History of Tamil

Protohistory and prehistory

Tamil, as a Dravidian language, descends from Proto-Dravidian. Linguistic reconstruction suggests that Proto-Dravidian was spoken around the third millennium BC, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin in peninsular India. The reconstructed vocabulary for Proto-Dravidian includes terms dealing with agriculture, herding, hunting, some technology (especially metallurgy), trade and economic activity, social strata and religion, including words relating to deities and priesthood. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were the culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of south India.

The next phase in the reconstructed proto-history of Tamil is Proto-South Dravidian. Reconstructed terminology for Proto-South Dravidian includes words related to fairly advanced governmental, administrative and military structures, urban settlements and buildings such as prisons and palaces, castes or social strata and advanced metal-based technology. The linguistic evidence suggests that Proto-South Dravidian was spoken around the middle of the second millenium BC, but the earliest archaeologically attested community that displays the traits which linguistic reconstruction posits for Proto-South Dravidian is the Tamil polity of the Sangam period, which dates to around a thousand years later.

The next stage in the evolution of Tamil is Proto-Tamil Kannada, which is believed to have split by the 3rd century BC into Kannada and proto-Tamil. The earliest epigraphic records in Tamil are generally taken to date to shortly after this period. The exact period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. Southworth (1998) suggests that the name comes from tam-miz > tam-iz 'self-speak', or 'one's own speech'. Zvelebil (1992) suggests an etymology of tam-iz, with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and "-iz" having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternately, he suggests a derivation of tamiz < tam-iz < *tav-iz < *tak-iz, meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)"