Langenesis

Dravidian family

Old Tamil

300 BCE – 700 CE Classical

Old Tamil (300 BCE – 700 CE) is a classical Dravidian language. It has 2 descendant languages and stages on the map. Lineage: Proto-Dravidian → Proto-South Dravidian → Old Tamil.

See Old Tamil on the interactive map
ISO 639-3
oty

Earliest attested Dravidian language. The Sangam literature corpus (~300 BCE – 300 CE) provides the largest body of evidence. Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions go back to ~300 BCE.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Dravidianc. 4,000 BCE – 2,500 BCE
  2. Proto-South Dravidianc. 1,100 BCE – 300 BCE
  3. Old Tamil300 BCE – 700 CE

Descendants 2

Sister languages 2

Also descended from Proto-South Dravidian.

Sources