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Tamil loanwords in other languages

There are many Tamil loanwords in other languages. The Tamil language, primarily spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, has produced loanwords in many different languages, including Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, English, Malay, native languages of Indonesia, Mauritian Creole, Tagalog, Russian, and Sinhala and Dhivehi.

In Ancient Greek

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Main article: Tamil loanwords in Ancient Greek

Tamil loanwords in Ancient Greek came about due to the interactions of Mediterranean and South Indian merchants. Tamil loanwords entered the Greek language throughout different periods in history. Most words had to do with items of trade that were unique to South India. Although there is general consensus that there are Tamil loanwords in Ancient Greek, few of the words have competing etymologies as well.[1]

In Biblical Hebrew

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Main article: Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew

The importance of Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew is that linguistically these words are the earliest attestation of the Tamil language. These words were incorporated into the writing of the Hebrew Bible starting before 500 BCE. Although a number of authors have identified many Biblical and post-Biblical words of Tamil, Old Tamil, or Dravidian origin, a number of them have competing etymologies and some Tamil derivations are considered controversial.[2]

In English

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See also: List of English words of Dravidian origin


In Malay (including Malaysian and Indonesian)

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Interaction between Tamil speakers and Malay speakers has been established from ancient time. Tamil influence has been around such as Palava usage as ancient script in Indonesia (Palava dynasty was existed on 275 CE–897 CE) and Chola invasion of Srivijaya in 1025.

Tamil mainly entered the lexicon of Classical Malay (and by extension, its modern Malaysian and Indonesian standard variants) with the immigration of South Indian traders and labourers who settled around the Strait of Malacca. Henceforth, loanwords from Tamil, while also an Indian language (though not Indo-European like Sanskrit), mainly exist in the fields of commerce and cuisine, the latter like Chinese and unlike Sanskrit. See also Wiktionary:Appendix:Malay words of Tamil origin.

In Mauritian Creole

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In Tagalog

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Close contact through commercial networks between India and Maritime Southeast Asia for more than two millennia, bolstered by the establishment of Tamil as a literary language in India starting from the 9th century, allowed the spread of Dravidian loanwords in several local languages of Southeast Asia, including Old Malay and Tagalog. A list of Tagalog words with Tamil origins are shown below.[10]

In Réunion Creole

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Creole Tamil Meaning English word
rougail ஊறுகாய் Pickled fruits Pickles

In Russian

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Russian Tamil Meaning English word
катамаран கட்டு மரம் tied logs Catamaran

In Sinhala

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Sinhala words of Tamil origin came about as part of the more than 2,000 years of language interactions between Sinhala and Tamil in the island of Sri Lanka, as well as through Dravidian substratum effect on the Sinhala Language.

In Sinhala words

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Main article: List of Sinhala words of Tamil origin

In the following list, Tamil words are romanised in accordance with Tamil spelling. This results in seeming discrepancies in voicing between Sinhala words and their Tamil counterparts. Sinhala borrowing, however, has taken place on the basis of the sound of the Tamil words; thus, the word ampalam, [ambalam], logically results in the Sinhala spelling ambalama, and so forth. However, the Tamil language used here for comparison is Tamil as spoken in Sri Lanka.

In Sinhala verbs

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Several verbs have been adopted into Sinhala from the Tamil language. The vast majority of these are compound verbs consisting of a Tamil origin primary verb and a Sinhala origin light verb.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Zvelebil, Kamil. "Dravidian languages". Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  2. ^ Wald, Shalom; Kandel, Arielle. "India, Israel and the Jewish people". Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  3. ^ "Aiyo! The English language just usurped my all-purpose south Indian word and sucked the life out of it". Quartz (publication). 10 October 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Catamaran; Define Catamaran at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  5. ^ "Cheroot; Define Cheroot at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  6. ^ "Corundum; Define Corundum at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  7. ^ "mulligatawny, n.". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003.
  8. ^ "patchouli". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  9. ^ "Pandal; Define Pandal at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hoogervorst, Tom (15 April 2015). "Detecting pre-modern lexical influence from South India in Maritime Southeast Asia". Archipel. Études interdisciplinaires sur le monde insulindien (89): 63–93. doi:10.4000/archipel.490. ISSN 0044-8613.
  11. ^ "Dravidian Etymological Dictionary; Find definition of Appa in Dravidian Etymological Dictionary". dsal.uchicago.edu. 1984.
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