The Tamil Language Page

The alphabet of Tamil is unique, and is like English in that it is phonetic. That is, letters represent sounds, rather than ideas as in Mandarin. To see a poem in Tamil script, click here.

It is surprising that a language as old as Tamil has survived for such a long time and is still in everyday use. It survives in two distinct forms: the spoken form and the written form. Perhaps because of its age, it has an unusually diverse literature.

For more information:

• The Usenet newsgroup for Tamil culture soc.culture.tamil
• Tamil language fonts for your computer
• Tamil learning resources
• Bala Swaminathan's "List of Tamil Names" if you need to name a baby.
• Tamil Literature on-line!
• Languages and Scripts of India