Malaysian Tamil
| Malaysian Tamil | |
|---|---|
| Bahasa Tamil Malaysia | |
| மலேசியத் தமிழ் மொழி | |
| Native to | Malaysia and Singapore |
| Ethnicity | Malaysian Indian (Tamil Malaysians) |
Native speakers | ~3.9 million in Malaysia and Singapore (2006 – 2010 census)[1] |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Malaysian Tamil Language Standardisation Council |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | mala1467 |
Malaysian Tamil (Tamil: மலேசியத் தமிழ் மொழி) (Tamil: Malēsiyat tamiḻ moḻi), also known as Malaya Tamil, is a local variant of the Tamil language spoken in Malaysia.[2] It is one of the languages of education in Malaysia, along with English, Malay and Mandarin.[3][4] There are many differences in vocabulary between Malaysian Tamil and Indian Tamil.[clarification needed (see talk)]
Influence[edit]
An element needed to carry out commercial transactions is a common language understood by all parties involved in early trade. Historians such as J.V. Sebastian, K.T. Thirunavukkarasu, and A.W. Hamilton record that Tamil was the common language of commerce in Malaysia and Indonesia during historical times. The maritime Tamil significance in Sumatran and Malay Peninsula trading continued for centuries and borrowings into Malay from Tamil increased between the 15th and 19th centuries due to their commercial activities. In the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company was obliged to use Tamil as part of its correspondence. In Malacca and other seaports up to the 19th century, Malay terminology pertaining to book-keeping and accountancy was still largely Tamil.[citation needed]
Borrowings into Malay from Tamil (sometimes Sanskritized) include such everyday words as:
| Tamil | Malay | English |
|---|---|---|
| kadai | kedai | shop |
| kappal | kapal | ship |
| muthu | mutiara[dubious ] | pearl |
| vagai | bagai | kind of |
| nagaram | negara | country |
| bhoomi | bumi | earth |
| syurgam | syurga | heaven/paradise |
| aniayam | aniaya | persecute, misjustice |
| rahasiyam | rahsia | secret |
| varnnam | warna | colours |
References[edit]
- ^ Tamil at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "Language Shift in the Tamil Communities of Malaysia and Singapore: the Paradox of Egalitarian Language Policy". Ccat.sas.upenn.edu. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
- ^ Tamil Schools. Indianmalaysian.com. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
- ^ Ghazali, Kamila (2010). UN Chronicle – National Identity and Minority Languages. United Nations.
Sources[edit]
- Andronov, M.S. (1970), Dravidian Languages, Nauka Publishing House
- Annamalai, E.; Steever, S.B. (1998), "Modern Tamil", in Steever, Sanford (ed.), The Dravidian Languages, London: Routledge, pp. 100–128, ISBN 0-415-10023-2
- Caldwell, Robert (1974), A comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages, New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corp.
- Hart, George L. (1975), The poems of ancient Tamil : their milieu and their Sanskrit counterparts, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-02672-1
- Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003), The Dravidian Languages, Cambridge Language Surveys, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-77111-0
- Kesavapany, K.; Mani, A; Ramasamy, Palanisamy (2008), Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, ISBN 981-230-799-0
- Lehmann, Thomas (1998), "Old Tamil", in Steever, Sanford (ed.), The Dravidian Languages, London: Routledge, pp. 75–99, ISBN 0-415-10023-2
- Mahadevan, Iravatham (2003), Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D, Harvard Oriental Series vol. 62, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-01227-5
- Meenakshisundaran, T.P. (1965), A History of Tamil Language, Poona: Deccan College
- Murthy, Srinivasa; Rao, Surendra; Veluthat, Kesavan; Bari, S.A. (1990), Essays on Indian History and culture: Felicitation volume in Honour of Professor B. Sheik Ali, New Delhi: Mittal, ISBN 81-7099-211-7
- Ramstedt, Martin (2004), Hinduism in modern Indonesia, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-7007-1533-9
- Rajam, VS (1992), A Reference Grammar of Classical Tamil Poetry, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, ISBN 0-87169-199-X
- Ramaswamy, Sumathy (1997), "Laboring for language", Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891–1970, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 0-585-10600-2
- Shapiro, Michael C.; Schiffman, Harold F. (1983), Language and society in South Asia, Dordrecht: Foris, ISBN 90-70176-55-6
- Schiffman, Harold F. (1999), A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-64074-1
- Southworth, Franklin C. (1998), "On the Origin of the word tamiz", International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 27 (1): 129–132
- Southworth, Franklin C. (2005), Linguistic archaeology of South Asia, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-33323-7
- Steever, Sanford (1998), "Introduction", in Steever, Sanford (ed.), The Dravidian Languages, London: Routledge, pp. 1–39, ISBN 0-415-10023-2
- Steever, Sanford (2005), The Tamil auxiliary verb system, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-34672-X
- Tharu, Susie; Lalita, K., eds. (1991), Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the present – Vol. 1: 600 B.C. to the early twentieth century, Feminist Press, ISBN 1-55861-027-8
- Talbot, Cynthia (2001), Precolonial India in practice: Society, Region and Identity in Medieval Andhra, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-513661-6
- Tieken, Herman (2001), Kavya in South India: Old Tamil Cankam Poetry, Gonda Indological Studies, Volume X, Groningen: Egbert Forsten Publishing, ISBN 90-6980-134-5
- Varadarajan, Mu. (1988), A History of Tamil Literature, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (Translated from Tamil by E.Sa. Viswanathan)
- Zvelebil, Kamil (1992), Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 90-04-09365-6
