Tamil. Dravidian family of languages

Tamil is one of the languages of the Dravidian group. It is widely distributed in southern India, is one of the official in this country. The unique antiquity of this language, its direct connection with the richest culture of India, its wide distribution area, prompts the study of the Tamil population of more and more people.

Speaking in Tamil

Most of the Tamil-speaking Indians live in the state of Tamil Nadu - about 92% of the total living population of this part of the country considers Tamil as their native tongue. The figures of the researchers claim that, except India, it can be heard in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, they speak it in Mauritania and North Africa. Many residents of the southern Indian states have emigrated and now live in compact groups in the UK, Canada and the United States. The number of all speakers in Tamil is more than sixty million people.

Gray antiquity

The word "Tamil" in Russian came to us from its English transcription. In local languages, the last sound of this word is transmitted with 'l' or 'zh'. The original name is written like this:

The Dravidian family of languages has many related adverbs. The most common of these are Telugu, Kennar, Oraon, Malto and others. Tamil is also available in this group. He has his own, rather ancient literature. The oldest records were found on petrified palm leaves, their age dates back to 200 BC. E. Other inscriptions on Tamil were discovered in 2005. They are one of the most ancient written monuments of mankind and belong to the 10th century BC. These records have proved that the Tamil language does not originate from Sanskrit - it is a completely independent dialect that includes a lot of words from Sanskrit, Sinhal and other local languages. Repeated attempts have been made to remove the imported loans and to restore the original language to the Tamil language. The linguistic battle started by purists Marajmalai Adigal and Paritkhimaar Kalaygnar was known as "thanith thamizh iyakkam". Translated into Russian, this means a movement for pure Tamil. Therefore, at the present time, in a public and official speech, words borrowed from Sanskrit are almost never found in texts.

Thirukkural

One of the most famous literary masterpieces written in the languages of India is called "Thirukkural". The author of the creation, Thiruvalluval, most likely was a contemporary of Christ. The most famous is the first part of the poem - "On Virtue." This work is the backbone of Tamil ancient literature. It was often quoted by thinkers of the 19-20th century, and Leo Tolstoy considered "Thirukkural" one and the greatest books of mankind. This ancient work was highly praised by Nobel laureate A. Schweitzer, who knew the Tamil language, the translator and missionary J. Pope, who popularized Thirukkural, and the great father of India Mahatma Gandhi.

Dialects

British researchers, who published their report in the famous edition of The Ethnologue, refer to more than twenty existing dialects of the Tamil language. Geographically, they were divided into six zones of greatest distribution: northern, eastern, southern, western, central and adverb of Sri Lanka. On the island, the Tamil language was preserved in its conservative form, while the continental dialects were seriously tested, surviving the onslaught of foreign words and lexical forms from other languages.

About Tamil - interesting

It is interesting to know how the Tamil language is structured. Its alphabet looks two-thirds standard - in modern literary Tamil there are 18 consonants and 12 main letters. But the third part - the largest, consists of special letter combinations uyirmeyelutty. There are 216 of them! These "syllables" form the basis of the Tamil language.

In mathematics, Tamil can also surprise. By the way, Tamil is the name of the Tamil language. The figures in this ancient language have one feature: they do not have a binding to tens and hundreds, and each number has a sov "name". And not only whole natural numbers, but even the most complex fractions. For example, the word immi is called the 1/320 fraction, and 1/7 is called anu. Own fractions have even fractions that are practically not used in real life.

Classical Tamil

In Berkeley - one of the most famous American universities (California), annually there is a conference dedicated to the ancient and modern Tamil. In the walls of Berkeley Tamil is considered a classical language, it is ancient, has its own independent tradition, Tamil has written a lot of literary works. This language is as old as the koin (classical Greek), and much older than Arabic. For many centuries, Tamil tried to avoid verbal borrowing and the spread of foreign words in his native speech. Especially the language resisted the influence of Sanskrit. That is why he retained his lexical composition for several thousand years. In 2004, Tamil was recognized as the first traditional language of India.

Struggle for mother tongue

Tamil people are very sensitive to their language. In their home state, they believe that if the national language of India - Hindi - spreads to their lands, Tamil native speakers will quickly forget their native language. As an example, language advocates lead the cities of Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, where local languages have practically disappeared, and the population mostly speaks Hindi or English.

Ch. Annaduray, the former Chief Minister of the State of Tamil Nadu, argued that the decision to establish Hindi as a national language was wrong. "Why is a tigers, not a rat, considered a national animal in India, because the rats are the majority?" He asked. With this statement, Annadurai stressed that there are issues that can not be resolved by a simple majority of votes. To the former minister they listen in the parliament of India, and outside of this great country. The struggle for the purity of the ancient adverb continues. I really want to keep the classical Tamil for descendants of the speakers of this amazing language.