Tamil

About Tamil

Tamil is a Dravidian language with about 75 million native speakers. It is the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the territory of Puducherry and an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and large communities speak it in Malaysia, Mauritius and South Africa. Its written literature goes back more than 2,000 years.

Spoken Tamil differs a good deal from written Tamil, so a phrase taken from a book can sound stiff in conversation. For "you", neenga is polite and safe with anyone older or unknown, and nee is for close friends and children. Vanakkam is a respectful greeting at any time of day. Tamil has its own script, which uses one letter for some pairs of sounds that English keeps apart, such as k and g.

FamilyDravidian
Native speakersabout 75 million (2019)
Official inIndia (Tamil Nadu, Puducherry), Sri Lanka, Singapore
ScriptTamil script
Codesta (ISO 639-1), tam (ISO 639-3)

Speaker numbers: Ethnologue (2019), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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