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Tamil linguistic data
Select languages above to compare their features side by side
Common questions about Tamil
What linguistic data does this Tamil page show?
Word order, tone, gender count, case marking, adposition direction, syllable structure, consonant inventory traits (retroflex stops and laterals), vowel system, morphological alignment, script, register stratification, speaker count, and geographic area. Each row is one feature with Tamil's value visible; you can add other languages to read the same feature side by side.
Where do the Tamil data points come from?
Typological features are merged from URIEL+ (Mortensen et al.) and a curated set authored against descriptive grammars. Speaker counts come from Ethnologue and Glottolog. Geographic area is computed from the Asher 2007 world language atlas. Similarity scores combine genetic distance, typological overlap, and lexical-borrowing data.
What's the diglossic split between literary and colloquial Tamil?
Literary Tamil (centamil, 'pure Tamil') is the formal register used in writing, news, sermons, and formal speech — its grammar and vocabulary are conservative, with classical Tamil structures preserved. Colloquial Tamil (koduntamil) is the everyday spoken variety, with simpler morphology, contracted forms, and many regional sub-varieties. Native speakers learn both, and code-switch by context.
Why is Tamil considered a classical language?
Tamil has one of the longest continuously documented literary traditions of any living language. The earliest Tamil texts (Tolkāppiyam grammar, Sangam poetry) date to roughly 300 BCE-300 CE. The Indian government granted it 'classical language' status in 2004, recognizing the unbroken textual lineage. Modern Tamil descends directly from Old Tamil with traceable continuity.
Why is the similarity score with Malayalam high?
Tamil and Malayalam split from a common South Dravidian ancestor around 1,000 years ago and remain typologically very similar (SOV, agglutinative, three genders, retroflex-heavy). Malayalam absorbed more Sanskrit vocabulary and developed pronoun-incorporation morphology Tamil lacks. The scripts also share a common ancestor. The factor breakdown chip on the row tells you which dimensions contributed most.
Sources for Tamil
The grammatical descriptions on this page are informed by the following published reference and descriptive grammars. Grammatical facts themselves are not subject to copyright; the scholars who documented them deserve attribution.
- Schiffman, Harold F. (1999). A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil. Cambridge University Press.
- Lehmann, Thomas (1993). A Grammar of Modern Tamil. Pondicherry: Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture.
- Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge University Press.