<h2>Tamil interpreters and translators</h2>
            CIT offers Tamil interpreters and translators with legal, medical and specialty experience, including criminal and civil matters, employee meetings, engineering, patent cases, labor disputes, immigration and more.

            Although based in Los Angeles, CIT offers comprehensive Tamil language services including interpretation, translation and transcription, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, worldwide. Our interpreters and translators are native speakers who have been screened, certified, have provided credentials, field tested, and kept up to date with developments in both English and the Tamil language through means such as lectures, conferences, and travel. CIT’s Tamil language interpreters and translators possess in depth knowledge of the Tamil language, as well as of the culture and history of the Tamil people, allowing them to provide informed and complete interpretation and translation.
            <h2>The Tamil Language</h2>
            The Tamil language is a Dravidian language spoken by over 67 million people worldwide. Tamil is spoken in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the UK, the US, Canada, South Africa, Singapore, France, Mauritius and other countries. About 60 million of the worldwide Tamil speakers live in India. Tamil is spoken mainly in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry (although it is used in other states as well). The Tamil language is used in education in both Malaysia and Singapore.

            The Tamil language was first said to be written in 500 BC. There are even debates that it is the oldest language! In 300 BC, literature in the Tamil language began to appear. Up until the 8<sup>th</sup> century AD, Tamil was known as Old Tamil. Between the 8<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup> centuries AD, the Tamil used is referred to as Middle Tamil whereas the Tamil used from then until now is called Modern Tamil.

            Originally, Tamil was written in Brahmi script. In the 400s AD, Tamil Brahmi script became more rounded and turned into the Vatteluttu (‘round’) script. The Chola-Pallava script, which was another Tamil script developed during the Pallava dynasty, was created in the 6<sup>th</sup> century. From this script, the modern Tamil script came to be. In the 1800s, the script used to write Tamil was simplified in order to make typing easier. There is also an Arabic script of the Tamil language, known as Arwi and is used by Tamil speaking Muslims.

            In 2004, Tamil officially became a classical Indian language. This means that its origins were verified as ancient, it had independent traditions and there is a considerable amount of Tamil literature. The spoken Tamil language has also changed. These changes include the phonological changes in structures of words. The major differences are between Tamil spoken in Indian and Tamil spoken in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Within the Tamil language, there are also differences, almost like dialects, between northern, western and southern Tamil speakers. The speech may vary between social class.

            Just like other Dravidian language, Tamil has retroflex consonants. The Tamil language is a verb-final language. Tamil has a syllabic alphabet. It is written from left to right, horizontally. If a verb is written at the beginning of a syllable, it is going to be written as an independent letter. The Tamil alphabet had originally been written on palm leaves, thus having letters with many curves in order to avoid tearing the leaves.