Tamil (/ˈtæmɪl/; தமிழ் Tamiḻ [t̪ amiɻ], ) is a Classical Dravidian language natively spoken by
the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the
sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore,[10][6] and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Tamil is
spoken by significant minorities in the four other South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also
spoken by the Tamil diaspora found in many countries, including Malaysia, Myanmar, South
Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and Mauritius. Tamil is also natively
spoken by Sri Lankan Moors. One of 22 scheduled languages in the Constitution of India, Tamil was
the first to be classified as a classical language of India.
Tamil is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world.[11][12][13] A. K.
Ramanujan described it as "the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably
continuous with a classical past."[14] The variety and quality of classical Tamil literature has led to it
being described as "one of the great classical traditions and literatures of the world".[15] A
recorded Tamil literature has been documented for over 2000 years.[16] The earliest period of Tamil
literature, Sangam literature, is dated from ca. 300 BC – AD 300.[17][18] It has the oldest
extant literature among Dravidian languages.[12] The earliest epigraphic records found on rock edicts
and 'hero stones' date from around the 3rd century BC.[19][20] About 60,000 of the 100,000 odd
inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most
are in Tamil, with only about 5 per cent in languages other than Tamil.[21] Tamil language
inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in
Thailand and Egypt.[22][23] The two earliest manuscripts from India,[24][25] acknowledged and registered
by the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 and 2005, were written in Tamil.[26]
In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script
named Thambiran Vanakkam, thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and
published.[27] The Tamil Lexicon, published by the University of Madras, was one of the
earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages.[28] According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863
newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies.[29]