Language
See also: ManipravalamTamil is the mother tongue of most Iyers residing in India and elsewhere. However, Iyers speak a distinct dialect of Tamil unique to their community. This dialect of Tamil is known as Brāhmik or Brahmin Tamil. Brahmin Tamil is highly Sanskritized and has often invited ridicule from Tamil nationalists due to its extensive usage of the Sanskrit vocabulary. While Brahmin Tamil used to be the lingua franca for inter-caste communication between different Tamil communities during pre-independence times, it has been gradually discarded by Brahmin themselves in favour of regional dialects. The Palakkad Iyers have a unique sub-dialect of their own. Palakkad Tamil is characterized by the presence of a large number of words of Malayali origin. The Sankethi Iyers speak Sankethi which borrows words from Kannada,Tamil and Sanskrit.
Iyengars speak a separate dialect of Tamil called Iyengar Tamil. Some regard the Iyengar speech not as a dialect at all, but only as a sub-dialect of Brahmin Tamil.
Further information: Brahmin TamilRead more about this topic: Iyer
Famous quotes containing the word language:
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