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Tamil

Tamil, a language with a long and ancient literary tradition, has been spoken in southern India for several millennia. Ninety-two percent of its speakers live in India's southern Tamil Nadu State, where it is spoken by 48 million first language speakers. By some accounts, second-language speakers also number in the millions in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent.

In northern Sri Lanka, between three and four million people - about 20 percent of the population of that island state - speak Tamil. Elsewhere, there are several hundreds of thousands of speakers each in South Africa, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as some 6,000 in Fiji. Additionally, there are significant minorities of Tamil speakers in Mauritius, Great Britain, the US, and Canada. The total number of speakers, including second-language speakers, reach about 66 million (Grimes 1992).

Tamil is a member of the Dravidian family, whose various branches are nearly all spoken in southern India.

Tamil is written in a syllabic system, like that of other South Asian languages, and it derives from the Ashokan Brahmi script. Vowels have two forms, once used at the beginning of a word, and another used after consonant symbols.

Besides loans from Sanskrit and some borrowing from Persian and Arabic, modern English has additionally supplied many of Tamil's loan words.  However, because of the emphasis on linguistic purism in Tamil grammatical tradition, such loans are assimilated to the phonological system.

All Tamil speakers, including the uneducated, use two varieties of the language, which only roughly corresponds to the differences between literary and spoken Tamil. A high status variety is used in most writing, such as that of the media, which includes radio and television broadcasts; political speeches; and other similar occasions. In contrast, a low status variety is used in everyday discourse, film, and some high status circumstances to create solidarity or to enhance intimacy with audiences.

In both India and Sri Lanka, Tamil has the status of an official language. In India, it is one of fourteen official languages, and in Sri Lanka, it shares that status with Sinhalese. It is the first official language of India's Tamil Nadu state. Among the four ancient literary languages of southern India (Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu), Tamil has the longest tradition, as its earliest records date from inscriptions from 200 BC.

 

Source: UCLA Language Materials Project Language Profile

Faculty:
Current Course Offerings:

Term A = Spring

Term B = Summer

Term C = Fall


Course Title Term Time
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL I 2021C MW 0515PM-0715PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL I 2021C TR 0515PM-0645PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2021C TR 0700PM-0830PM
TAML 407-680 TAML407 - BEGINNING TAMIL II 2021A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 427-680 TAML427 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL II 2021A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - RDGS IN MEDIA TEXTS 2021A TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL I 2020C MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL I 2020C TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2020C TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 407-680 TAML407 - BEGINNING TAMIL II 2020A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 427-680 TAML427 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL II 2020A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2020A TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 407-680 TAML407 - BEGINNING TAMIL II 2019A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 427-680 TAML427 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL II 2019A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2019A TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL I 2018C MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL I 2018C TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2018C TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 407-680 TAML407 - BEGINNING TAMIL II 2018A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 427-680 TAML427 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL II 2018A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2018A TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL I 2017C MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL I 2017C TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2017C TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 407-680 TAML407 - BEGINNING TAMIL II 2017A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 427-680 TAML427 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL II 2017A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2017A TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL I 2016C MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL I 2016C TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2016C CANCELED
TAML 407-680 TAML407 - BEGINNING TAMIL II 2016A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 427-680 TAML427 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL II 2016A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2016A TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL I 2015C MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL I 2015C TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2015C TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 407-680 TAML407 - BEGINNING TAMIL II 2015A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 427-680 TAML427 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL II 2015A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2015A TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL I 2014C MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL I 2014C CANCELED
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2014C TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 407-680 TAML407 - BEGINNING TAMIL II 2014A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 427-680 TAML427 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL II 2014A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2014A TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL I 2013C MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL I 2013C TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2013C TR 0630PM-0800PM
TAML 407-680 TAML407 - BEGINNING TAMIL PART II 2013A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 427-680 TAML427 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL PT II 2013A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2013A MW 0645PM-0800PM
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL 2012C MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL 2012C TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 436-680 TAML436 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2012C TBA TBA-
TAML 406-680 TAML406 - BEGINNING TAMIL 2012A MW 0500PM-0700PM
TAML 426-680 TAML426 - INTERMEDIATE TAMIL 2012A TR 0500PM-0630PM
TAML 446-680 TAML446 - ADVANCED TAMIL 2012A TR 0630PM-0800PM