Tamil is one of Sri Lanka’s two official languages alongside Sinhala.
Tamil is a major Dravidian language with a long literary history and large speaker communities in southern India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and diaspora populations worldwide. In Sri Lanka, it has official status under the constitution, while Sinhala is the other official language and English functions as a link language.
Sri Lankan Tamil has distinctive pronunciation, vocabulary, and literary traditions, although it remains closely related to varieties spoken in Tamil Nadu. Tamil is written in its own script, which developed historically from southern Brahmi writing.
Tamil’s official status in Sri Lanka should not be confused with the separate fact that Tamil is also one of India’s constitutionally recognized scheduled languages and an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The language’s historical importance extends from ancient inscriptions to modern cinema and digital media.