https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Sri_Lankan_Tamil_dialectsSri Lankan Tamil dialects - Revision history2026-11-15T21:14:58ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sri_Lankan_Tamil_dialects&diff=537048&oldid=prevAnnettLevi9: put up new article!2025-07-23T07:06:00Z<p>put up new article!</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|Group of dialects of Tamil}}<br />
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{{Infobox language<br />
| name = Sri Lankan Tamil<br />
| nativename = <br />
| states = [[Sri Lanka]]<br />
| ethnicity = [[Sri Lankan Tamils]]<br />
| speakers = 2 million{{cn|date=January 2023}}<br />
| date = 2012 census<br />
| ref = <br />
| familycolor = Dravidian<br />
| fam2 = Southern<br />
| fam3 = [[Southern Dravidian languages|Southern I]]<br />
| fam4 = Tamil–[[Kannada dialects|Kannada]]<br />
| fam5 = Tamil–[[Kota language (India)|Kota]]<br />
| fam6 = Tamil–[[Toda language|Toda]]<br />
| fam7 = Tamil–Irula<br />
| fam8 = Tamil–[[Kodava language|Kodava]]–[[Urali language|Urali]]<br />
| fam9 = [[Tamiloid languages|Tamil]]–[[Malayalamoid languages|Malayalam]]<br />
| fam10 = [[Tamiloid languages|Tamiloid]]<br />
| fam11 = [[Tamil language|Tamil]]–[[Paliyan language|Paliyan]]<br />
| fam12 = [[Tamil language|Tamil]]<br />
| ancestor = [[Old Tamil language|Old Tamil]]<br />
| ancestor2 = [[Middle Tamil language|Middle Tamil]]<br />
| dia1 = [[Jaffna Tamil dialect|Jaffna]]<br />
| dia2 = [[Batticaloa Tamil dialect|Batticaloa]]<br />
| dia3 = [[Negombo Tamil dialect|Negombo]]<br />
| iso3 = <br />
| glotto = sril1244<br />
| glottorefname = Sri Lanka Tamil<br />
| lgcode = {tamil [tam]},<br />
| script = [[Tamil script]], [[Vatteluttu]]}}<br />
[[File:Distribution of Languages and Religious groups of Sri Lanka 1981.jpg|thumbnail|Distribution of languages and religious groups of Sri Lanka on D.S. division and sector level according to the 1981 Census of Population and Housing]]<br />
The '''Sri Lankan Tamil dialects''' or '''Ceylon Tamil''' or commonly in Tamil language '''Eelam Tamil''' ({{Indic|lang=ta|indic=ஈழத் தமிழ்|trans=īḻat tamiḻ}}) are a group of [[Tamil language|Tamil]] [[dialect]]s used in [[Sri Lanka]] by its native [[Sri Lankan Tamils|Tamil speakers]] that are distinct from the Tamil dialects spoken in [[Tamil Nadu]]. These dialects are more conservative than the dialects spoken in India, and preserve features of [[Old Tamil|Old]] and [[Middle Tamil|Medieval Tamil]] which have been lost in their Indian counterparts.<ref name=oldtamil2 /><ref name=indra>{{cite book |last=Indrapala|first=K |date=2009 |editor-last=Indrapala |editor-first=K|title=Early historic Tamil Nadu c 300 BCE-300 CE : essays commemorating Prof. K. Kailasapathy on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death|publisher=Kumaran Book House |pages=5 |chapter=Introduction |isbn=}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|"Greater continuity may be observed between Old Tamil and modern Sri Lankan Tamil than between the old language and the modern mainland dialects spoken in India. Sri Lankan Tamil preserves the medial deitic series in ''u-'', as in ''u-vaṉ'' ‘man in between’, and the synthetic present perfect in ''-aṉ-'', as in ''coṉ.ṉ-āṉ-āṉ'' ‘I have said’. The mainland dialects have lost these forms. Modern Sri Lankan Tamil has also resisted the borrowing of contrastive voiced stops in the spoken register: mainland ''dōcai'' ‘rice pancake’ corresponds to Sri Lankan ''tōcai'' ‘id.’."<ref name=oldtamil4>{{cite book |first1=E. |last1=Annamalai |first2=S.B |last2=Steever|date=2019 |editor-last=Steever |editor-first=SB.|title=The Dravidian Languages (2nd ed.)|publisher=Routledge. |pages=104 |chapter=Modern Tamil |isbn=}}</ref> }} In spite of this, both Sri Lankan and Indian Tamil dialects retain a degree of mutual intelligibility.<ref name=oldtamil>{{cite book |last=Steever |first=SB. |date=2008 |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=RD|title=The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas|publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=50–75 |chapter=Old Tamil |isbn=}}</ref> <br />
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Sri Lankan Tamil dialects are broadly categorized into three sub groups: Jaffna Tamil, Batticaloa Tamil, and Negombo Tamil dialects. But there are a number of sub dialects within these broad regional dialects as well. These dialects are also used by ethnic groups other than Tamils and [[Sri Lankan Moors|Muslims]] such as [[Sinhalese people]], [[Portuguese Burghers]] and the indigenous [[Coastal Vedda people]].<br />
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==Characteristics==<br />
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As Tamil is a [[diglossic]] language, the differences between the standard written languages across the globe is minimal but the spoken varieties differ considerably. The spoken Tamil varieties in Sri Lanka although different from those of [[Tamil Nadu]] in [[India]] share some common features with the southern dialects of Tamil Nadu. Sri Lankan Tamil dialects retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in Tamil Nadu,<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas |last=Lehmann |chapter=Old Tamil |editor-first=Sanford |editor-last=Steever |title=The Dravidian Languages |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |page=75}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=E. |last1=Annamalai |first2=S. |last2=Steever |chapter=Modern Tamil|editor-first=Sanford |editor-last=Steever |title=The Dravidian Languages |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |pages=100–128}}</ref> and use many other words slightly differently.<ref name=Kamil>{{cite journal|first=Kamil |last=Zvelebil |title=Some features of Ceylon Tamil |journal=Indo-Iranian Journal |volume=9 |number=2 |date=June 1966 |pages=113–138 |doi=10.1007/bf00963656|s2cid=161144239 }}</ref> In general, Sri Lankan Tamil dialects are considered to be more conservative than the continental Tamil dialects.<ref>Indrapala, K ''The Evolution of an ethnic identity: The Tamils of Sri Lanka'', p.46</ref><br />
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==Dialects==<br />
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===Jaffna Tamil===<br />
{{Main|Jaffna Tamil dialect}}<br />
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The dialect used in Jaffna preserves many features of Old Tamil that predate [[Tolkāppiyam]], the earliest grammatical treatise of Tamil.<ref name=kuiper/> For example, Jaffna Tamil preserves the three way deictic distinction (''ivan'', ''uvan'', ''avan'', corresponding to proximal, medial and distal respectively), whereas all other Tamil dialects have eliminated the medial form.<ref name=oldtamil2>{{cite book |last=Steever |first=SB. |date=2008 |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=RD|title=The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas|publisher=Cambridge University Press <br />
|pages=50–75 |chapter=Old Tamil |isbn=}}</ref> The Jaffna Tamil dialect also retains many words which were used in [[Sangam literature]] such as [[Tirukkuṛaḷ]] and [[Kuṟuntokai]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.viruba.com/tamilwritings/00010.aspx|title=Yalpana Thamilil Sangath Thamil |last=Shanmugathas|first=A|language=ta |access-date=1 April 2010}}</ref> There are a number of [[Prakrit]] loans words that are unique to Jaffna Tamil.<ref>Indrapala, K ''The Evolution of an ethnic identity: The Tamils of Sri Lanka'', p.389</ref> A subdialect retained by the [[Sri Lankan Paraiyar|Paraiyar]] people of [[Kayts]] still retains a number of [[proto-Dravidian language|archaic words]] and Prakrit loans not found in any other dialects of Tamil. These drummers had historically played an important role as ritual players of drums at funerals and folk temples and as heralds and traditional [[Weaver (occupation)|weavers]]. They also maintained the family records of their [[feudalism|feudal]] [[lord]]s and even practised medicine and astrology in folk traditions <ref>Ragupathy, ''Tamil Social Formation in Sri Lanka: A Historical Outline'', p.1</ref><br />
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===Batticaloa Tamil===<br />
{{Main|Batticaloa Tamil dialect}}<br />
Batticaloa Tamil dialect is shared between Tamils, [[Sri Lankan Moors|Moors]], [[Vedar|Veddhas]] and [[Portuguese Burghers]] in the [[Eastern Province, Sri Lanka|eastern province]]. The Tamil dialect used by residents of the [[Trincomalee]] district has many similarities with the Jaffna Tamil dialect.<ref name=kuiper>{{cite journal|last=Kuiper|first=L.B.J|title=Note on Old Tamil and Jaffna Tamil|journal=[[Indo-Iranian Journal]]|volume=6|issue=1|pages=52–64|date=March 1964|doi=10.1163/000000062791616020<!-- at some point new publisher will have at https://brill.com/view/journals/iij/6/1/iij.6.issue-1.xml -->|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00157142|s2cid=161679797|jstor=24646759|url-access=subscription}}</ref> According to [[Kamil Zvelebil]] a [[linguist]], the Batticaloa Tamil dialect is the most literary like of all spoken dialects of Tamil, and it has preserved several very antique features, and has remained more true to the literary norm than any other form of Tamil while developing a few striking innovations. Although Batticaloa Tamil has some very specific features of vocabulary, it is classified with other Sri Lankan Tamil dialects as it is related to them by characteristic traits of its [[phonology]]. It also maintains some words that are unique to present day .<ref name=Kamil/><ref>Subramaniam, ''Folk traditionas and Songs...'', p.9-10</ref><br />
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===Negombo Tamil===<br />
{{Main|Negombo Tamil dialect}}<br />
The [[Negombo Tamil dialect]], used in the Negombo area by bilingual fishers who otherwise identify themselves as Sinhalese, has undergone considerable morphosyntactic convergence with spoken or colloquial [[Sinhalese language|Sinhala]] as a consequence of contact with it.<ref name=BS1>{{cite web|url=http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~sala23/abstracts/A17.doc |title=Contact-Induced Morphosyntactic Realignment in Negombo Fishermen's Tamil |last=Bonta |first=Steven |work=South Asian Language Analysis Roundtable XXIII |date=October 12, 2003 |publisher=The University of Texas at Austin |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080229170112/http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~sala23/abstracts/A17.doc |archive-date=February 29, 2008}}</ref><ref name=BS2>{{cite web|url=http://nelc.osu.edu/newsevents/folklore/yr2004/volume20_3/dissertation.cfm#southa |title=Negombo fishermen's Tamil: A case of contact-induced language change from Sri Lanka |last=Bonta |first=Steven |publisher=Cornell University |via=Ohio State University}}{{dead link|date=February 2019|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> It has also developed a number of other grammatical traits under the probable influence of Sinhala, including a postposed indefinite article, an indefinitizing postclitic –sari (apparently modeled on Sinhala –hari), and case assignments for defective verbs that follow the Sinhala, rather than Tamil, patterns of agreement.<ref name=BS1/><br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[Indian Tamil dialect of Sri Lanka]]<br />
* [[Sri Lankan Muslim Tamil]]<br />
* [[Tamil loanwords in Sinhala]]<br />
* [[Loan words in Sri Lankan Tamil]]<br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==Cited literature==<br />
* {{cite book | last = Indrapala | first = Karthigesu | title = The evolution of an ethnic identity: The Tamils in Sri Lanka C. 300 BCE to C. 1200 CE| publisher = Vijitha Yapa | year = 2007 | location = Colombo | isbn = 978-955-1266-72-1}}<br />
*{{cite book |last=Lehmann |first=Thomas|editor1-last=Sanfordr |editor1-first=Steever |title=The Dravidian Languages| publisher=Routledge |date=1998|isbn=978-04-15-41267-4}}<br />
*{{cite book | last = Subramaniam | first = Suganthy | title = Folk Traditions and Songs of Batticaloa District | publisher = Kumaran Publishing | year= 2006 | pages = 99 | isbn =0-9549440-5-4 }}<br />
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== Notes ==<br />
{{notelist}}<br />
{{reflist|group=note}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* [https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=H2fcGxrJX2Nk4YqpPtLyVvmQ89t7VGnvhmpTj7xxBbRqWxQhJcQh!1547526357?docId=5000213582 Collection of riddles from Jaffna Tamil]<br />
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{{Languages of Sri Lanka}}<br />
{{Sri Lankan Tamil people}}<br />
{{Tamil language}}<br />
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[[Category:Tamil dialects]]<br />
[[Category:Sri Lankan Tamil society|Dialect]]<br />
[[Category:Languages of Sri Lanka]]</div>AnnettLevi9