What Your Tamil Translator Should Know

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The large population of immigrants and migrant workers, has impacted the need for Tamil translators. Most of the common needs for translation are registrars of birth, death and marriage. Passport translations, visa translations and ID card translations are also common.

A Little Background on the Tamil Language:

Tamil is a language people from South India and North East Sri Lanka speak . Minorities in South Africa, Canada, Malaysia, Germany, Fiji, United States, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Reunion, and many other places around the globe also speak the language.

This language is of Dravidian origin. It is one of the oldest and longest surviving languages in the world which made Tamil literature to be in existence for 2000 years. Some of the oldest records were found on  hero stones and rocks that date back as far as the 3rd century BC and the records dating back to the 1st BCE and the 2nd BCE have also been found in Thailand, Egypt and Sri Lanka.

 

Official Status and more

There are several Indian states where Tamil has an official status. These are: Tamil Nadu, Puducherry Andaman, and Nicobar Islands. In Sri Lanka, Tamil is an official language, while in Mauritius and Singapore it is an official language. In India, it is also one of the scheduled languages and thus declared in 2004 as a classical language in the country.

 

What a Tamil translator should know…

The Tamil language is spoken in wide geographical variations resulting for it to have several dialects being spoken. Mostly, they vary in phonology and sometimes in vocabulary as well. It also varies depending on the other spoken languages in the surrounding countries or cities, however, additional loanwords are also different. Some parts of the caste system also have vocabularies of their own that makes the Tamil language more complicated.

A Tamil translator should be aware that written and spoken Tamil have different forms that shade into each other. These include a classical literary style drawn from the ancient Tamil, a modern literary and formal form, and a modern colloquial style but together, they create a language of stylistic continuum.

The Tamil script has evolved over the centuries. The current script has 12 vowels, 18 consonants and 1 special character.

 

Here’s a quick lesson from a Tamil translator:

 

 

 

Given the complexity of the language, you must remember to hire only a professional linguist. From official document translation to medical translation, we can help you find the best Tamil translator located near you.