About Tamil Language | Tamil | Alphabets in Tamil

Countries

Malaysia, Mauritius, Puducherry, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu

Total No. Of Countries

Rank: 9 (Overall)

0 46

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National Language

Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu

Second Language

Andaman and Nicobar Islands, kerala, Puducherry

Speaking Continents

Asia

Minority Language

Canada, Malaysia, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles

Regulated By

Official language Commission of Government of Tamil Nadu, Thanjavur Tamil University

Interesting Facts

Tamil is the oldest language in the world. Tamil was spoken in South India more than 5000 years ago.
The first legally recognized Classical Language of India is Tamil.

Similar To

Malayalam

Derived From

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

247

Rank: 41 (Overall)

18 247

👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

Rank: 9 (Overall)

0 32

👆🏻

How Many Consonants

Rank: 8 (Overall)

9 60

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Scripts

Tamil

Writing Direction

Left-To-Right, Horizontal

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

Rank: 2 (Overall)

2 12

👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

44 weeks

Rank: 17 (Overall)

3 88

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Greetings

Hello

வணக்கம் (Vanakkam)

Thank You

நன்றி (Naṉṟi)

How Are You?

நீங்கள் எப்படி இருக்கிறீர்கள்? (Nīṅkaḷ eppaṭi irukkiṟīrkaḷ?)

Good Night

நல்ல இரவு (Good night) / irravu vanakkam (Good night)

Good Evening

நல்ல மாலை (Nalla mālai)/ மாலை (irravu vanakkam)

Good Afternoon

பிற்பகல் வணக்கம் (perpagal vanakkam)

Good Morning

காலை வணக்கம் (Kaalai Vanakkam)

Please

தயவு (Tayavu)

Sorry

மன்னிக்கவும் (Maṉṉikkavum)

Bye

சென்று வருகிறேன் (Sendru Varukiren)

I Love You

நான் உன்னை காதலிக்கிறேன் (Naan Unnai Kadalikiren)

Excuse Me

என்னை மன்னியுங்கள் (Eṉṉai maṉṉiyuṅkaḷ)

Dialects

Dialect 1

Kongu

Where They Speak

Kongu

How Many People Speak

77,000,000.00

Rank: 10 (Overall)

1.5 960000000

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Dialect 2

Madurai Tamil

Where They Speak

Madurai, South Tamil Nadu

How Many People Speak

77,000,000.00

Rank: 8 (Overall)

700 274000000

👆🏻

Dialect 3

Tirunelveli Tamil

Where They Speak

South Tamil Nadu, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli

How Many People Speak

77,000,000.00

Rank: 7 (Overall)

2 230000000

👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

Rank: 10 (Overall)

0 188

👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

78.00 million

Rank: 21 (Overall)

0 1200

👆🏻

Speaking Population

1.06 %

Rank: 20 (Overall)

0 89

👆🏻

Native Speakers

70.00 million

Rank: 15 (Overall)

0 873

👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

8.00 million

Rank: 44 (Overall)

0.01 400

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Native Name

தமிழ்

Alternative Names

Damulian, Tamal, Tamalsan, Tambul, Tamili

French Name

tamoul

German Name

Tamil

Pronunciation

[t̪ɐmɨɻ]

Ethnicity

Tamil people or Tamilans

History

Origin

300 BC

Language Family

Dravidian Family

Subgroup

Branch

Language Forms

Early Forms

Old Tamil and Middle Tamil

Standard Forms

Modern Tamil

Language Position

Rank: 16 (Overall)

1 120

👆🏻

Signed Forms

Signed Tamil

Scope

Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

tam

ISO 639 2/B

tam

ISO 639 3

tam

ISO 639 6

tam

Glottocode

tami1289, oldt1248

Linguasphere

tami1289

Types of Language

Language Type

Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Object-Verb

Language Morphological Typology

Know Alphabets in Tamil

When you start learning to write in any language the Alphabets form a skeleton of any language. Let's talk About Tamil Language, where you will learn the number of letter in Tamil Alphabets. Every language has its own set of alphabets or characters so it is necessary to know alphabets in Tamil. Tamil phonology gives Tamil vowels and Tamil consonants. There are 12 vowels and 18 consonants in Tamil language. Based upon the number of alphabet, vowels and consonants in the language we can check if Tamil is one of the Most Difficult Languages. All about Tamil language is given in detail in this section.

All Tamil countries

Want to explore all Tamil countries? About Tamil language serves you with all Tamil Speaking Countries. Countries that use Tamil as official language are called as Tamil countries.

Countries that use Tamil as their National Language are: Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu.

Second language indicates to any language which the person learns in addition to first or native language.

Countries that use Tamil as second language are: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, kerala, Puducherry.

You can also go through all European Languages and explore more about their speaking population, alphabets, greetings, dialects and many more.

Learn Tamil greetings

Languages are used by every human being to communicate. And communication begins with the greetings. First step to form any interaction is to learn Tamil Greetings. Whenever you are travelling to new country where in you don’t know the local language of that country then you should at least be familiar with some greetings to start any formal or informal conversion. When we talk about Tamil language, we are always interested in learning useful phrases in Tamil language.Learn Tamil greetings that can be used in formal situations:

Hello: வணக்கம் (Vanakkam)
Thank you: நன்றி (Naṉṟi)
Good Morning: காலை வணக்கம் (Kaalai Vanakkam)
Good Evening: நல்ல மாலை (Nalla mālai)/ மாலை (irravu vanakkam)
Good Afternoon: பிற்பகல் வணக்கம் (perpagal vanakkam)

All Tamil Language Codes

Get to know all Tamil language codes here. There are several languages spoken all over the world where in most of the languages have alternate names which come from diverse sources. All Tamil Language Codes are assigned with unique code. There is usually two or three letters code for each language. In most of the applications, these language codes are used where it is tedious to use language names.