Spoken predominantly by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore, it has smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. As of 1996, it was the eighteenth most spoken language, with over 74 million speakers worldwide. It is one of the official languages of India, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Tamil Channel

History of the Tamil language:

• Early Tamil, comprising the period between the sixth century before and the sixth century after Christ;
• Mediaeval Tamil, between the sixth century and the twelfth century; and
• Modern Tamil, from the twelfth century down to the present day.