlock U+0B80–U+0BFF
hasStandardVariety Standard Tamil
hasTotalSpeakers over 80 million
hasWritingReform 20th-century Tamil script reform
isClassicalLanguageOf India
isCulturalLanguageOf Tamil people
isLiturgicalLanguageOf Shaivism
Vaishnavism
ISO639-1Code ta
ISO639-2Code tam
ISO639-3Code tam
primaryRegion Malaysia
Puducherry
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan Tamil-majority areas
Tamil Nadu
recognizedAsClassicalLanguageBy Government of India
stateWhereOfficialLanguage Puducherry
Tamil Nadu
subfamily Southern Dravidian
usedInMedium Tamil cinema
Tamil newspapers
Tamil television
writingDirection left-to-right
writingSystem Tamil script
writingSystemType abugida

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (968)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Mandapam language Tamil
Matale District language Tamil
Sriperumbathur language Tamil
Dambulla language Tamil
Koovagam language Tamil
Murasoli language Tamil
Kanchipuri language Tamil
Periya Puranam language Tamil
Nayanmars language Tamil
Appar Swamigal language Tamil
Tevaram hymns language Tamil
Tirumandiram language Tamil
Tirunavukkarasar language Tamil
Sirkazhi language Tamil
Sivajnana Bodham language Tamil
Unmai Vilakkam language Tamil
Kelaniya language Tamil
English Vinglish language Tamil
Raffles Place language Tamil
Yercaud language Tamil
Boat Quay language Tamil
Tirukkovaiyar language Tamil
Parantaka I language Tamil
Rajendra I language Tamil
Rajendra III language Tamil
Rajendra Chola I language Tamil
Tiruppugazh language Tamil
Réunion Tamils language Tamil
US Tamils language Tamil
Kuravar tribe language Tamil