Language code: tam

Technical information about ISO 639 language code tam

The table below provides technical details for the Tamil language, designated by the tam code from the ISO 639-2 standard.

Code

tam

Name

Official

Tamil

Native

தமிழ்

Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Central TamilKongu TamilMadurai TamilTirunelveli (Southern) TamilSri Lankan Tamil
Related languages
MalayalamKannadaTeluguTulu
Key facts
One of the world's oldest living classical languages with inscriptions dating to the 3rd century BCEUses a distinct script derived from Brahmi and standardized by about the 5th century CEEarly literature includes the Sangam corpus of over 2,000 ancient poemsStrongly diglossic, with clear differences between formal literary Tamil and colloquial spoken formsFirst Indian language ever printed, in a Tamil-Portuguese prayer book produced in Lisbon in 1554
Sample phrase

வணக்கம், நீங்கள் எப்படி இருக்கிறீர்கள்?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

The Tamil language, identified by the code tam, falls under the 'Individual' category in terms of its scope and is classified as 'Living' by its type.

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