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Tamil () is a Dravidian language predominantly spoken by Tamil people of India and northern Sri Lanka. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. Tamil is also an official and national language of Sri Lanka〔(Department of Official Languages ). Government of Srilanka〕 and one of the official languages of Singapore.〔(Republic of Singapore Independence Act, s.7 ). Republic of Singapore〕 It is legalised as one of the languages of medium of education in Malaysia along with English, Malay and Mandarin.〔(Tamil Schools ). Indianmalaysian.com. Retrieved 28 July 2013.〕〔Ghazali, Kamila (2010). (UN Chronicle – National Identity and Minority Languages ). United Nations.〕 It is also chiefly spoken in the states of Kerala, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a secondary language and by minorities in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was the first Indian language declared as a classical language by the Government of India in 2004.〔http://www.thehindu.com/2004/06/09/stories/2004060903251500.htm〕 Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates,〔http://murugan.org/research/sivasupramaniam.htm〕 the United Kingdom, Mauritius, Canada, South Africa,〔Subramaniyan, S. (December 1998) (Tamil Language and Murukan Worship in South Africa ). First International Conference Seminar on Skanda-Murukan〕 Fiji, Germany,〔Baumann, Martin. (Immigrant Hinduism in Germany: Tamils from Sri Lanka and Their Temples ). The Pluralism Project, Harvard University〕 the Philippines, the United States, the Netherlands, Indonesia〔(Tamil Indonesians ). tamilnation.co〕 and France as well as smaller emigrant communities elsewhere. Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world.〔 500BC Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions have been found on Adichanallur〔() ,'Rudimentary Tamil-Brahmi script' unearthed at Adichanallur〕 and 2,200-year-old Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions have been found on Samanamalai.〔() 2,200-year-old Tamil-Brahmi inscription found on Samanamalai〕 It has been described as "the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past." 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".〔Hart, George L. (Statement on the Status of Tamil as a Classical Language ), University of California Berkeley Department of South Asian Studies – Tamil〕 Tamil literature has existed for over 2000 years.〔: "...the most acceptable periodisation which has so far been suggested for the development of Tamil writing seems to me to be that of A Chidambaranatha Chettiar (1907–1967): 1. Sangam Literature – 200BC to AD 200; 2. Post Sangam literature – AD 200 – AD 600; 3. Early Medieval literature – AD 600 to AD 1200; 4. Later Medieval literature – AD 1200 to AD 1800; 5. Pre-Modern literature – AD 1800 to 1900"〕 The earliest period of Tamil literature, Sangam literature, is dated from ca. 300 BC – AD 300.〔(Definitive Editions of Ancient Tamil Works ). Classical Tamil, Government of India〕 It has the oldest extant literature amongst other Dravidian languages. The earliest epigraphic records found on rock edicts and ''hero stones'' date from around the 3rd century BC.〔 at p. 610〕 More than 55% of the epigraphical inscriptions (about 55,000) found by the Archaeological Survey of India are in the Tamil language. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka, and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt.〔 The two earliest manuscripts from India, acknowledged and registered by UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 and 2005, were in Tamil. In 1578, Portuguese Christian Missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named 'Thambiraan Vanakkam', thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Tamil saw its first book in 1578 )〕 ''Tamil Lexicon'', published by the University of Madras, is the first among the dictionaries published in any Indian language. Tamil is used as a sacred language of Ayyavazhi and in Tamil Hindu traditions of Shaivism and Vaishnavism. According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies.〔''India 2001: A Reference Annual 2001''. Compiled and edited by Research, Reference and Training Division, Publications Division, New Delhi: Government of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.〕 == Classification == (詳細はsouthern branch of the Dravidian languages, a family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent. It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family, which alongside Tamil proper, also includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups〔Perumal, A. K. (2005) ''Manorama Yearbook'' (Tamil), pp. 302–318.〕 such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue). The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam; the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. Although many of the differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic split of the western dialect, the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tamil language」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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