Abstract
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken by 53 million speakers in India, according to census figures from 1991, predominantly in the state of Tamil Nadu. There are also sizeable communities of Tamil speakers elsewhere, including Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore, in all of which it has the status of a national language. Tamil is diglossic, the formal or ‘literary’ variety still largely conforming to standards set in the thirteenth century by the Tamil grammarian Pavanandi. It is used in almost all written media, and also for certain high-register functions. In all other situations colloquial Tamil is used and is characterized by considerable regional and social variation.
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