Tamil has the following two meanings:
1. the official language of the state of Tamil Nadir (formerly Madras ) of India, spoken by nearly 30 million people; perhaps the only ancient classical language to have survived for over 20 centuries; Tamil refers to a language spoken in India , Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Chief among the Drawid languages, spoken from Madras to the southern tip of the East Indies. The noun has gender only when it denotes rational beings; it forms plural by changing the final consonant and the 8 cases by affixes. The verb consists of stem, tense and person affix; it has three modes: indicative , imperative and infinitive. In syntax, the determining precedes the definite: attribute to noun, adverb to verb; the verb closes the sentence.
The literature goes back to the 8th century AD. ch. and consists mainly of religion. poetry, mainly written by Djainas (➝ Jaina) from the 9th to the 13th century, then written by Shiwaites. In the first period the ➝ Kurral of Tyrewalloewar, in the second the Shiwahymn collection of Manikka-Wasakar is the most important work. A religious epic by J. Beschi, an Ital, is remarkable in later times. Jesuit († 1742), by the Tamil speakers as a masterpiece of their lit. considered. Zoetmulder.
2. member of a people in the extreme south of India, which developed a very high culture from the 9th to the 13th century and also conquered Sri Lanka; present : the remains thereof in India, and spec. : descendant of the Indian Tamils who inhabit northeastern Sri Lanka (Ceylon) (21% of the total population).
The Tamils in Sri Lanka fall into two groups:
1. About 1.5 million Sri Lanka-Tamils who crossed over to Sri Lanka many centuries ago and had their own kingdom there until 1833;
2. about 1.2 million India-Tamil, from the lowest castes, and employed by the English in the 19th century as laborers on the coffee and tea plantations. The two groups do not maintain contact with each other. In 1964, the India-Tamil became stateless when they were stripped of their Sri Lankan citizenship. It was agreed with India that in a period of 15-20 years, 600,000 of them would return to India, while the rest would receive Sri Lankan citizenship.
In 1979 more than 250,000 had been repatriated, about 100,000 had received citizenship. Riots broke out in 1977-79 because the Tamils consider themselves discriminated against, partly because their language is not officially recognized, and they feel socially threatened.
List of Acronyms Related to Tamil
