The importance of Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew is that linguistically these words are the earliest attestation of the

Tamil language 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, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

. These words were incorporated into the writing of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

starting before 500

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

. 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.

Origins

The incorporation of Tamil loanwords into the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

originally came about through the interactions of

West Asian Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes An ...

and

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

n merchants. The mainstream view is that the beginnings of trade between the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

region and South India can be traced back to 500 BCE when the word (), which was derived from the

Proto-South Dravidian Proto-South Dravidian is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the south Dravidian languages. Its descendants include Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu, Badaga, Kodava, Irula, Kota and Toda. It has been estimated that Proto ...

''*cinki-ver'' () (for

Ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

), first appeared in the

Greek language Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...

. This indicates South India possibly having been involved in trade with the Mediterranean

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

centuries earlier.Southworth, F.''Linguistic Archeology of South Asia'', p. 251 There is some evidence that trade between India and the peoples inhabiting the Mediterranean regions may have been well established by 1500 BCE. Due to its native speakers' location—in the critical path of trade between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India—ancient

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

lexicon contains both cultural words that are common to many languages in the general area and

loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

from various other languages including Ancient Greek.Khan, G.''Encyclopedia of Hebrew Languages and Linguistics Volume 1 A-F '', p. 640-642 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 The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, including from the Tamil language.Caldwell, R. ''A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages'' p. 474 Some of the loan words were borrowed directly from Tamil or

Old Tamil 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 Pre Tamil. After the Old Tamil period, Tamil becomes Middle Tamil. The earliest records i ...

into

Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...

. Others were borrowed via the

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, and South Arabian languages.Rabin, C. ''Proceedings of the Second International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies'', p. 438 The period of these lexiconic borrowings range from 1000 BCE to 500 BCE.Rabin, C. ''The Song of Songs and Tamil Poetry'' p.208-209 The dating of this borrowing depends on the acceptable ranges of dates for the compilation and redaction of the

Books of Kings The Book of Kings (, '' Sēfer Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of Israel also including the books ...

Linguistic influences

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.Rabin, C. ''The Song of Songs and Tamil Poetry'' p. 205-219Sugirtharajah R. ''Bible and Asia'' p.32-33 According to linguists such as

Chaim Rabin Chaim Menachem Rabin ( he, חיים מנחם רבין; 1915–1996) was a German, then British, and finally Israeli professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages. Chaim Rabin was born in Giessen, Germany, 22 November 1915, the son of Israel and Marte ...

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.Parthsarathy, R.''The cilappatikāram of Iḷaṅko Aṭikaḷ : an epic of South India'', p. 282-283 Linguistically, the importance of Tamil loanwords in Hebrew is that it is the earliest attestation of Tamil language Price, E. ''A history of Kannada literature'', p. 1 and an early attestation in the

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant ...

. This was before Tamil (using the

Tamil Brahmi Tamil-Brahmi, also known as Tamizhi 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.Richard Salomon (1998) ''Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscription ...

script and dated variously from 600 BCE to 200 BCE), was widely written down. 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. There is also a class of words that were borrowed ultimately from

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...

spoken in

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

Origins

Linguistic influences

Post-Biblical Hebrew

See also

Notes

References

Cited literature

Further reading