Language code: ta

Technical information about ISO 639 language code ta

The table below provides technical details for the Tamil language, designated by the ta code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code

ta

Name

Official

Tamil

Native

தமிழ்

Family
Southern
Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Northern TamilCentral TamilWestern (Kongu) TamilSouthern TamilSri Lankan Tamil
Related languages
MalayalamKannadaTeluguTulu
Key facts
Earliest Tamil inscriptions date to at least the 3rd century BCEPossesses one of the oldest continuous literary traditions in South Asia, exceeding 2,000 yearsDisplays strong diglossia between formal Classical Tamil and everyday Spoken TamilModern script is an abugida with 12 vowels and 18 consonants, derived from ancient BrahmiFirst Indian language to appear in print, with a Tamil prayer book published in 1578.
Sample phrase

வணக்கம், நீங்கள் எப்படி இருக்கிறீர்கள்?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

Tamil belongs to the Dravidian language family, specifically to the Southern subgroup. It is the official language of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in India, and is also an official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is written using the Tamil script. It is estimated that there are between 70 and 90 million Tamil speakers worldwide.

Language presence globally

Speakers

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Tamil speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

Related locale codes

ta-IN Tamil (India)

ta-LK Tamil (Sri Lanka)

ta-MY Tamil (Malaysia)

ta-SG Tamil (Singapore)

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