what is tamil meaning for essay

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Translation of essay – English–Tamil dictionary

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• I want to finish off this essay before I go to bed .
• His essay was full of spelling errors .
• Have you given that essay in yet ?
• Have you handed in your history essay yet ?
• I'd like to discuss the first point in your essay.

(Translation of essay from the Cambridge English–Tamil Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

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left-handed

(of a person) using their left hand to write and do most things

Robbing, looting, and embezzling: talking about stealing

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translation and definition "essay", tamil lexicon

• Constructed scripts
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Tamil (தமிழ்)

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken mainly in southern India and Sri Lanka, and also in Malaysia, the UK, South Africa, Canada, the USA, Singapore, France, Mauritius, and many other countries.

According to the 2001 Indian census, there were 60.8 million speakers of Tamil in India. [ source ]. According to 2012 censuses, there were just over 3 million Tamils in Sri Lanka, and 1.8 million Tamils in Malaysia. There are also Tamil populations of more than 100,000 in the UK, South Africa, Canada, the USA, Singapore, France and Réunion [ source ]. The total number of Tamil speakers is about 67.5 million.

Tamil at a glance

• Native name : தமிழ் (tamiḻ) [ˈt̪amɨɻ]
• Language family : Dravidian, Southern
• Number of speakers : c. 67.5 million
• Spoken in : India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, UK, South Africa, Canada, USA, Singapore, France, Mauritius
• First written : 500 BC
• Writing system : Tamil script
• Status : official language in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Recognised minority language in Malaysia, Mauritius and South Africa

In India Tamil is spoken mainly in the state of Tamil Nadu, and the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. There are also significant numbers of Tamil speakers in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands..

Tamil is used as a language of education in Malaysia and Singapore.

Written Tamil

The earliest known inscriptions in Tamil date back to about 500 BC. Tamil literature started to apper in 300 BC, and the language used until the 700 AD is known as Old Tamil. From 700-1600 AD the language is known as Middle Tamil, and since 1600 the language has been known as Modern Tamil.

Tamil was originally written with a version of the Brahmi script known as Tamil Brahmi. By the 5th century AD this script had become more rounded and developed into the Vaṭṭeḻuttu script. In the 6th century during the Pallava dynasty (275-897 AD), a new script for Tamil, known as the Chola-Pallava script, was devised. It also used some letters from Vaṭṭeḻuttu in Sanskrit loanwords. By the 8th century, the Chola-Pallava script was used instead of Vaṭṭeḻuttu in the northern part of the Tamil-speaking area, although Vaṭṭeḻuttu continued to be used in the south until the 11th century. During the next few centuries the modern Tamil script evolved from the Chola-Pallava script.

During the 19th century the Tamil script was simplified to make it easier to typeset. Further simplifications in the 20th century included the regularisation of vowel markers.

The Tamil alphabet is well suited to writing literary Tamil, centamiḻ (செந்தமிழ்). However it is ill-suited to writing colloquial Tamil, koṭuntamiḻ (கொடுந்தமிழ்). During the 19th century, attempts were made to create a written version of the colloquial spoken language. Nowadays the colloquial written language appears mainly in school books and in passages of dialogue in fiction.

Tamil is also written with a version of the Arabic script known as Arwi by Tamil-speaking muslims.

Notable features

• Type of writing system : Abugida / Syllabic Alphabet
• Writing direction : left to right in horizontal lines
• Script family : Proto-Sinaitic , Phoenician , Aramaic , Brāhmī , Tamil-Brahmi, Pallava, Tamil
• When they appear at the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written as independent letters.
• Some of the non-standard consonant-vowel combinations are not used in official documents.
• The alphabet was originally written on palm leaves. As a result, the letters are made up mainly of curved strokes which did not rip the leaves.

Non-standard consonant-vowel combinations

• The Grantha letters are used to write consonants borrowed from Sanskrit, and also some words of English origin. They are not considered part of the standard Tamil alphabet.
• ச is pronounced [s] medially
• [s] and [ɕ] are allophones of initial /t͡ɕ/ in some dialects.
• The sounds /f/, /z/ and /ʂ/ are found only in loanwords and frequently replaced by native sounds
• [ɦ] and [x] are allophones of /k/ in some dialects

Some consonants have different pronunciations depending on their position in a word, or the letters next to them.

• க் is pronounced [k] in initial position, [x~ɡ] in medial position, [kː] when geminate (doubled) and [ɡ] after a nasal
• ச் is pronounced [t͡ɕ] in initial position, [s] in medial position, [tːɕ] when geminate, and [dʑ] after a nasal
• ட் is pronounced [ʈ] in initial position, [ɖ~ɽ] in medial position, [ʈː] when geminate and [ɖ] after a nasal
• ற்ற is pronounced [r] in medial position, [tːr] when geminate and [(d)r] after a nasal
• த் is pronounced [t̪] in initial position, [d̪~ð] in medial position, [t̪ː] when geminate and [d̪] after a nasal
• ப் is pronounced [p] in initial position, [b~β] in medial position, [pː] when geminate and [b] after a nasal

The numerals rarely appear in modern Tamil texts. Instead, 'Arabic' numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) are used.

Other symbols

Download script charts for Tamil (Excel)

Sample text in Tamil

Transliteration.

Maṉitap piṛaviyiṉar čakalarum čutantiramākavē piṛakkiṉṛaṉar; avarkaḷ matippilum urimaikaḷilum čamamāṉavarkaḷ. Avarkaḷ niyāyattaiyum maṉačāṭčiyaiyum iyaṛpaṇpākap peṛṛavarkaḷ. Avarkaḷ oruvaruṭaṉoruvar čakōtara uṇarvup pāṅkil naṭantukoḷḷal vēṇṭum.

Hear recording of this text by Muralikrishnan Ramasamy

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Sample video in Tamil

Information about Tamil | Arwi Arabic script for Tamil | Phrases | Numbers | Time | Family words | Tower of Babel | Books about Tamil on: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk [affilate links]

Information about Tamil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_phonology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_literature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_people https://sites.google.com/site/sarvabhashin/en/ta https://www.howtolearnalanguage.info/languages/tamil/alphabet

Online Tamil lessons https://www.learntamil.com/ http://polymath.org/tamil.php http://ilanguages.org/tamil.php https://mylanguages.org/learn_tamil.php http://ilovelanguages.org/tamil.php

Online Tamil dictionaries https://agarathi.com/ http://www.dictionary.tamilcube.com http://www.tamildict.com https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/tamil/ https://www.shabdkosh.com/dictionary/english-tamil https://www.shabdkosh.com/dictionary/english-tamil https://www.lexilogos.com/english/tamil_dictionary.htm

Free Tamil fonts http://www.azhagi.com/freefonts.html http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Tamil.html

Online Tamil radio http://www.slbc.lk http://www.bbc.co.uk/tamil/ http://www.ctbc.com

Tamil names http://tamilcube.com/babynames/tamil-baby-names.aspx http://babynames.tamilstar.com/

Tamil songs http://tamilsongslyrics.in https://samadada.com/tamil-folk/

Dravidian languages

Badaga , Brahui , Dhundari , Gondi , Irula , Jatapu , Kannada , Kodava , Kolam , Konda , Koya , Kurukh , Malayalam , Malto , Mukha Dora , Ravula , Sankethi , Savara , Sunuwar , Suriyani Malayalam , Tamil , Telugu , Toda , Tulu , Yerukula

Languages written with the Tamil alphabet

Irula , Tamil , Toda

Abugidas / Syllabic alphabets

Ahom , Aima , Arleng , Badagu , Badlit , Basahan , Balinese , Balti-A , Balti-B , Batak , Baybayin , Bengali , Bhaiksuki , Bhujimol , Bilang-bilang , Bima , Blackfoot , Brahmi , Buhid , Burmese , Carrier , Chakma , Cham , Cree , Dehong Dai , Devanagari , Dham Lipi , Dhankari / Sirmauri , Ditema , Dives Akuru , Dogra , Ethiopic , Evēla Akuru , Fox , Fraser , Gond , Goykanadi , Grantha , Gujarati , Gunjala Gondi , Gupta , Gurmukhi , Halbi Lipi , Hanifi , Hanuno'o , Hočąk , Ibalnan , Incung , Inuktitut , Jaunsari Takri , Javanese , Kaithi , Kadamba , Kamarupi , Kannada , Kawi , Kharosthi , Khema , Khe Prih , Khmer , Khojki , Khudabadi , Kirat Rai , Kōchi , Komering , Kulitan , Kurukh Banna , Lampung , Lanna , Lao , Lepcha , Limbu , Lontara/Makasar , Lota Ende , Magar Akkha , Mahajani , Malayalam , Meitei (Modern) , Manpuri (Old) , Marchen , Meetei Yelhou Mayek , Meroïtic , Masarm Gondi , Modi , Mon , Mongolian Horizontal Square Script , Multani , Nandinagari , Newa , New Tai Lue , Ojibwe , Odia , Ogan , Pahawh Hmong , Pallava , Phags-pa , Purva Licchavi , Qiang / Rma , Ranjana , Rejang (Kaganga) , Sasak , Savara , Satera Jontal , Shan , Sharda , Sheek Bakrii Saphaloo , Siddham , Sinhala , Sorang Sompeng , Sourashtra , Soyombo , Sukhothai , Sundanese , Syloti Nagri , Tagbanwa , Takri , Tamil , Tanchangya (Ka-Pat) , Tani , Thaana , Telugu , Thai , Tibetan , Tigalari , Tikamuli , Tocharian , Tolong Siki , Vatteluttu , Warang Citi

Other writing systems

Page last modified: 14.04.24

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• Minority Rights Group - Tamils
• IndianetZone - Tamil Culture

Tamil , people originally of southern India who speak Tamil , one of the principal languages of the Dravidian family. Numbering about 64 million in the early 21st century (including about 3 million speakers in northern and eastern Sri Lanka ), Tamil speakers make up the majority of the population of Tamil Nadu state and also inhabit parts of Kerala , Karnataka , and Andhra Pradesh states, all situated in the southernmost third of India. Emigrant Tamil may be found in some parts of Madagascar , the Malay Peninsula , Myanmar (Burma), Indochina , Thailand , eastern Africa , South Africa , the Fiji and Mauritius islands, and the West Indies .

The Tamil area in India is a centre of traditional Hinduism . Tamil schools of personal religious devotion ( bhakti ) have long been important in Hinduism, being enshrined in a literature dating back to the 6th century ce . Buddhism and Jainism were widespread among the Tamil, and these religions’ literatures predate the early bhakti literature in the Tamil area. Although the present-day Tamil are mostly Hindus, there are Christians, Muslims, and Jains among them. In the recent past, the Tamil area was also the home of the Dravidian movement that calls for the desanskritization and debrahmanization of Tamil culture , language, and literature.

The Tamil have a long history of achievement; sea travel, city life, and commerce seem to have developed early among them. Tamil trade with the ancient Greeks and Romans is verified by literary, linguistic, and archaeological evidence. The Tamil have the oldest cultivated Dravidian language, and their rich literary tradition extends back to the early Christian era. The Chera, Chola, Pandya, and Pallava dynasties ruled over the Tamil area before the Vijayanagar empire extended its hegemony in the 14th century, and these earlier dynasties produced many great kingdoms. Under them the Tamil people built great temples, irrigation tanks, dams, and roads, and they played an important role in the transmission of Indian culture to Southeast Asia . The Chola , for example, were known for their naval power and brought the Malay kingdom of Sri Vijaya under their suzerainty in 1025 ce . Though the Tamil area was integrated culturally with the rest of India for a long time, politically it was for most of the time a separate entity until the advent of British rule in India.

The Tamil in Sri Lanka today are of various groups and castes, though they are predominantly Hindus. The so-called Ceylon Tamil , constituting approximately two-thirds of them, are concentrated in the northern part of the island. They are relatively well educated, and many of them hold clerical and professional positions. The so-called Indian Tamil of Sri Lanka were brought there by the British in the 19th and 20th centuries as workers on the tea estates, and they have been regarded as foreigners by the other ethnic groups. The Ceylon and Indian Tamil are organized under different caste systems and have little social intercourse with each other.

In the 1980s, growing tensions between the Ceylon Tamil and the Sinhalese Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka prompted Tamil militants to undertake a guerrilla war against the central government in hopes of creating a separate Tamil state for themselves in the north and northeast. The Tamil rebels’ organization, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , continued their insurgency into the 21st century. A major government offensive in 2009 overran the final Tamil Tiger strongholds and destroyed the organization’s leadership. It was estimated that as many as 80,000 people were killed in the fighting.