Beginner's Tamil (English, Tamil, Paperback)

This title includes a book and 2 CDs. One of the world's few living classical languages, Tamil is spoken by over 80 million people, primarily in Tamil Nadu, India, but also in Sri Lanka and Singapore, and by significant communities in Malaysia, Dubai, Mauritius, South Africa and Canada. Language is an integral component of Tamil identity because, unlike many ethnic groups, for most of their history the Tamil people have never all lived within the same territory. Tamil has an unbroken literary tradition covering over two millennia. A Dravidian language, Tamil does not share the Sanskrit origin common to most Indic languages. The earliest extant text, a work on poetics and grammar known as the Tolkappiyam, dates back to 200 BC, and rock inscriptions have been found that are a century older still. The high level of diglossia (separate spoken and written forms of the same language) exhibited by Tamil, and the prestige accorded to classical Tamil, have led to the preservation of much of the classical vocabulary and structure in modern literary Tamil. "Beginner's Tamil" introduces the student to this elegant language with clear pronunciation guides, step-by-step instructions on writing the script, and exercises that rapidly incorporate vocabulary and grammar from one lesson to the next. The lessons feature colloquial Tamil used in everyday conversation while alerting the student to the differences between the spoken and written forms. The audio dialogues cover greetings, directions, currency and shopping in extremely well written and musing exchanges that encourage the retention of previously studied material.