Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

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Aekalaivan12
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Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby Aekalaivan12 » 2016-09-07, 22:53

I would like to know the foreign people who are learning my language..So that i can be helpful as much as i can.

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby Michael » 2016-09-08, 16:59

வணக்கம், அந்புசெல்வான் (is the Tamil spelling of your name correct?)! எப்படி இருக்கீங்க? I'm just starting out in Tamil, but do have previous experience from over half a decade ago when I first completed a small course that focused on principles of Tamil grammar. Fast forward to the present day, and I've acquired a wealth of resources for Tamil, including the first-ever complete textbook for the language, Tamil Language in Context. Despite having that textbook, however, I've decided to dive into it with the same course I first used, so that way I can refresh the little Tamil I used to know and focus on more complex grammar and especially vocabulary in the textbook.

Your language is aesthetic, orderly and logical, an absolute jewel among languages. It satisfies me to meet a Tamil who is passionate about his/her language. By the way, I've got a question about language use in Tamil Nadu: How much prestige does Tamil have in its home state compared to English, and compared to all the other major scheduled languages in their respective home states?
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„Çdo njeri është peng i veprave të veta.‟
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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby Aekalaivan12 » 2016-09-08, 21:28

வணக்கம் மைக்கேல் ,
The correct spelling is அன்புசெல்வன்.நான் நல்லா இருக்கேன்.நீங்களும் நல்லா இருக்கீங்கன்னு நம்புகிறேன் .
Thank you so much for learning my language .We tamils owe you for your passion .Kudos for getting all resources .And do remember that in tamil the written form varies from colloquial form .There is books available for colloquial tamil .I hope you got it .It will very much help you to converse tamil with the native speaker.
The answer for your question is
1.Tamils are generally immensily proud of tamil.There is a saying that உடல் மண்ணுக்கு உயிர் தமிழுக்கு.(Body for the sand aka earth,life for tamil).
2.I cant explain my love for my language.Please use google with keyword 'Tamil pride quora' then you will know what i mean.
3.Tamil is the root language for nearby three states languages Malayalam,Kannada,Telugu.
4.In Tamilnadu Tamil is the official language. In schools Tamil is compulsory with second language is english etc .
5.In India you can survival with Hindi language in 90% of states. You can't survive in Tamilnadu with that. Tamil people only speaks tamil.Most of them understand and speaks English.You can survive tamil nadu with english .
6.And as for as employment concerned corporate companies prefer English.But you can do government job with tamil nd English knowledge .
7.We respect other languages in india. but we are stubborn for our language pride.
8.The most important thing is tamil is a stand alone language with zero influence from other language. Means tamil language has its own word for every single thing from an atom to the things that will invented by the scientist in future. for example when ebook is invented there is no tamil word for that at the time. now its called as படிணி .
்9.Prestige?tamil people will give their life for their language pride. 10.Please google 'Anti hindi agitations of Tamilnadu' and 'Tamil Renaissance'.It will clear all your questions.

நன்றி .If you need any help regarding tamil,please feel free to contact me...:-)

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-09-10, 2:30

I think English has affected the prestige of other languages negatively all around the world and that this is especially true in (and all over) India (compared to Europe, for example). However, I agree that Tamils have a relatively positive view of their language, much more so than probably speakers of most Indian languages do of theirs. Kerala is right next door to Tamil Nadu, but I would say Malayalees generally have a much more negative view of Malayalam than Tamils seem to have of Tamil. (Unfortunately, a lot of Malayalees at least have an even more negative view of Tamil). Karnataka is also right next door to Tamil Nadu, but from what little I've heard, it doesn't seem to me like Kannadigas have a very positive view of Kannada, either. I'm sure it doesn't hurt in Tamil's case that it has a very old literature and that it has official status at some level in more countries than any other language indigenous to India. :)

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby Michael » 2016-09-13, 17:09

Aekalaivan12 wrote:Thank you so much for learning my language .We tamils owe you for your passion .Kudos for getting all resources .And do remember that in tamil the written form varies from colloquial form .There is books available for colloquial tamil .I hope you got it .It will very much help you to converse tamil with the native speaker.

Oh, don't thank me for learning Tamil! I should be the one grateful for every minute of free time that I'm able to devote my mind to Tamil, in the midst of having work and, soon, school.

In regards to colloquial language, I have a wealth of experience with two diglossic languages, just like Tamil: Brazilian Portuguese and Persian, and a little experience with Arabic—the first thing Arabic brings to mind is diglossia! So I'm already familiar with the important sociolinguistic distinction between செந்தமிழ் (Written Tamil, based on Middle Tamil with modern innovations in syntax and morphology) and கொடுந்தமிழ் (Modern Spoken Tamil), and I've started adapting colloquial reductions even when reading Written Tamil, so as to accustom myself to the oral language for the day when I'll actually have the opportunity to speak it! :) (PS: Tamil Language in Context has indeed arisen from the need of a sturdy course that teaches the two registers simultaneously!)

The answer for your question is
1.Tamils are generally immensily proud of tamil.There is a saying that உடல் மண்ணுக்கு உயிர் தமிழுக்கு.(Body for the sand aka earth,life for tamil).
2.I cant explain my love for my language.Please use google with keyword 'Tamil pride quora' then you will know what i mean.
3.Tamil is the root language for nearby three states languages Malayalam,Kannada,Telugu.
4.In Tamilnadu Tamil is the official language. In schools Tamil is compulsory with second language is english etc .
5.In India you can survival with Hindi language in 90% of states. You can't survive in Tamilnadu with that. Tamil people only speaks tamil.Most of them understand and speaks English.You can survive tamil nadu with english .
6.And as for as employment concerned corporate companies prefer English.But you can do government job with tamil nd English knowledge .
7.We respect other languages in india. but we are stubborn for our language pride.
8.The most important thing is tamil is a stand alone language with zero influence from other language. Means tamil language has its own word for every single thing from an atom to the things that will invented by the scientist in future. for example when ebook is invented there is no tamil word for that at the time. now its called as படிணி .
்9.Prestige?tamil people will give their life for their language pride. 10.Please google 'Anti hindi agitations of Tamilnadu' and 'Tamil Renaissance'.It will clear all your questions.

நன்றி .If you need any help regarding tamil,please feel free to contact me...:-)

I think these are the among the reasons that originally attracted me to Tamil in the first place. IMO, Tamil is one of the few languages in India that was able to effectively "stick up the middle finger" (a gesture for FUCK YOU in the United States*) to Shudh Hindi. I have nothing against speakers of Hindi, but the Hindi language as we know it was a creation of Hindu nationalists after the Partition. Urdu/Hindustani was written with Devanagari script sometimes, but it was not known as a separate language, and otherwise, Hindu and Muslim alike all spoke Urdu/Hindustani and wrote it with Nastaliq script, which had become a secular script at a certain point (i.e. not strongly associated with Islam anymore).

By the way, if there is any one way in which you could personally help me most, I would love to see your Tamil handwriting! My Tamil handwriting isn't too bad IMHO, but I would like to be able to write it more fluidly and educatedly. I will upload pages of my Tamil exercises if you choose to do so, so that we can compare notes.

*Speaking of vulgar gestures, apparently the American PEACE sign, made with the index and middle fingers thrust upwards, is the British equivalent of our middle finger gesture! :lol:
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„Çdo njeri është peng i veprave të veta.‟
Every human being is hostage to their own deeds.

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby ahilito » 2016-09-18, 7:06

Hi Vijayjohn,

If you are still happy to offer your expertise, I have a very specific question which no native-Tamil speaker ever seems to actually answer and I never find it actually explained in the textbooks.

naan thirumbukireen = I RETURN
naan thundu thirumba = I RETURN THE TOWL (hope that's correct)

What actually determines when the conjugations (-kireen, -kiriinga) are necessary and not???? I feel so compelled to try really hard to get
them right and then half the time I just see them dropped altogether.

Thanks

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-09-21, 3:43

That sounds to me like just dialect variation and diglossia in Tamil. As Mike mentioned, there's a form of Tamil called centhamil; this is the long-established literary standard. There is also kodunthamil, which refers to all of the spoken dialects; some of these at least have also been used for writing literature. These dialects are not all mutually intelligible; they form a continuum. This means that people who come from neighboring areas of Tamil Nadu would be able to understand each other fairly easily, but for example, it can be very hard or even impossible for someone from Madurai to understand someone from Chennai.

A lot of these endings are much shorter in Madurai kodunthamil, for example, than they are in Centhamil. For example, I'm pretty sure irukkirrEn in Madurai kodunthamil is just irukkEn.

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby littlepond » 2016-09-25, 15:33

I am not exactly a foreigner (north Indian), but I have been fascinated by Tamil Nadu since my childhood; it feels home to me, and I am now going to learn the language as well (I watch a lot of Tamil films and listen to Tamil songs, so maybe I already know some words, plus the Sanskrit-based ones, so that should also help).

Knowledge of any existing resources will help me immensely, especially if available online. Thanks in advance!
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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby kuchintakitty » 2016-10-03, 15:12

வணக்கம் அன்புசெல்வன்! நான் நீங்களிடம் மழிச்சியாக பேசுகிறேன்.

I've been learning Tamil for a couple of years now but it's tough as there aren't a lot of good resources around. Thanks for answering my question a while back about சுத்தி. I hope to see you around and will keep checking back more often now.

Michael, I was just in Chicago a couple of week back on vacation and went to Oak Park to seek the FLW house. What a coincidence!

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby Aekalaivan12 » 2016-12-22, 0:54

ahilito wrote:Hi Vijayjohn,

If you are still happy to offer your expertise, I have a very specific question which no native-Tamil speaker ever seems to actually answer and I never find it actually explained in the textbooks.

naan thirumbukireen = I RETURN
naan thundu thirumba = I RETURN THE TOWL (hope that's correct)

What actually determines when the conjugations (-kireen, -kiriinga) are necessary and not???? I feel so compelled to try really hard to get
them right and then half the time I just see them dropped altogether.

Thanks

Naan Thirumbukiraen = I Return
Naan Thundai(Thundu+ai) Thirumba Kodukiren = I Return the towel.
This is the correct form.In colloquial form,Instead of "thirumba" we use "thirupppi"
Kiraen-first person singular
Kireenga-Second person singular or plural.
Hopes that hep you.

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby Aekalaivan12 » 2016-12-22, 0:59

kuchintakitty wrote:வணக்கம் அன்புசெல்வன்! நான் நீங்களிடம் மழிச்சியாக பேசுகிறேன்.

I've been learning Tamil for a couple of years now but it's tough as there aren't a lot of good resources around. Thanks for answering my question a while back about சுத்தி. I hope to see you around and will keep checking back more often now.

Michael, I was just in Chicago a couple of week back on vacation and went to Oak Park to seek the FLW house. What a coincidence!

Thanks...Its a pleasure to knowing you.I will try to come as often as possible.And I love your tamil reply...A small correction...It should be "Vanakkam Anbuselvan! Naan Ungalidam Mahizhchiyaga Pesugiren".....
Keep Rocking...:)

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby dEhiN » 2017-01-21, 12:56

I just found this thread! I'm learning Tamil. Actually Tamil is my heritage language: I was born in Sri Lanka but grew up in Canada. My parents speaks Tamil and can read/write it. But my family is very anglicized. Even in Sri Lanka, when my parents were growing up, they had to study in Tamil but they mostly used English at home. (My parents also know Sinhala, but only colloquially.)

Because I grew up in Canada, and because my family is anglicized, my parents spoke English to my siblings and I. They used Tamil between each other if they didn't want us to know what they were talking about! About 18 years I started to teach myself the Tamil script using the internet. I also learned a few basics and the alphabet.

But in the past 18 years, I haven't progressed much. I am still a beginner. There are some words that I'm very used to, because I use them all the time when speaking to my parents (even though I speak to them in English). My parents have sometimes tried to help me with Tamil.

I think I've always had 2 difficulties with Tamil.

1) For the longest time I never understood the diglossic nature of Tamil. So I would get confused between the written form and the spoken form.

2) I prefer to learn Colomban Tamil, as that is where my mom is from and where my dad lived for quite a while. (My dad grew up for a bit in Jaffna so he also knows or at least knew Jaffnan Tamil.) Unfortunately finding resources for any Sri Lankan kodunthamizh is very hard. The only things I find are for Tamil Nadu kodunthamizh varieties.

This year I want to concentrate on Tamil and actually go beyond a beginner.
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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby Tiger98073 » 2017-02-05, 5:09

Im not a Tamil speaker, but I'm learning its structure descriptively for comparative analysis. I have questions and doubts about some structures and hope that there are somebody in this forum who can enlighten me. :oops:

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Re: Who are currently learning Tamil that is not their language?

Postby dEhiN » 2017-02-05, 13:29

Tiger98073 wrote:Im not a Tamil speaker, but I'm learning its structure descriptively for comparative analysis. I have questions and doubts about some structures and hope that there are somebody in this forum who can enlighten me. :oops:

Welcome to UniLang, and definitely ask away. I know that vijayjohn has studied linguistics at university and also speaks Malayalam to a high degree (as well as Tamil, but I'm not sure to what degree). He might be your best bet in terms of helping explain various Dravidian structures for comparative analysis.
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