84-547: The Tamil United Liberation Front ( Tamil : தமிழர் ஐக்கிய விடுதலை முன்னணி , romanized: Tamil Onrupattatu Viduthulai Munnai , Sinhala : ද්රවිඩ එක්සත් විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ , romanized: Dravida Eksath Vimukthi Peramuna ) is a political party in Sri Lanka . On 4 May 1972, several Tamil political groups, including the Federal Party (ITAK), Ceylon Workers Congress, and All Ceylon Tamil Congress formed
168-455: A Tamira Samghatta ( Tamil confederacy ) The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BCE contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'. Southworth suggests that the name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech". Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iḻ , with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and " -iḻ " having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests
252-468: A lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes . Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person , number , mood , tense , etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination , which can lead to long words with many suffixes, which would require several words or
336-560: A political alliance in Sri Lanka which represented the Sri Lankan Tamil minority of the country. It was formed in October 2001 by a group of moderate Tamil nationalist parties and former Tamil militant groups . The alliance originally supported self-determination in an autonomous state ( Tamil Eelam ) for the island's Tamils. It supported negotiations with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to resolve
420-484: A , as with other Indic scripts . This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a puḷḷi , to the consonantal sign. For example, ன is ṉa (with the inherent a ) and ன் is ṉ (without a vowel). Many Indic scripts have a similar sign, generically called virama , but the Tamil script is somewhat different in that it nearly always uses a visible puḷḷi to indicate a 'dead consonant' (a consonant without
504-759: A 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in Tamil Nadu , Puducherry , (in India) and in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . The language is spoken among small minority groups in other states of India which include Karnataka , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Kerala , Maharashtra , Gujarat , Delhi , Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India and in certain regions of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and
588-587: A classical language by the Indian government and holds official status in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Singapore. The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate the Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-termed Tamil Sangams , which researched, developed and made amendments in Tamil language. Even though the name of the language which was developed by these Tamil Sangams
672-409: A derivation of tamiḻ < tam-iḻ < * tav-iḻ < * tak-iḻ , meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)". However, this is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature. The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness". S. V. Subramanian suggests
756-607: A number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language. Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi . The earliest long text in Old Tamil
840-518: A number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions, and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic. Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with
924-600: A political solution must first be found to address Tamil grievances before the TNA would consider joining the government. The TNA was however represented by its leader Sampanthan on the National Executive Council. In March 2015 the TNA joined an all party provincial government in the Eastern Province. Two TNA provincial councillors were appointed to the province's Board of Ministers. At
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#17327654145301008-535: A relative parallel to Tamil, even as Tamil has undergone some changes in modern ways of speaking. According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil) was created by Lord Shiva . Murugan , revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya , brought it to the people. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the Proto-Dravidian language , which
1092-454: A sentence in English. To give an example, the word pōkamuṭiyātavarkaḷukkāka (போகமுடியாதவர்களுக்காக) means "for the sake of those who cannot go" and consists of the following morphemes : போக pōka go முடி muṭi accomplish Tamil National Alliance The Tamil National Alliance ( TNA ; Tamil : தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பு ISO 15919 : tamiḻt tēciyakkūṭṭamaippu ) was
1176-647: A small number speak the language. In Reunion where the Tamil language was forbidden to be learnt and used in public space by France it is now being relearnt by students and adults. Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada , the United States , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom , South Africa , and Australia . Tamil is the official language of
1260-555: A subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion . In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the Government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations, Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the contemporaneous President of India , Abdul Kalam , who
1344-463: A variety of dialects that are all collectively known as Brahmin Tamil . These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many Sanskrit loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese , Dutch , and English. In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on
1428-438: A vowel). In other Indic scripts, it is generally preferred to use a ligature or a half form to write a syllable or a cluster containing a dead consonant, although writing it with a visible virama is also possible. The Tamil script does not differentiate voiced and unvoiced plosives . Instead, plosives are articulated with voice depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology . In addition to
1512-412: Is Malayalam ; the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. Although many of the differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect, the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Additionally Kannada is also relatively close to the Tamil language and shares the format of
1596-457: Is based on the dialect of Jaffna . After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called vaṭṭeḻuttu amongst others such as Grantha and Pallava . The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels , 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam . The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 × 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel
1680-563: Is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam . Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th-century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam , with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu , col , poruḷ , yāppu , aṇi . Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry. Tamil words consist of
1764-405: Is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme, the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals, and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic . In grammar, the most important change
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#17327654145301848-409: Is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ . Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example,
1932-410: Is in koṭuntamiḻ , and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken dialects. In India, the 'standard' koṭuntamiḻ , rather than on any one dialect, but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai . In Sri Lanka, the standard
2016-511: Is mentioned as Tamil, the period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. The earliest attested use of the name is found in Tholkappiyam , which is dated as early as late 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription , inscribed around a similar time period (150 BCE), by Kharavela , the Jain king of Kalinga , also refers to
2100-771: Is not always consistently applied. ISO 15919 is an international standard for the transliteration of Tamil and other Indic scripts into Latin characters. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to Latin script , and thus the alphabets of various languages, including English. Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year, debit, credit, as above, rupee, and numeral are present as well. Tamil also uses several historical fractional signs. /f/ , /z/ , /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic. Tamil has two diphthongs : /aɪ̯/ ஐ and /aʊ̯/ ஔ ,
2184-547: Is ready to accept federalism and regional self-rule. The TNA and its supporters have been subject to numerous attacks during its existence and three of its sitting Members of Parliament have been assassinated , allegedly by government -backed paramilitary groups. In 2015, TNA consisted of four parties: the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front , the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK),
2268-409: Is the Tolkāppiyam , an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BCE. Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature . These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BCE and 5th century CE. The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil , which
2352-848: Is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia , along with English, Malay and Mandarin. A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi , Pakistan , which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka. There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. Many in Réunion , Guyana , Fiji , Suriname , and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins, but only
2436-667: The Tamil National Alliance , the 5 December 2001 election , the TNA led by Rajavarothiam Sampanthan won 3.88% of the popular vote and 15 out of 225 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Votes and seats won by TNA by electoral district In the 2 April 2004 parliamentary election in which the United People's Freedom Alliance alliance led by President Kumaratunga came to power, the Tamil National Alliance led by Rajavarothiam Sampanthan won 6.84% of
2520-523: The 2015 parliamentary election , the TNA received 515,963 votes (4.62%) and won 16 out of 225 seats in parliament. After the election, Sampanthan was recognised as Leader of the Opposition in parliament. Tamil National Alliances manifesto were based on what is known as the Thimpu principles amongst Sri Lankan Tamil nationalists. But the TNA later rejected separatism preferring power devolution to
2604-556: The 5 December 2001 election , the TNA led by Rajavarothiam Sampanthan won 3.88% of the popular vote and 15 out of 225 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Votes and seats won by TNA by electoral district TULF President V. Anandasangaree , a critic of the Tamil Tigers , left the Tamil National Alliance when it took a pro-Tamil Tigers stance in the 2004 general election . Anandasangaree gained control of
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2688-696: The All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) and the People's Struggle Alliance . At the end of its parliametary lifespan, the TNA had 10 members in the national parliament . It controlled the provincial government in the Northern Province and was part of the provincial government in the Eastern Province . It also controlled 33 local authorities in the north and east. The leader of the alliance, R. Sampanthan , served as
2772-786: The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization . The alliance began to fall apart during the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election , and in the following parliamentary election , the Tamil nationalist vote was split between several parties, including the ITAK, the Democratic Tamil National Alliance , the Tamil People's Alliance , the Eros Democratic Front ,
2856-599: The University of Madras , was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages. A strong strain of linguistic purism emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil. It received some support from Dravidian parties . This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain. According to
2940-474: The civil war in Sri Lanka. The TNA was considered a political proxy of the LTTE, with the LTTE personally selecting some of its candidates, even though its leadership maintains it never supported the LTTE and merely negotiated with the LTTE just as the government did. Soon after its formation in 2001, the alliance began to make a more pro-LTTE stance, supporting their "freedom struggle" and recognizing them as
3024-491: The 11th century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai , a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values. Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech. For example, Tamil Brahmins tend to speak
3108-527: The 1970s and early 1980s, the TULF was frequently blamed by nationalist Sinhalese politicians for acts of violence committed by militant groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In fact, the TULF represented an older, more moderate generation of Tamils that felt independence could be achieved without violence, unlike the LTTE, who believed in armed conflict. In October 1983, all
3192-489: The 2001 parliamentary election, the TNA, contesting under the name and symbol of the TULF, received 348,164 votes (3.89%) and won 15 out of 225 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Soon after its formation, the TNA began to make a more pro-LTTE stance, supporting their "freedom struggle" and recognising them as the sole representative of the Sri Lankan Tamils. This caused a split within the TULF. Some members of
3276-622: The ITAK, received 633,654 votes (6.84%) and won 22 out of 225 seats in parliament. The TNA boycotted the 2008 local authority election in Batticaloa District and the 2008 Eastern Provincial Council election due to threats posed by the government backed Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) paramilitary group and opposition to the de-merger of the North Eastern Province . The civil war ended in May 2009 after
3360-532: The Indian state of Haryana , purportedly as a rebuff to Punjab , though there was no attested Tamil-speaking population in the state, and was later replaced by Punjabi , in 2010. In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction . The establishment of Tamil-medium schools has been in process in Myanmar to provide education completely in Tamil language by
3444-474: The Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages under schedule 8 of the constitution of India . It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Tamil is also one of the official languages of Singapore . Tamil is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, along with Sinhala . It was once given nominal official status in
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3528-526: The LTTE were defeated by the Sri Lankan military . A United Nations report found that as many as 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war, mostly as a result of indiscriminate shelling by the Sri Lankan military. There are widespread allegations that both sides committed atrocities and human rights violations including war crimes . The TNA has consistently campaigned for an independent international investigation into
3612-657: The TNA and formed the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF). At the 2010 parliamentary election the TNA received 233,190 votes (2.90%) and won 14 out of 225 seats in parliament. At the 2013 provincial council election , the first elections for provincial councils in the Northern Province, the TNA secured nearly 80% of the votes, winning 30 of the 38 seats on the Northern Provincial Council . The TNA's C. V. Vigneswaran
3696-496: The TULF after a legal battle, forcing the TULF members who wanted to remain in the TNA to resurrect the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi , which is now a constituent party of the TNA. The legal battle over the control of the TULF meant that the party, led by V. Anandasangaree, contested as an independent group and only in one electoral district in the 2004 Sri Lankan parliamentary election , winning 0.06% of
3780-497: The TULF by electoral district Tamil language Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia Canada and United States Tamil ( தமிழ் , Tamiḻ , pronounced [t̪amiɻ] ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia . It is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India , along with Sanskrit , attested since c. 300 BCE. The language belongs to
3864-401: The TULF by electoral district In the 2000 Sri Lankan parliamentary election , in which the People's Alliance , led by Ratnasiri Wickremanayake , retained power, the TULF won 1.23% of the popular vote and 5 out of 225 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Votes and seats won by the TULF by electoral district In the first parliamentary election contested by the Tamil National Alliance ,
3948-644: The TULF legislators, numbering sixteen at the time, forfeited their seats in Parliament for refusing to swear an oath unconditionally renouncing support for a separate state in accordance with the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. During the 1980s, the LTTE began to see the TULF as a rival in its desire to be considered the sole representative of the Tamils of the north and east. Over
4032-404: The TULF, led by its president V. Anandasangaree , were opposed to the LTTE. Anandasangaree refused to allow the TNA to use the TULF name during the 2004 parliamentary election . This caused the members of TULF who wished to remain with the TNA to resurrect the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) political party. At the 2004 parliamentary election the TNA, contesting under the name and symbol of
4116-596: The TULF, the 1977 Sri Lankan parliamentary election , in which the UNP won by a landslide, the TULF won 6.40% of the popular vote and 18 out of 168 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament , including all 14 seats in the Northern Province . Votes and seats won by the TULF by electoral district The TULF became the official opposition as a result of the rout of the SLFP . The TULF's success would lead to riots in which hundreds of Tamils were murdered by Sinhalese mobs. Throughout
4200-471: The Tamil United Front (TUF) under the joint leadership of S.J.V. Selvanayagam, S. Thondaman, and G.G. Ponnambalam. The TUF changed its name to Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and adopted the demand for an independent state to be known as the "secular, socialist state of Tamil Eelam ". The CWC declined to extend its support to the newly formed TULF. In the first general election contested by
4284-643: The Tamils who settled there 200 years ago. Tamil language is available as a course in some local school boards and major universities in Canada and the month of January has been declared "Tamil Heritage Month" by the Parliament of Canada . Tamil enjoys a special status of protection under Article 6(b), Chapter 1 of the Constitution of South Africa and is taught as a subject in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Recently, it has been rolled out as
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#17327654145304368-620: The alleged war crimes. At the 2010 presidential election , the TNA supported common opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka who, as Commander of the Sri Lanka Army , had played a key role in the LTTE's defeat. In March 2010 the TNA dropped its demand for a separate Tamil state, advocating instead a federal solution with significant devolution and merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces . In March 2010 ACTC and its leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam , along with fellow TNA MPs S. Kajendran and Pathmini Sithamparanathan , left
4452-442: The ancient language ( sankattamiḻ ), a modern literary and formal style ( centamiḻ ), and a modern colloquial form ( koṭuntamiḻ ). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ , or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ . In modern times, centamiḻ
4536-942: The approximately 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages. In 2004, a number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns dating from at least 696 BCE in Adichanallur . Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin. Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi . These were sent to Beta Analytic in Miami , Florida , for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. One sample containing Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
4620-497: The army's Deep Penetration Unit . On 7 March 2011 Jaffna District MP S. Shritharan was travelling in a van on the A12 highway near Nochchiyagama, Anuradhapura District when three men standing by a white van parked on the roadside pulled out guns and started shooting and throwing hand grenades at Shritharan's van. Sritharan's police guard fired back, forcing the attackers to flee in their white van which had no number plates. No one
4704-454: The assassination on paramilitary groups working with the army. The EPDP and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa , brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa , were also blamed. Jaffna District MP K. Sivanesan was killed by claymore mines on 6 March 2008 near Maankulam , Mullaitivu District as he returned home to Mallavi after attending Parliament in Colombo . The TNA blamed the assassination on
4788-591: The assassination. Pararajasingham's nominated replacement Vanniasingham Vigneswaran was shot dead on 7 April 2006 in Trincomalee . The TMVP was blamed for the assassination. Former Jaffna District MP S. Sivamaharajah was shot dead on 20 August 2006 outside his home in Tellippalai . The EPDP was blamed for the assassination. Jaffna District MP Nadarajah Raviraj was shot dead on 10 November 2006 as left his home in Colombo for work. The TNA blamed
4872-952: The dialect of Madurai , and iṅkaṭe in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear " akkaṭṭa " meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, and use many other words slightly differently. Tamil dialects include Central Tamil dialect , Kongu Tamil , Madras Bashai , Madurai Tamil , Nellai Tamil , Kumari Tamil in India ; Batticaloa Tamil dialect , Jaffna Tamil dialect , Negombo Tamil dialect in Sri Lanka; and Malaysian Tamil in Malaysia. Sankethi dialect in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by Kannada . The dialect of
4956-647: The district of Palakkad in Kerala has many Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from Kanyakumari district is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in
5040-416: The formal ancient Tamil language. While there are some variations from the Tamil language, Kannada still preserves a lot from its roots. As part of the southern family of Indian languages and situated relatively close to the northern parts of India, Kannada also shares some Sanskrit words, similar to Malayalam. Many of the formerly used words in Tamil have been preserved with little change in Kannada. This shows
5124-699: The hill country . Tamil or dialects of it were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century CE. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bengaluru . There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia , Singapore , Philippines , Mauritius , South Africa , Indonesia, Thailand, Burma , and Vietnam . Tamil
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#17327654145305208-432: The introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the syntactic argument structure of English. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam , thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published. The Tamil Lexicon , published by
5292-406: The latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items. Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class , number , and case , verb tense and other grammatical categories. Tamil's standard metalinguistic terminology and scholarly vocabulary is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most Indo-Aryan languages . Much of Tamil grammar
5376-431: The leader of the opposition from September 2015 to December 2018. The TNA was formed in October 2001 to contest the 2001 parliamentary election on a common platform. On 20 October 2001 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) and Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). At
5460-473: The meaning "sweet sound", from tam – "sweet" and il – "sound". Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages , a family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent . It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue ). The closest major relative of Tamil
5544-447: The next two decades, the LTTE assassinated several TULF leaders, including A. Amirthalingam and Neelan Thiruchelvam . The TULF formed an alliance with the three Indian-backed paramilitary groups, Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF), Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), and Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), to contest the 1989 Sri Lankan parliamentary election . The alliance won 3.40% of
5628-476: The old aspect and time markers. The Nannūl remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil. Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically. Modern spoken Tamil also shows
5712-450: The popular vote and 10 out of 225 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Votes and seats won by the TULF / ENDLF / EPRLF / TULF alliance by electoral district In the 1994 Sri Lankan parliamentary election , in which the People's Alliance , led by Chandrika Kumaratunga , came to power after seventeen years of UNP rule, the TULF won 1.60% of the popular vote and 5 out of 225 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Votes and seats won by
5796-449: The popular vote and 22 out of 225 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Votes and seats won by TNA by electoral district In the 2010 Sri Lankan parliamentary election , in which the United People's Freedom Alliance , led by Mahinda Rajapaksa , retained power, the Tamil National Alliance , led by Rajavarothiam Sampanthan , won 2.9% of the popular vote and 14 out of 225 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Votes and seats won by
5880-400: The popular vote and no seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Votes and seats won by the TULF by electoral district In the 2010 Sri Lankan parliamentary election , in which the United People's Freedom Alliance , led by Mahinda Rajapaksa , retained power, the TULF led, by V. Anandasangaree, won 0.11% of the popular vote and no seats in the Sri Lankan parliament . Votes and seats won by
5964-452: The provinces and stated that they accept that Sri Lanka is a united state and the TNA does not intent to form a separate state . The current political manifesto and policies of the TNA are, The TNA also stands for, The TNA and its supporters have been subject to numerous attacks during its existence. Batticaloa District parliamentary candidate Rajan Sathiyamoorthy was shot dead on 30 March 2004 at his home in Batticaloa . The LTTE
6048-464: The sole representative of the Tamils . In an interview, Selvam Adaikalanathan explained that it would be betraying the Tamil people to oppose the LTTE, because victory could only be achieved if all Tamil groups set aside their differences and stood as a united front. Since the end of the civil war and the defeat of the Tamil Tigers , the TNA has dropped the demand for an independent state, saying that it
6132-595: The southern branch of the Dravidian language family and shares close ties with Malayalam and Kannada . Despite external influences, Tamil has retained a sense of linguistic purism, especially in formal and literary contexts. Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders, with inscriptions found in places like Sri Lanka , Thailand , and Egypt . The language has a well-documented history with literary works like Sangam literature , consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later,
6216-470: The standard characters, six characters taken from the Grantha script , which was used in the Tamil region to write Sanskrit, are sometimes used to represent sounds not native to Tamil, that is, words adopted from Sanskrit, Prakrit , and other languages. The traditional system prescribed by classical grammars for writing loan-words, which involves respelling them in accordance with Tamil phonology, remains, but
6300-437: The vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations. Tamil is predominantly spoken in Tamil Nadu , India, and the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . It has significant speaking populations in Malaysia , Singapore , and among diaspora communities . Tamil has been recognized as
6384-526: The word for "here"— iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore , inga in the dialects of Thanjavur and Palakkad , and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka . Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli , Old Tamil iṅkiṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in
6468-534: Was a Tamilian himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004. The socio-linguistic situation of Tamil is characterised by diglossia : there are two separate registers varying by socioeconomic status , a high register and a low one. Tamil dialects are primarily differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example,
6552-646: Was blamed for the assassination. Former Ampara District MP A. Chandranehru was shot dead on 7 February 2005 as he was travelling in Batticaloa District . The government backed Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) and Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF) paramilitary groups claimed responsibility for the assassination. National List MP Joseph Pararajasingham was shot dead on 25 December 2005 as he attended Midnight Mass in Batticaloa. The government backed Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) and TMVP paramilitary groups have been blamed
6636-544: Was claimed to be dated to around 580 BCE. John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. There are
6720-543: Was clubbed to death by United People's Freedom Alliance supporters on 16 September 2013 in Puthukkudiyiruppu , Mullaitivu District. A group of around 70 armed men in military uniform attacked the home of TNA provincial council candidate Ananthi Sasitharan in Chulipuram on 20 September 2013, injuring some of her supporters and an election monitor. In the first parliamentary election contested by
6804-632: Was hurt in the incident. Shritharan has blamed the EPDP, a government backed paramilitary group, for the assassination attempt. A TNA local election campaign meeting in Alaveddy on 16 June 2011 was attacked allegedly by army personnel. A mob, allegedly from the security forces, attacked a TNA meeting at MP S. Shritharan's in Kilinochchi on 30 March 2013, injuring 13. During the 2013 provincial council election campaign TNA activist Rasiah Kavithan
6888-614: Was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of the culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India, but it has also been related to the Harappan civilization . Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present). About of
6972-442: Was sworn in as the first democratically elected Chief Minister of the Northern Province on 7 October 2013. At the 2015 presidential election , the TNA supported common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena . Newly elected president Sirisena formed a national unity government after the election but the TNA chose not to join the new government, saying that, although the TNA supported Sirisena's policies for political reform,
7056-451: Was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil ( கில் ), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ ( ன் ). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟa ( கின்ற ) – which combined
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