This article is about the

number words In linguistics, a numeral (or number word) in the broadest sense is a word or phrase that describes a numerical quantity. Some theories of grammar use the word "numeral" to refer to cardinal numbers that act as a determiner that specify the quant ...

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 o ...

, as well as the dedicated symbols for them used in the

Tamil script The Tamil script ( , ) is an abugida script that is used by Tamils and Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere to write the Tamil language. Certain minority languages such as Saurashtra, Badaga, ...

Basic numbering

Zero

Old Tamil possesses a special numerical character for zero ''(see Old Tamil numerals below)'' and it is read as (literally, no/nothing). But yet Modern Tamil renounces the use of its native character and uses the Indian symbol '0' for Shunya meaning nothingness in Indic thought. Modern Tamil words for zero include () or ().

first ten numbers ()

Transcribing other numbers

Reproductive and attributive prefixes

Tamil has a numeric prefix for each number from 1 to 9, which can be added to the words for the powers of ten (ten, hundred, thousand, etc.) to form multiples of them. For instance, the word for fifty, () is a combination of (, the prefix for five) and (, which is ten). The prefix for nine changes with respect to the succeeding base 10. + the unvoiced consonant of the succeeding base 10 forms the prefix for nine. For instance, 90 is + ( being the unvoiced version of ), hence, ). These are typically void in the Tamil language except for some Hindu references; for example, (the eight Lakshmis). Even in religious contexts, the Tamil language is usually more preferred for its more poetic nature and relatively low incidence of consonant clusters.

Specific characters

Unlike other Indian writing systems, Tamil has distinct digits for 10, 100, and 1000. It also has distinct characters for other number-based aspects of day-to-day life.

Powers of ten ()

There are two numeral systems that can be used in the

: the Tamil system which is as follows The following are the traditional numbers of the

Ancient Tamil Country Tamiḻakam ( Tamil: தமிழகம்; Malayalam: തമിഴകം), refers to the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil ...

, .

Original Tamil system

Current Tamil system

Partitive numerals ()

Fractions ()

Proposals to encode Tamil

fractions A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...

and symbols to

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

were submitted.Government of Tamil Nadu. (2017). ''Finalized proposal to encode Tamil fractions and symbols''. Retrieved 12 March 2019 from http://unicode.org/wg2/docs/n4822-tamil-frac.pdf As of version 12.0, Tamil characters used for fractional values in traditional accounting practices were added to the Unicode Standard.

=Transcribing fractions ()

= You can transcribe any fraction, by affixing - (-il) after the

denominator A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...

followed by the

numerator A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...

. For instance, 1/41 can be said as (). The suffixing of the - () requires you to change the last consonant of the number to its () form. For example, + ( + ) becomes (); note the () has been omitted. Common fractions () have names already allocated to them, hence, these names are often used rather than the above method. Other fractions include: Aṇu was considered as the lowest fraction by ancient Tamils as size of smallest physical object (similar to an atom). Later, this term went to Sanskrit to refer directly to atoms.

Decimals ()

Decimal point is called () in

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, na ...

. For example, 1.1 would be read as ().in Sri Lankan Tamil Thasam தசம்

Percentage ()

Percentage is known as () in

or (). These words are simply added after a number to form percentages. For instance, four percent is () or (). Percentage symbol (%) is also recognised and used.

Ordinal numbers ()

Ordinal numbers are formed by adding the suffix - () after the number, except for 'First'.

Collective numerals ()

* As always, when blending two words into one, an unvoiced form of the consonant as the one that the second starts with, is placed in between to blend.

Traditional Tamil counting song

This song is a list of each number with a concept its primarily associated with.

Influence

As the ancient classical language of 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 im ...

numerals influenced and shaped the numerals of the others in the family. The following table compares the main Dravidian languages. Also,

through the

Pallava script The Pallava script or Pallava Grantha, is a Brahmic script, named after the Pallava dynasty of South India, attested since the 4th century AD. As epigrapher Arlo Griffiths makes clear, however, the term is misleading as not all of the relevant s ...

which itself through the

Kawi script The Kawi or or Old Javanese script is a Brahmic script found primarily in Java and used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia between the 8th century and the 16th century.Aditya Bayu Perdana and Ilham Nurwansah 2020Proposal to encode Kawi/ ...

Khmer script Khmer script ( km, អក្សរខ្មែរ, )Huffman, Franklin. 1970. ''Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader''. Yale University Press. . is an abugida (alphasyllabary) script used to write the Khmer language, the official la ...

and other South-east Asian scripts has shaped the numeral

grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called '' graphemi ...

of most South-east Asian languages.

History

Before the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

unveiled as the new rupee symbol, people in Tamil Nadu used the Tamil letter as the symbol. This symbol continues to be used occasionally as rupee symbol by Indian Tamils. It is also used by Tamils in Sri Lanka is also known as the (), a symbol that most

Hindus will start off any auspicious document with. It is written to invoke the god , known otherwise as

Ganesha Ganesha ( sa, गणेश, ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in Ganapatya sect. His image is found throughout India. Hindu ...

, who is the remover of obstacles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Numerals Tamil culture Tamil language

Tamil numerals This article is about the number words of the Tamil language, as well as the dedicated symbols for them used in the Tamil script. Basic numbering Zero Old Tamil possesses a special numerical character for zero ''(see Old Tamil numerals ...