Malaysian Tamil
Malaysian Tamil (Tamil: மலேசியத் தமிழ் மொழி, romanized: Malēsiyat Tamiḻ Moḻi), also known as Malaya Tamil, is a local variant of the Tamil language spoken in Malaysia.
It is one of the languages of education in Malaysia, along with English, Malay and Mandarin. There are many differences in vocabulary between Malaysian Tamil and Indian Tamil.[clarification needed (see talk)]
| Malaysian Tamil | |
|---|---|
| Bahasa Tamil Malaysia | |
| மலேசியத் தமிழ் மொழி | |
| Native to | Malaysia and Singapore |
| Ethnicity | Malaysian Indian (Tamil Malaysians) |
Native speakers | ~3.9 million in Malaysia and Singapore (2006 – 2010 census) |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Malaysian Tamil Language Standardisation Council |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | mala1467 |
Influence
An element needed to carry out commercial transactions is a common language understood by all parties involved in early trade. Historians such as J.V. Sebastian, K.T. Thirunavukkarasu, and A.W. Hamilton record that Tamil was the common language of commerce in Malaysia and Indonesia during historical times. The maritime Tamil significance in Sumatran and Malay Peninsula trading continued for centuries and borrowings into Malay from Tamil increased between the 15th and 19th centuries due to their commercial activities. In the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company was obliged to use Tamil as part of its correspondence. In Malacca and other seaports up to the 19th century, Malay terminology pertaining to book-keeping and accountancy was still largely Tamil.[citation needed]
Borrowings into Malay from Tamil (sometimes Sanskritized) include such everyday words as:
| Tamil | Malay | English |
|---|---|---|
| அநியாயம் aniyāyam | aniaya | persecute, misjustice |
| கடை kaṭai | kedai | shop |
| gadai | pawn | |
| கப்பல் kappal | kapal | ship |
| கோட்டம் kōṭṭam | kota | city |
| சதை catai | sate | satay |
| சுங்கம் cuṅkam | cukai | tax |
| சுசி cuci | cuci | to clean/wash |
| சும்மா cummā | cuma | only/merely |
| சொர்க்கம் corkkam | syurga | heaven/paradise |
| சௌத்து cauttu | contoh | example |
| நகரம் nakaram | negara | city |
| பூமி pūmi | bumi | earth |
| மாமா māmā | mamak | Tamil Muslim |
| முத்து muttu | mutiara[dubious ] | pearl |
| ரகசியம் rakaciyam | rahsia | secret |
| ரொட்டி roṭṭi | roti | bread |
| வகை vakai | bagai | variety/type |
| வர்ணம் varṇam | warna | colours |
References
Sources
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article Malaysian Tamil, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.