The Tamil language belongs to which language family?

Tamil belongs to the Dravidian language family, which is spoken mainly in South India. It is one of the oldest living languages in the world, with a literary history of more than 2,000 years.

Facts about Tamil:

• It is the official language of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and one of the 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
• It is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and is widely spoken in Malaysia, Mauritius and other countries.
• In 2004, Tamil became the first language to be declared a "Classical Language" of India.

Its earliest literature is the Sangam literature (about 3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE), produced by assemblies of poets at Madurai under the Pandya kings. It includes works such as the "Ettuthokai" (eight anthologies) and "Pattuppattu" (ten idylls).

The "Tirukkural" by Thiruvalluvar, a book of 1,330 couplets on ethics, politics and love, is one of its most famous works.

"Tolkappiyam" is the oldest surviving Tamil grammar.

The Tamil epics "Silappatikaram" (by Ilango Adigal) and "Manimekalai" (by Sittalai Sattanar) are among the five great epics of Tamil literature.

The Dravidian family has about 80 languages. The major ones are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Others include Tulu, Kodava, Gondi, Kurukh (Oraon), Malto, and Brahui, which is spoken far away in Balochistan (Pakistan). Telugu is the most widely spoken Dravidian language.

India's classical languages are Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada and Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), Odia (2014), and Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali (2024), making 11 in all.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Indo-Aryan includes Hindi, Bengali and Marathi.
• ✗Austroasiatic includes Santhali, Mundari and Khasi.
• ✗Tibeto-Burman includes Bodo, Manipuri and Mizo.