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 language family
linked to: Dravidian languages
hasAncientForm Old Tamil
hasDialect Indian Tamil dialects in Sri Lanka
Jaffna Tamil
Kongu Tamil
linked to: Tamil

Madurai Tamil
Sri Lankan Tamil
linked to: Tamil
hasLiteraryTraditionDuration over two millennia
hasMajorLiteraryCorpus Sangam literature
hasMajorWork Manimekalai
Silappatikaram
linked to: Manimekalai

Tirukkural
hasMedievalForm Middle Tamil
linked to: Tamil
hasModernForm Modern Tamil
linked to: 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.

India recognizedLanguage Tamil
Indian Opinion languageOfWorkOrName Tamil
subject linked to: Indian Opinion (newspaper)
Tamil hasMedievalForm Middle Tamil
linked to: Tamil
Tamil hasModernForm Modern Tamil
linked to: Tamil
Tamil hasDialect Sri Lankan Tamil
linked to: Tamil
Tamil hasDialect Kongu Tamil
linked to: Tamil
Sinhala coOfficialWith Tamil
Chennai officialLanguage Tamil
Trincomalee languageUsed Tamil
Jaffna languageMajority Tamil
Jaffna officialLanguage Tamil
Samuel hasLanguageForm Tamil
Malay majorLoanwordSource Tamil
Indology studiesLanguage Classical Tamil
linked to: Tamil
Colombo language Tamil
SEATO hasLanguage Tamil
Sarawak regionalLanguage Tamil
South India majorLanguage Tamil
Madras Port languageUsed Tamil
Tanjore primaryLanguage Tamil
Tanjore officialLanguage Tamil
Tamil Nadu language Tamil