Tamil is a member of the Dravidian language family and one of the oldest languages in the world dating back to 300 BCE. It is one of the world’s longest surviving classical language with writing script evolve from Brahmi script. It is the official language of Indian state of Tamil Nadu and an official language in Singapore, Sri Lanka and a significant numbers of speakers in Malaysia, Fiji, South Africa and Mauritius.

Tamil has 12 vowels and 18 consonants and one special character āytham ‘ஃ’ pronounced as ‘akh’ giving a total of 247 characters. The āytham is rarely used by itself, it normally serves a purely grammatical function as an independent vowel form. The twelve vowels can alter their form depending on whether they are paired with a consonant and whether they are short or long vowels.

Tamil is characterized by a series of consonants (/ḍ/, /ṇ/, and /ṭ/) made by curling the tip of the tongue back to the top of the mouth. It has words derived from Sanskrit and has evolved over the period:

• Ancient (500 BCE to 700 BCE)
• Medieval (700 BCE to 1500 BCE)
• Modern (1500 BCE to present)

English historian and broadcaster Michael Wood called the Tamilians the last surviving classical civilization on Earth, because the Tamilians have preserved substantial elements of their past regarding belief, culture, music, and literature despite the influence of globalization.

Tamil has more than twenty dialects based on region, community and caste. In today’s world a significant number of Tamil speaking emigrants reside in USA, Australia and western European countries