Tamil is one of the world’s oldest living languages with a rich and continuous literary tradition extending over more than two millennia. It is spoken primarily in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, as well as in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji, and Mauritius, where Tamil-speaking communities have existed for several centuries. Approximately ninety-two percent of Tamil speakers reside in southern India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, where the language serves as the mother tongue of nearly 48 million people. In addition, millions of second-language speakers use Tamil across the Indian subcontinent.  In northern Sri Lanka, Tamil is spoken by nearly three to four million people, constituting about twenty percent of the island’s population. Significant Tamil-speaking communities are also found in South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji, Mauritius, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Switzerland, the United States, and Canada. 

Tamil holds official language status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. In India, it is one of the constitutionally recognized official languages and serves as the primary official language of Tamil Nadu. In Malaysia and Mauritius, it is an institutionally recognized language.  

Tamil belongs to the Dravidian language family, whose languages are predominantly spoken in southern India. The language is written in a syllabic script that historically evolved from the Brahmi script through several developmental stages, including Vattezhuttu and Thamizhi, culminating in the modern Tamil script. The script consists of twelve vowels, eighteen consonants, and six Grantha letters, the latter being employed primarily for representing Sanskrit loanwords. Vowels appear in two forms: independent forms used at the beginning of words and dependent forms used in combination with consonants. 

Although Tamil has borrowed vocabulary from Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and more recently English, the language’s strong grammatical and literary tradition has historically favored native Tamil vocabulary. Consequently, many borrowed terms are adapted to conform to Tamil phonological patterns. Tamil is commonly distinguished into two broad varieties: literary Tamil and spoken Tamil. The spoken forms have evolved from the literary language through extensive phonological transformations. Historically, such phonological developments contributed to the emergence of related Dravidian languages such as Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu, as well as to the formation of numerous regional and social dialects within Tamil itself. 

Tamil exhibits a well-known diglossic structure in which speakers routinely use two distinct varieties of the language. The “high” variety is employed in formal contexts such as literature, journalism, political discourse, and broadcast media, whereas the “low” variety is used in everyday conversation, cinema, and informal social interaction. In certain contexts, spoken Tamil is also strategically employed in formal settings to create intimacy, solidarity, or emotional connection with audiences. 

Among the four major classical literary languages of southern India—Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu—Tamil possesses the oldest recorded literary tradition. Its earliest inscriptions date to the last centuries before the common era, and the corpus commonly known as Sangam literature, representing its oldest literary material, remains one of the foundational bodies of classical Indian literature.

Tamil at Penn 

Penn offers the following courses for learning Tamil for undergraduate and postgraduate students: 

Fall: TAML 0100/5100 Beginning Tamil Part I: 1 Course Unit 

This course introduces students to colloquial Tamil and formal written Tamil. A balance between production skills, namely writing and speaking, and comprehension skills, namely reading and listening, will be maintained throughout the course. Reading materials will introduce students to customs and habits of Tamil speakers in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore. Lessons in the class will be based on the book by the instructor titled "Tamil Language in Context: A Comprehensive approach to learning Tamil" and a set of Tamil learning lessons and videos made available at http://thetamillanguage.com, where further information is also available. By the end of the semester, students will have a working reading knowledge of Tamil with basic writing and speaking skills at ACTFL's Novice-mid level. 

Spring: TAML 0200/5200 Beginning Tamil Part II: 1 Course Unit 

This course is a continuation of the Beginning Tamil TAML 0100. It continues to teach grammar and spoken Tamil from semester I. Lessons in the class will be based on the book by the instructor titled "Tamil Language in Context: A Comprehensive approach to learning Tamil" and a set of Tamil learning lessons and videos made available at http://thetamillanguage.com, where further information is also available. By the end of the semester, students will have a working reading knowledge of Tamil with basic writing and speaking skills at ACTFL's Novice-high level. 

Fall: TAML 0300/5300 Intermediate Tamil Part I: 1 Course Unit 

This course develops the skills acquired either from the Beginning Tamil course or from students' prior exposure to Tamil by other means. Basic knowledge of Tamil script, reading and writing in Tamil is required to take this course. Heavy emphasis will be made on using the language in realistic spoken and written environments. The learning process in this course will be facilitated by the lessons and multimedia audio and video material in the book and website Tamil Language in Context (http://thetamillanguage.com). These materials provide students with exposure to Tamil culture and customs as followed in Tamil Nadu, India. Besides improving their speech and writing, students will also be introduced gradually to the two-thousand-year-old Tamil literary tradition. By the end of this course, students will achieve ACTFL Intermediate-mid level proficiency in Tamil. 

Spring: TAML 0400/5400 Intermediate Tamil Part II: 1 Course Unit 

This course is a continuation of Intermediate Tamil I (TAMIL0300) and it continues to develop the skills acquired either from the Beginning Tamil course or from students' prior exposure to Tamil by other means. The emphasis will be on using the language in realistic spoken and written environments. The learning process in this course will be facilitated by the lessons and multimedia audio and video material in the book and website Tamil Language in Context (http://thetamillanguage.com). These materials provide students with exposure to Tamil culture and customs as followed in Tamil Nadu, India. Besides improving their speech and writing, students will also be introduced gradually to the two-thousand-year-old Tamil literary tradition. By the end of this course, students will achieve ACTFL Intermediate-high level proficiency in Tamil. 

Fall: TAML 1500/5500 Advanced Tamil/Classical Tamil Literature: 1 Course Unit 

This course has a primary focus on any one of the genres of the Tamil language, namely Sangam, medieval, or modern Tamil. The vast variety of texts spans from Aham, Puram, religious poems to a whole array of Tamil inscriptions. This course aims to help students achieve mastery in aspects of these three genres of the Tamil language. The specific variety of text in each semester is selected based on the interests of the students who enroll in the course. In the past, we have read poems from the Sangam genre Purananuru, Ahananuru, Silappatikaram, Manimekalai and others, along with the parallel religious poems from Tirumurai, Nalayira Divyaprabandam and others. As part of this course, we have also read texts from Islamic literature, Tamil inscriptions, and other related types. Texts from the instructor’s book, Exploring History through Poetic Imagery: What do we see when we read poems from the past? (http://learn.tamilnlp.com/book/), will be used to give a bird’s eye view to students about Tamil literature and the transitions that took place from Sangam, to medieval, to the modern period. This course will train students to have near-native proficiency in Tamil along with professional skills in particular varieties of the Tamil language. 

Penn’s websites http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/tamilweb and http://thetamillanguage.com/ can be used to learn the Tamil language with many multimedia enhanced features.