Old Tamil

Linguistic reconstruction suggests that Proto-Dravidian was spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin in peninsular India.

[13] There are a number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language.

[14] John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India.

[15] Tamil began to trade with Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, and Tibet.

[17] There were large amounts of Roulette potteries and Roman coins were found in a brick jetty that they would put items into so they would be ready for when they needed to unload them a mound in Arikamedu with Rouletted ware, amphorae, conical jars, agate, and chalcedony.

The population wore cotton clothes and adorned the neck with ornaments made of beads, copper, and bronze.

[19] Other literary works in Old Tamil include Thirukural, Silappatikaram and Maṇimēkalai, and a number of ethical and didactic texts, written between the 5th and 8th centuries.

A major distinction in this regard, is that Tamil is classified as a Dravidian language, making it the oldest written tradition not descended from Sanskrit in India.

Through Akam, aspects of love and romantic feelings are portrayed through five distinct categories, each relating to a unique landscape.

Puram typically displays aspects of war and politics.” [27] Sangam literature can be found from its first period around 250 BCE–200 CE.

Regarding their pretexts, Puram poems most notably target specific morals that the author wishes to convey.

[8] Old Tamil, the earliest attested branch of South Dravidian has preserved an inventory of 17 consonants very similar to Proto-Dravidian: /p t ṯ c ṭ k, m n ñ ṇ, r ẓ, l ḷ, y w *H/.

According to a rough translation from Tolkappiyam, “It will be evident on careful observation that all the sounds (in the Tamil language) are but the results of the modifications which the air undergoes in starting from naval, and passing through the eight parts- chest, neck, head, tongue, hard palate, teeth, lips, and nose.”[35] The language has Thirty linear phonemes ranging from a to n with the exception of three nonlinear phonemes.

There is an exception to this rule that occurs when a word starts with a vowel, and in this case, a character representing a singular syllable is used.