SPECIAL FEATURES IN TAMIL LANGUAGE

TAMIL (தமிழ்), is a DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGE spoken predominantly by tamil people of South India and North-east SriLanka. .

MAP POINTING TAMILNADU

SANGAM AGE:

Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world

It has been described as "the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past and having "one of the richest literatures in the world" The earliest period of Tamil literature, SANGAM LITERATURE,  

                                               IMAGE FOR SANGAM LITERATURE

BREIF NOTE ABOUT THOLKAPPIYAR:

The variety and quality of classical Tamil literature has led to its being described as "one of the great classical traditions and literatures of the world"

The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the tholkapiyam, an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics,

                                    

                           IMAGE OF THOLKAPIYAR WHO WROTE THOLKAPIYAM 

VOWELS:

Tamil vowels are called UYIRELUTTU (UYIR – life, ELUTTU – letter). The vowels are classified into short (KURIL) and long (NETILl) (with five of each type) and two dipthong, /ai/ and /au/, and three "shortened" (KURIL) vowels.

CONSONANTS:

 Tamil CONSONANTS are known asMEYYELUTTU (MEY—body, ELUTTU—letters). The CONSONANTS are classified into three categories with six in each category: VALLINAM—hard, MELLINAM—soft 

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Plosives	p (b)	t̪ (d̪)	t (d)	ʈ (ɖ)	tʃ (dʒ)	k (ɡ)
	ப	த	ற	ட	ச	க
Nasals	m	n̪	n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
	ம	ந	ன	ண	ஞ	ங
Tap		ɾ̪
		ர
Trill			r
			ற
Central approximants	ʋ			ɻ	j
	வ			ழ	ய
Lateral approximants			l̪	ɭ
			ல	ள

                                                     AYYUTHA EZHUTHU:

Classical Tamil also had a phoneme called the AYUTAM, written as ‘ஃ'. Tamil grammarians of the time classified it as a dependent phoneme (or restricted phoneme (cārpeḻuttu), but it is very rare in modern Tamil.

NUMERALS: 

Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil also has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year,debit, credit, as above, rupee, and numeral are present as well.

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	100	1000
௰௦	௧	௨	௩	௪	௫	௬	௭	௮	௯	௧௰	௱	௲

day	month	year	debit	credit	as above	rupee	numeral
௳	௴	௵	௶	௷	௸	௹	௺