Tamil (தமிழ் tamiḻ) is a classical language that belongs to the Dravidian language family. The language is primarily spoken by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore, but there are smaller communities in many other countries. With over 74 million speakers worldwide, it was the eighteenth most spoken language in 1996. In India, Singapore, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka, it is an official language. It is one of the few living classical languages with an unbroken literary tradition dating back over two millennia and the oldest classical language.
