Tamil-Brahmi, later Vaṭṭeḻuttu and the Pallava script
Language codes
ISO 639-3
oty
Linguist List
oty Old Tamil
Glottolog
oldt1248 Old Tamil
A 2nd-century BCE Tamil Brahmi inscription from Arittapatti, Madurai India. The southern state of Tamil Nadu has emerged as a major source of Brahmi inscriptions in Old Tamil dated between 3rd to 1st centuries BCE.[1][2][3]
Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning from 300 BCE to 700 CE.[4] Prior to Old Tamil, the period of Tamil linguistic development is termed as Pre Tamil. After the Old Tamil period, Tamil becomes Middle Tamil. The earliest records in Old Tamil are inscriptions from between the 3rd and 1st century BCE in caves and on pottery. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil Brahmi.[1][5][6] The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the mid 2nd century BCE.[7][8] Old Tamil preserved many features of Proto-Dravidian, the earliest reconstructed form of the Dravidian including inventory of consonants, the syllable structure, and various grammatical features.The Satavahanas also issued bilingual coins featuring Middle Indo-Aryan language on one side, and Desi language (possibly Old Tamil) on the other side.[9]
^ abMahadevan, I.Early Tamil Epigraphy pp. 91–94
^Mahadevan, I.Tamil-Brahmi Inscriptions pp. 1–12
^Souler, B. Handbook of Oriental Studies p. 44
^Govindankutty, A. (1972), "From Proto-Tamil-Malayalam to West Coast Dialects" (PDF), BRILL, vol. 14, no. 1/2, pp. 52–60, JSTOR 24651352, retrieved 25 March 2023
^Government of Tamilnadu, Department of Archeology. "Keeladi, Excavation Report, Urban Settlement, Sangam Age, River Vaigai". Retrieved 27 December 2020.
^Vishnupriya, Kolipakam (2018). "A Bayesian phylogenetic study of the Dravidian language family". Royal Society Open Science. 5 (3): 171504. Bibcode:2018RSOS....571504K. doi:10.1098/rsos.171504. PMC 5882685. PMID 29657761.
^Lehmann 1998, pp. 75–76
^Zvelebil, K. The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South p.XX
OldTamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning from 300 BCE to 700 CE. Prior to OldTamil, the period of Tamil linguistic development is termed...
in Tamil. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in oldTamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam, thus making Tamil the...
The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar (Tamil: தமிழர், romanized: Tamiḻar, pronounced [t̪amiɻaɾ] in the singular or தமிழர்கள், Tamiḻarkaḷ, [t̪amiɻaɾɡaɭ]...
Sri Lankan Tamils (Tamil: இலங்கை தமிழர், ilankai tamiḻar or ஈழத் தமிழர், īḻat tamiḻar), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to...
the ISO 15919 standard. The Tamil language has number words and dedicated symbols for them in the Tamil script. OldTamil possesses a special numerical...
Tamil phonology permits few consonant clusters, which can never be word initial. A Tamil tongue twister The sentence literally means, "A poor old man...
Tamil Brahmi. The earliest long text in OldTamil is the Tolkāppiyam, an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old...
Middle Tamil is the form of the Tamil language that existed from the 8th to the 15th century. The development of OldTamil into Middle Tamil, which is...
standard. The Tamil script (தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி Tamiḻ ariccuvaṭi [tamiɻ ˈaɾitːɕuʋaɽi]) is an abugida script that is used by Tamils and Tamil speakers in India...
Tamil Nadu (/ˌtæmɪl ˈnɑːduː/; Tamil: [ˈtamiɻ ˈnaːɽɯ] , abbr. TN) is the southernmost state of India. The tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth...
Malaysian Tamil (Tamil: மலேசியத் தமிழ் மொழி, romanized: Malēsiyat Tamiḻ Moḻi), also known as Malaya Tamil, is a local variant of the Tamil language spoken...
Tamil culture is the culture of the Tamil people. The Tamil people speak the Tamil language, one of the ancient languages in the world. Archaeological...
Sri Lankan Tamil dialects or Ceylon Tamil or commonly in Tamil language Eelam Tamil (Tamil: ஈழத் தமிழ், īḻat tamiḻ) are a group of Tamil dialects used...
Religion in Tamil Nadu consists of various religions practiced by the populace of the state. Hinduism is the predominant religion in the state with significant...
Tamil Nadu Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is over 150 years old and is the fifth largest state police...
understood by anyone without the verbal explanation of a qualified teacher. OldTamil was used for Sangam epics of Buddhist and Jain philosophy. Christian rites...
and post-biblical words of Tamil, OldTamil, or Dravidian origin, a number of them have competing etymologies and some Tamil derivations are considered...
The Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், caṅka ilakkiyam) historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், Cāṉṟōr...
lie parallel to the coast, the dialect of OldTamil spoken in Kerala was different from that spoken in Tamil Nadu. The mainstream view holds that Malayalam...
The Tamil calendar (தமிழ் நாட்காட்டி) is a sidereal solar calendar used by the Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It is also used in Puducherry,...
Brahmin Tamil is the name of a dialect of Tamil traditionally spoken by Tamil Brahmins. The dialect, largely, uses Classical Tamil along with a heavy proportion...
influenced by the ancestor language of Old Kannada. Iravatam Mahadevan, a Brahmin, author of a work on early Tamil epigraphy, argued that oral traditions...
Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from Tamil people from south India, including the land now comprising Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Eelam Tamils from Sri Lanka...
century BCE, as inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi script on cave walls in the Madurai and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu. The Dravidian languages with...
Madurai Tamil (மதுரை தமிழ்), known as Madurai Bashai, is the dialect of Tamil spoken in the region of Madurai and over a vast geographical area of South...
Tamil Malaysians, also known as Malaysian Tamilar, are people of full or partial Tamil descent who were born in or immigrated to Malaysia from Tamil Nadu...
Kongu Tamil or Kovai Tamil is the dialect of Tamil language that is spoken by the people in Kongu Nadu, which is the western region of Tamil Nadu. It...
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