Tamil Culture 101

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India

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu = "Tamil country", 1 of 28 Indian states

GDP ~ 350 billion USD ~ South Carolina, Czech Republic

population ~ 77 M ~ California + Texas + Arizona

Chennai (capital) ~ 8.6 M ~ New York City

hot, humid summers

rainy monsoons

polluted cities :(

flooding, droughts

ancient sea trade routes

wide diaspora

• Tamil Nadu
• Sri Lanka
• Singapore*
• Malaysia

+ Hinduism/Buddhism throughout South East Asia

(e.g. Cambodia, Indonesia)

lots of cultural pride tied to language

Tolkappiyam: an ancient Tamil grammar (!) developed in (~800 BC, 300 AD)

anti-Hindi imposition, North-South drama

Thirukkural: 1,330 rhyming couplets that teach about virtue, wealth and love (~300 BC, 500 AD)

cool epic: Cilappatikāram (~500 BC)

progressive in many ways

caste equality

affirmative action

trans rights

regressive in others

universal corruption

gender roles

more general LGBTQ rights

an abugida

kinda like an alphabet

12 vowels (the "life" letters)

18 consonants
(the "body" letters)

12 * 18 = 216 joint

+1 weird letter that is never really used

a total of 247

formal vs informal

talking to respected folks vs regular fols

"fancy written" vs "colloquial spoken"

stuff you're taught in school vs what you actually say IRL

urban vs rural

different regions, countries

2025-01-17

moar stuff

• Tamil/Dravidian loanwords in English
• Tamil English / Indian English
• tongue twisters
• idioms
• reduplication

• the structure of a Tamil movie
• superstitions

Tamil/Dravidian loanwords in English

• cash (kasu)
• ginger (inji)
• rice (arisi)
• mango (maangai/maampazham)
• curry (kari)
• congee (kanjee)
• corundum (a gemstone)
• catamaran (kattumaram)
• pariah (paraiyar, a caste)
• patchouli (patchai ilai [green leaf])
• teak (thaek)

• bamboo (bambu, Kannada)
• jackfruit (chakka, Malayalam)

Tamil/Indian English

• Tamil has no consonant clusters (e.g. PLace, BLanket)

• pass out (to graduate)
• non-veg (non-vegetarian)
• doubt/"clearing your doubts" (question)
• bike (motorbike) vs cycle (bicycle)
• "cut the call" (hang up the phone)
• dress (clothes)
• expired/is gone/no more (passed away)
• lakhs and crores (10^5 and 10^7)
• mixie (blender)
• out of station (out of town)

• mugging (cramming)
• prepone
• saloon (haircut place)
• shift 
• sweet (noun)
• take a class (to teach)
• tight slap
• time waste

Reduplication reduplication

• aiyo -- aiyoyo
• aiyeh -- aiyehyeh

• chinnan-chiru (small)
• patcha-pasale (fresh)
• puttham-puthiya (new)
• natta-naduvil (right in the middle)

• aapil-keepil (apple)
• breaku-keeku (break)
• station-keetion (station)

• varen-giren (come)
• pesuvaal-geesuvaal (she will speak)
• vendaam-geendaam (don't want)

• vaa (come)
• po (go)
• mella (slow/quiet)
• vaegam (fast)

Parimalagantham (2009). A study of structural reduplication in Tamil and Telugu

Tongue twisters

• yaar thatcha sattai? athu thatha thatcha sattai.

Who sewed that shirt? Grandpa sewed that shirt.

• neela laaree uruluthu pirazhuthu.

The blue lorry is turning and tumbling.

• vaazhaiparam vazhukki aezhai kizhavi vazhiyil nazhuvi kizhe vizhunthaal

The poor old lady slipped on a banana and fell down in the doorway

• kokku netta kokku; netta kokku itta muttai katta muttai

The crane was tall; the egg the tall crane laid was non-viable.

• puttum puthu puttu; thattum puthu thattu. puttai kottitttu thattai thaa.

The puttu is new; the plate is new. Throw away the puttu and give me the plate.

• kulai kulai-yaai vaazhaipazham mazhaiyil azhugi kizhae vizhunthathu

Bunch by bunch the bananas rotted in the rain and fell down.