Malaysian Tamil (Tamil:மலேசியத் தமிழ் மொழி,romanized: Malēsiyat Tamiḻ Moḻi), also known asMalaya Tamil, is a local variant of theTamil language spoken in Malaysia.[2] It is one of the languages of education in Malaysia, along with English, Malay and Mandarin.[3][4] There are many differences in vocabulary between Malaysian Tamil and Indian Tamil.[clarification needed (seetalk)]
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:
Kesavapany, K.; Mani, A; Ramasamy, Palanisamy (2008),Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,ISBN978-981-230-799-6
Lehmann, Thomas (1998), "Old Tamil", in Steever, Sanford (ed.),The Dravidian Languages, London: Routledge, pp. 75–99,ISBN0-415-10023-2
Meenakshisundaran, T.P. (1965),A History of Tamil Language, Poona: Deccan College
Murthy, Srinivasa; Rao, Surendra; Veluthat, Kesavan; Bari, S.A. (1990),Essays on Indian History and culture: Felicitation volume in Honour of Professor B. Sheik Ali, New Delhi: Mittal,ISBN81-7099-211-7
Ramstedt, Martin (2004),Hinduism in modern Indonesia, London: Routledge,ISBN0-7007-1533-9
Rajam, VS (1992),A Reference Grammar of Classical Tamil Poetry, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society,ISBN0-87169-199-X
Talbot, Cynthia (2001),Precolonial India in practice: Society, Region and Identity in Medieval Andhra, New York: Oxford University Press,ISBN0-19-513661-6
Tieken, Herman (2001),Kavya in South India: Old Tamil Cankam Poetry, Gonda Indological Studies, Volume X, Groningen: Egbert Forsten Publishing,ISBN90-6980-134-5
Varadarajan, Mu. (1988),A History of Tamil Literature, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (Translated from Tamil by E.Sa. Viswanathan)
Zvelebil, Kamil (1992),Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature, Leiden: Brill,ISBN90-04-09365-6
Tamil is written in a non-Latin script. Tamil text used in this article is transliterated into the Latin script according to theISO 15919 standard.
