Tamil Alphabet

Letter Combinations

The combination arises from the connection of vowels and consonants and are used for different meanings. Sometimes some sound the same but are used for different words. We will learn why this is in the later courses. To begin with, it is important to have seen and heard them.

Tamil language history

The oldest discoveries of the Tamil language have been documented in inscriptions and pottery shards. These dates back to the 5th century BC. Based on these findings, through analysis and comparison, the Tamil language could be divided into three periods 

• Old Tamil from about 450 BC - 700 AD,
• Middle Tamil 700 - 1600 and
• Modern Tamil from 1600 onwards).

Tamil language family

The Tamil language comes from the Dravidian language family. The Dravidian languages form a widespread language family in South Asia. Mainly the southern part of India, including the Tamil districts of Sri Lanka, but there are also individual language islands in central India and Pakistan. The 27 Dravidian languages have a total of over 240 million speakers. This makes the Dravidian language family the sixth largest language family in the world. The four most important Dravidian languages are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.

Where is Tamil spoken?

Tamil is most widely spoken and taught in India and Sri Lanka. More specifically, in South India (Tamil Nadu) and in the districts of Puttalam, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Jaffna, Trincomalee, Batticaloa in Sri Lanka. 

Likewise, the Tamil language is also spoken in big Tamil communities in other countries.

For us

How did Tamil language expanded?

The reasons are different one of the strongest reasons was the colonial period of the British, economic situation that forced the Tamils to guest work in other countries but also the war in Sri Lanka forced the Tamil population to leave the country, thus the Tamil language spread its occurrence. So nowadays, besides India and Sri Lanka, Tamil is also spoken in Malaysia, UK, Singapore, South Africa, Canada, USA, Fiji, France, Mauritius.

What next ?

This page has just given you an significant overview of the Tamil alphabet. To speak and write the Tamil language you still need patience. To see step by step your success it is advantageous to know some vocabulary. If you can't wait to start speaking Tamil words and phrases, visit the lessons with Tamil audio.

You can also enhance your learning process with some Tamil learning books, movies and series. 

Our following pages will focus on the tradition Jaffna Tamil from Sri Lanka. The lessons are therefore also adapted to this pronunciation, so some words may be foreign and not found on the Internet. Let us guide you through the beautiful Tamil language.