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The language
belongs to the Tamil region including present day Srilanka
and Indian state of Tamil Nadu and holds official language
status both in Tamil Nadu and Srilanka as well. In Tamil Nadu
alone, there are about 66 million people speak Tamil as their
first language and another 8 million people who use it as second
language. It is also official language of the union territories
of Pondicherry and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands in India and
has constitutional recognition in South Africa, Mauritius and
Malaysia. Outside India and Sriranka, Tamil is also spoken in
Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Mauritius, Bahrain, Fiji,
Germany, Netherlands, Qatar, Reunion, Thailand, UAE, United
Kingdom, Canada and Australia. With more than 77 million
speakers worldwide, Tamil is today one of the major languages of
the world. |
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