The importance of Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew is that linguistically these words are the earliest attestation of the Tamil language. These words were incorporated into the writing of the Hebrew Bible starting before 500 BCE. Although a number of authors have identified many biblical and post-biblical words of Tamil, Old Tamil, or Dravidian origin, a number of them have competing etymologies and some Tamil derivations are considered controversial.
The incorporation of Tamil loanwords into the Hebrew language originally came about through the interactions of West Asian and South Indian merchants. The mainstream view is that the beginnings of trade between the Mediterranean region and South India can be traced back to 500 BCE when the word zingiberis (ζιγγίβερις), which was derived from the Proto-South Dravidian *cinki-ver (சிங்கிவேர்) (for "ginger"), first appeared in the Greek language. [1] [2] This indicates South India possibly having been involved in trade with the Mediterranean diaspora centuries earlier. [1] There is some evidence that trade between India and the peoples inhabiting the Mediterranean regions may have been well established by 1500 BCE. [3] [4]
Due to its native speakers' location—in the critical path of trade between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India—ancient Hebrew lexicon contains both cultural words that are common to many languages in the general area and loanwords from various other languages including Ancient Greek. [5] Some of these loan words are present in the earliest transcripts of the Bible. By the mid-nineteenth century, Christian missionaries trained in Biblical Hebrew noticed that there were words of Indian origin in the Bible, including from the Tamil language. [6] [7] Some of the loan words were borrowed directly from Tamil or Old Tamil into Biblical Hebrew. Others were borrowed via the Akkadian, Aramaic, Greek, Persian, and South Arabian languages. [8] The period of these lexiconic borrowings range from 1000 BCE to 500 BCE. [8] [9] [10] The dating of this borrowing depends on the acceptable ranges of dates for the compilation and redaction of the Books of Kings. [7]
Most of the borrowed words had to do with items of trade that were unique to South India but which lacked native names in Hebrew. [7] [11] [12] [13] According to linguists such as Chaim Rabin and Abraham Mariaselvam, the Tamil linguistic impact in Hebrew goes beyond just loan words. The contact also influenced the poetic traditions and styles such as those found in the Song of Songs, which according to Rabin and Mariaselvam shows the influence of Cankam anthologies. [11] [12] [13] [14]
Linguistically, the importance of Tamil loanwords in Hebrew is that it is the earliest attestation of Tamil language [10] [15] and an early attestation in the Dravidian languages. [7] This was before Tamil was widely written down, using the Tamil Brahmi script and dated variously from 600 BCE to 200 BCE. [16] [17] Although a number of authors have identified many Biblical and post-Biblical words of Tamil, Old Tamil, or Dravidian origin, a number of them have competing etymologies and some Tamil derivations are today considered controversial. [7] [18] There is also a class of words that were borrowed ultimately from Indo-Aryan languages spoken in North India but via Tamil. [8]
Hebrew word | Meaning in Hebrew | Source language | Tamil word | Meaning in Tamil |
---|---|---|---|---|
túki תוכים | parrots but meant peacocks in the past [nb 1] | Tamil [nb 2] | tōkai தோகை | feather [20] [7] [6] [21] [22] [19] [14] |
ahalim אֲהָלִים | eagle-wood or agarwood | Tamil [nb 3] | akil அகில் | agarwood [5] [23] [7] [24] [22] [12] [14] |
kurkúm כורכום | turmeric | probably Tamil but also possibly Sanskrit | kūkai கூகை (கூவை) | turmeric [7] [25] [12] |
armón ארמון | palace | probably Tamil but has competing etymologies | araṇmaṉai அரண்மனை | palace [7] |
kaḏ כד | jug | probably Tamil, cognates in South Dravidian languages [nb 4] | kiṇṭi கிண்டி | small vessel [26] |
rg ריג | weave | probably Tamil, cognates in South Dravidian languages | orukku ஒருக்கு | to draw out [26] |
minnith מִנִּית | rice [nb 5] | Tamil via Akkadian | uṇṭi உண்டி | boiled rice [28] |
pannag פנג | millet [nb 6] | Tamil via South Arabian | uṇaṅkal உணங்கல் | millet [28] |
bûts בּוּץ | fine textile | Possibly related to Tamil, via South Arabian also possibly via Sanskrit. Already attested in Syrian and Akkadian inscriptions dating back to the 9th century BCE. | panjcu பஞ்சு | cotton [28] |
mesukkan מסכן | wood | Tamil via Akkadian | mucukkaṭṭai முசுக்கட்டை | mulberry tree [28] |
piṭdâh פִטְדָה | topaz | Tamil or Dravidian | pitta பித்த | bile or yellow [28] [30] |
qôph קוף | monkey | probably Tamil but also possibly Sanskrit | ka(p)vi கவி | monkey [31] [32] [33] [22] |
Hebrew word | Meaning in Hebrew | Source language | Tamil word | Meaning in Tamil |
---|---|---|---|---|
etrog אתרוג | yellow citron | Tamil via Persian [nb 7] | mātuḷam மாதுளம், or alternatively, nārttaṅkāy நார்த்தங்காய் | pomegranate or citron [34] [35] [36] |
orez אורז | rice | Tamil via South Arabian [nb 8] | arici அரிசி | rice [2] [6] [13] [24] [38] |
nul נול | loom | probably Tamil, cognates in South Dravidian languages [nb 9] | nūl நூல் | thread [26] |
mango מנגו | mango | From English, via Portuguese originally from Tamil[ relevant? ] | māṅkāy மாங்காய் | unripe mā (a species) fruit [39] |
The Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia.
Sanskrit is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting effect on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies.
Tamil is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and union territory of Puducherry, and the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in the four other South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also spoken by the Tamil diaspora found in many countries, including Malaysia, Myanmar, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Indonesia, and Mauritius. Tamil is also natively spoken by the Sri Lankan Moors. One of 22 scheduled languages in the Constitution of India, Tamil was the first to be classified as a classical language of India.
Telugu is a Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language family, and one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India. It is one of the few languages that has primary official status in more than one Indian state, alongside Hindi and Bengali. Telugu is one of the six languages designated as a classical language by the Government of India. It is the 14th most spoken native language in the world. Modern Standard Telugu is based on the dialect of erstwhile Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari and West Godavari districts of Coastal Andhra.
Modern Hebrew, also called Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. Developed as part of Hebrew's revival in the late 19th century and early 20th century, it is the official language of the State of Israel, and the world's only Canaanite language in use. Coinciding with the creation of the state of Israel, where it is the national language, Modern Hebrew is the only successful instance of a complete language revival.
Tolkāppiyam, also romanised as Tholkaappiyam, is the most ancient extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. It is the earliest Tamil text mentioning Gods, perhaps linked to Hindu deities.
Proto-Dravidian is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Dravidian languages native to the Indian subcontinent. It is thought to have differentiated into Proto-North Dravidian, Proto-Central Dravidian, and Proto-South Dravidian, although the date of diversification is still debated.
Telugu people, also called Andhras, are an ethno-linguistic group who speak the Telugu language and are native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Yanam district of Puducherry. They are the most populous of the four major Dravidian groups. Telugu is the fourth most spoken language in India and the 14th most spoken native language in the world. A significant number of Telugus also reside in the Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Maharashtra. Members of the Telugu diaspora are spread across countries like United States, Australia, Malaysia, Mauritius, UAE, and others. By 2024 Telugu is spoken by 95.7 million people all over world, which makes it the third largest Indian diaspora after Hindi and Bengali. Telugu is the fastest-growing language in the United States. It is also a protected language in South Africa.
Chaim Menachem Rabin was a German, then British, and finally Israeli professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages.
Since the Iron Age in India, the native languages of the Indian subcontinent are divided into various language families, of which the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian are the most widely spoken. There are also many languages belonging to unrelated language families such as Munda and Tibeto-Burman, spoken by smaller groups.
The Sangam literature, historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones', connotes the early classical Tamil literature and is the earliest known literature of South India. The Tamil tradition and legends link it to three legendary literary gatherings around Madurai and Kapāṭapuram: the first lasted over 4,440 years, the second over 3,700 years, and the third over 1,850 years. Scholars consider this Tamil tradition-based chronology as ahistorical and mythical. Most scholars suggest the historical Sangam literature era, also called the Sangam period, spanned from c. 300 BCE to 300 CE, while others variously place this early classical Tamil literature period a bit later and more narrowly but all before 300 CE. According to Kamil Zvelebil, a Tamil literature and history scholar, the most acceptable range for the Sangam literature is 100 BCE to 250 CE, based on the linguistic, prosodic and quasi-historic allusions within the texts and the colophons.
Tamil-Brahmi, also known as Tamili or Damili, was a variant of the Brahmi script in southern India. It was used to write inscriptions in the early form of Old Tamil. The Tamil-Brahmi script has been paleographically and stratigraphically dated between the third century BCE and the first century CE, and it constitutes the earliest known writing system evidenced in many parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Sri Lanka. Tamil Brahmi inscriptions have been found on cave entrances, stone beds, potsherds, jar burials, coins, seals, and rings.
Vedic Sanskrit has a number of linguistic features which are alien to most other Indo-European languages. Prominent examples include: phonologically, the introduction of retroflexes, which alternate with dentals, and morphologically, the formation of gerunds. Some philologists attribute such features, as well as the presence of non-Indo-European vocabulary, to a local substratum of languages encountered by Indo-Aryan peoples in Central Asia (Bactria-Marghiana) and within the Indian subcontinent during Indo-Aryan migrations, including the Dravidian languages.
The Dravidian peoples are an ethnolinguistic supraethnicity composed of many distinct ethnolinguistic groups native to South Asia. They speak the Dravidian languages, which have a combined total of about 250 million native speakers. Dravidians form the majority of the population of South India and Northern Sri Lanka.
Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning from 300 BCE to 700 CE. Prior to Old Tamil, the period of Tamil linguistic development is termed as Proto-Tamil. After the Old Tamil period, Tamil becomes Middle Tamil. The earliest records in Old Tamil are inscriptions from between the 3rd and 1st century BCE in caves and on pottery. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil Brahmi. The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the mid 2nd century BCE. Old Tamil preserved many features of Proto-Dravidian, the earliest reconstructed form of the Dravidian including inventory of consonants, the syllable structure, and various grammatical features.
The early Dravidian religion constituted a non-Vedic, pre-Indo-Aryan, indigenous religion practiced by Dravidian peoples in the Indian subcontinent that they were either historically or are at present Āgamic. The Agamas are non-Vedic in origin, and have been dated either as post-Vedic texts, or as pre-Vedic compositions. The Agamas are a collection of Tamil and Sanskrit scriptures chiefly constituting the methods of temple construction and creation of murti, worship means of deities, philosophical doctrines, meditative practices, attainment of sixfold desires and four kinds of yoga. The worship of tutelary deities and sacred flora and fauna in Hinduism is also recognized as a survival of the pre-Vedic Dravidian religion. Dravidian linguistic influence on early Vedic religion is evident; many of these features are already present in the oldest known Indo-Aryan language, the language of the Rigveda, which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian. The linguistic evidence for Dravidian impact grows increasingly strong as one moves from the Samhitas down through the later Vedic works and into the classical post-Vedic literature. This represents an early religious and cultural fusion or synthesis between ancient Dravidians and Indo-Aryans that went on to influence Indian civilisation.
There are many Tamil loanwords in other languages. The Tamil language, primarily spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, has produced loanwords in many different languages, including Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, English, Malay, native languages of Indonesia, Mauritian Creole, Tagalog, Russian, and Sinhala and Dhivehi.
Tamil loanwords entered the Greek language through the interactions of Mediterranean and South Indian merchants during different periods in history. Most words had to do with items of trade that were unique to South India. There is a general consensus about Tamil loanwords in Ancient Greek, while a few of the words have competing etymologies.