மைக்ரோசொப்ட் நிறுவனம் புதிய ஒப்ரேட்டிங் சிஸ்டம் ஒன்றை வெளியிடும் முன் அது குறித்த தகவல்களை கசிய வைத்திடும், அல்லது வெளியிடும் முன் மிகப்பெரிய அள்வில் விளம்பரம் செய்திடும். மைக்ரோசொப்ட் நிறுனனத்தின் அடுத்த விண்டோஸ் ஒப்ரேட்டிங் சிஸ்டத்திற்கான இன்றைய பெயர் விண்டோஸ்-7. விண்டோஸ் விஸ்டாவிற்கு அடுத்த சிஸ்டமாக விண்டோஸ் -7 வர இருக்கிறது. முதலில் இதற்கு வியன்னா என்றும் ப்ளாக் கோம் என்றும் பெயர்கள் இடப்பட்டன.
History
Tamil is one of the ancient languages of the world with records in the language dating back over two millennia.[29][30] Its origins are not precisely known, but it developed and flourished in India as a language with a rich literature.[29][31] With an estimated 30,000 inscriptions, Tamil has the largest number of inscriptions in South Asia.[32]
Tamil has the oldest extant literature amongst the Dravidian languages, but dating the language and the literature precisely is difficult. Literary works in India were preserved either in palm leaf manuscripts (implying repeated copying and recopying) or through oral transmission, making direct dating impossible.[33] External chronological records and internal linguistic evidence, however, indicate that the oldest extant works were probably compiled sometime between the 2nd century BCE and the 10th century CE.[34][17][18]
Tamil scholars categorize the history of the language into three periods, Old Tamil (300 BC - 700 CE), Middle Tamil (700 - 1600) and Modern Tamil (1600-present).[35] Epigraphic attestation of Tamil begins with rock inscriptions from the 3rd century BC, written in Tamil-Brahmi, an adapted form of the Brahmi script.[12] The earliest extant literary text is the Tolkāppiyam, a work on poetics and grammar which describes the language of the classical period, dated variously between the 3rd century BCE and 5th century CE.
The Sangam literature contains about 50,000 lines of poetry contained in 2381 poems attributed to 473 poets including many women poets.[36][37] Many of the poems of Sangam period were also set to music.[38] During the post-Sangam period, important works like Thirukkural, and epic poems were composed, including Silappatikaram, Manimekalai, Sīvakacintāmani, Valaiyapathi and Kundalakesi which are known as the five great epics. The Bhakthi period is known for the great outpouring of devotional songs set to pann music, including over eight thousand Tevaram verses on Saivism and four thousand verses on Vaishnavism.[39] The early mediaeval Period gave rise to a popular adaptation of the Ramayana in Tamil, known as Kamba Ramayanam and a story of 63 Nayanmars known as Periyapuranam.[40]
Geographic distribution
Distribution of Tamil speakers in South India and Sri Lanka (1961).
Distribution of Tamil speakers in South India and Sri Lanka (1961).
Tamil is the first language of the majority in Tamil Nadu, India and North Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. The language is spoken by small groups of minorities in other parts of these two countries such as Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur and Maharashtra in case of India and Colombo and the hill country in case of Sri Lanka.
There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, South Africa, and Mauritius. Many people in Guyana, Fiji, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins,[41] but only a small number speak the language there. Groups of more recent migrants from Sri Lanka and India exist in Canada (especially Toronto), USA, Australia, many Middle Eastern countries, and most of the western European countries.
Legal status
Tamil is the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Pondicherry[42][43] and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands[44] It is one of 23 nationally recognised languages in the Constitution of India. Tamil is also one of the official languages of Sri Lanka and Singapore. In Malaysia, primary education in government schools is also available fully in Tamil.
In addition, with the creation in 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations[45][46] Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the then President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on June 6, 2004.[47][9][10]
Dialects
Region specific variations
Tamil is a diglossic language.[48][49] Tamil dialects are mainly differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example, the word for "here" —iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore, inga in the dialect of Thanjavur, and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka. Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli, Old Tamil iṅkaṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in the dialect of Ramanathapuram, and iṅkaṭe in various northern dialects. Even now in Coimbatore area it is common to hear "akkaṭṭa" meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India,[50] and use many other words slightly differently.[51]
Loanword variations
The dialect of the district of Palakkad in kerala has a large number of Malayalam loanwords, has also been influenced by Malayalam syntax and also has a distinct Malayalam accent. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in the eleventh century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai, a special form of Tamil developed in the ninth and tenth centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values.[52] Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person’s caste by their speech.[53]
Spoken and literary variants
In addition to its various dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on the ancient language (caṅkattamiḻ), a modern literary and formal style (centamiḻ), and a modern colloquial form (koṭuntamiḻ). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ, or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ.[54]
In modern times, centamiḻ is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ. Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example, is in koṭuntamiḻ, and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial ‘standard’ spoken dialects. In India, the ‘standard’ koṭuntamiḻ is based on ‘educated non-brahmin speech’, rather than on any one dialect,[55] but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai. In Sri Lanka the standard is based on the dialect of Jaffna.
