Tamil in Sri Lanka Shares Similarities with the Korean Language

Korean letters are known as Hangeul and were introduced by King Sejong the Great

While we look back on Hangul day and are thankful for King Sejong the Great for introducing one of the simplest languages in the world, did you know that there is in fact a similar language to Korean? It shares common phrases as Korean and is one of the easiest to confuse a speaker of both languages. And that language is Tamil.

Tamil is originally from India. It is one of the many languages spoken in the country and commonly used in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. With Sri Lanka being located close to this area and separated by a narrow land stretch called the Palk Strait, Tamil has become one of the 3 major languages spoken. In fact, after Sinhala, it is Tamil that is commonly used in Sri Lanka followed by English.

It is used more often by the Tamils themselves and the Muslims in the country. But there are differences in certain phrases depending on the race of the person and the areas they are from. Just like Korean varies based on region and has its own satoori, Tamil used by Tamils and Muslims are slightly different.

But when comparing overall similarities between the Tamil language and Korean, some claim there are over 500 common words that the two languages share. Here are a few similar words between Tamil and Korean.

Tamil is a part of the Dravidian language family and is spoken by over 215 million people. While Korean has a Chinese origin and over 75 million people speak the language. But the similarities between the two languages have been identified since the first French missionaries landed in Korea.

The ancient Karak Kingdom of King Suro was named after the proto-Dravidian word meaning fish. And historical records show that the king was married to an Indian princess named Sri Rathna. The similarities between the languages have been speculated to stem from this marriage as well. However, though the reason for the similarities between the two languages cannot be traced specifically, it is still great to know that you can easily master two languages together at once!