The Tamil languages are the group of

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 ...

most closely related to

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

. In addition to Tamil itself, they are: * Irula, Betta Kurumba, Yerukala, Eravallan,

Kanikkaran Kanikkaran are a tribal community found in the southern parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu states in India. According to 2011 census there are 24,000 Kanikkars,

Muthuvan The 'Muthuvans' or 'Mudugars' are tribe of cultivators in hills of Coimbatore and Madurai. They are also found in Adimali and Devikulam forest regions of Idukki district, Kerala. The Muthuvan''’ people were loyal subjects of the dynasty of Ma ...

, Sholaga, Kaikadi, Sankethi, Eezhavam, Jaffnese

Arwi Arwi or ArabuTamil (Arabic: , ; ta, அரபுத்தமிழ் ) is an Arabic influenced dialect of the Tamil language, Tamil language written with an Arabic Extended-A, extension of the Arabic alphabet, with extensive Lexicon, lexical a ...

is not a separate language but a register of Tamil used by Muslims. It is written in the Arabic alphabet and contains many loans from Arabic. Kakkala may be either a Tamil language or one of the

Malayalam languages The Malayalam languages are the group of Dravidian languages most closely related to Malayalam. In addition to Malayalam itself, they are: *Paniya, Ravula, Beary, Aranadan, Judeo-Malayalam, Arabi Malayalam, Suriyani Malayalam, Kadar, Malapanda ...

Internal classification

Glottolog classifies the Malayalam languages as follows:

References

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