The Odd Linguistic Similarities Between Korean And Tamil

An image showing some Korean and Tamil script.

Tamil and Korean come from completely different language families, with Tamil being Dravidian and Korean being Koreanic. Even geographically, Tamil and Korean are spoken in distinct regions. While Tamil is spoken primarily in South India, particularly Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka, Korean is mainly spoken in North and South Korea.

However, despite these languages having their own origins, they share many peculiar similarities, especially in terms of sentence structure, grammar, and basic vocabulary.

Agglutinative Structure

The first striking similarity between the two languages is the fact that they both use something called agglutinative structure. This basically means that words are formed by stringing together morphemes, typically suffixes, each carrying a specific grammatical meaning, without altering the root word or fusing multiple meanings into a single suffix.

Simply put, while it may take multiple words to make a sentence in English, the same sentence can be expressed in just a single word in both Korean and Tamil by adding these small morphemes. In Korean, for example, the verb “to go” (가다, gada) can be modified to 갔어요 (gasseoyo) by adding -았 (at) for past tense and -어요 (eoyo) for politeness, clearly expressing “I went” politely. Similarly, in Tamil, the verb “to go” (போ, po) becomes போனேன் (pōnēn) with -ன (n) indicating past tense and -ஏன் (ēn) marking the first person, meaning “I went.” Nouns also follow this pattern because in Korean, “book” (책, chaek) becomes 책들과 (chaekdeulgwa) by adding -들 (deul) for plural and -과 (gwa) for “with,” while in Tamil, “book” (புத்தகம், puttakam) becomes புத்தகங்களோடு (puttakangaḷōḍu) with -கள் (kaḷ) for plural and -ஓடு (ōḍu) for “with.”

As we can see, a lot more meaning can be packed into a single word in Korean and Tamil by simply adding, essentially, a bunch of small extensions to the root word. So, as mentioned before, even though it takes two words in English to say “I went,” the sentence can be expressed as just a single word in Tamil and Korean.

Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) Order In Sentences

Another similarity between Korean and Tamil is that they both use Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) instead of Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) like in English. For instance, in English, it would be “I read book,” but in Korean and Tamil, it would be “I book read.”

In Korean, “I book read” becomes 저는 책을 읽어요 (jeoneun chaekeul ilgeoyo), where 저는 (jeoneun) is “I” (subject), 책을 (chaekeul) is “book” (object), and 읽어요 (ilgeoyo) is “read” (verb). Similarly, in Tamil, “I book read” is நான் புத்தகம் படித்தேன் (nān puttakam patitthēn), with நான் (nān) as “I,” புத்தகம் (puttakam) as “book,” and படித்தேன் (patitthēn) as “read.” This SOV order makes the sentences we see in both languages look structurally similar, since it’s almost like the verb wraps up the action after the subject and object have been introduced.

Basic Vocabulary

Probably the most surprising similarity between Korean and Tamil is the amount of basic vocabulary they share, especially when it comes to terms that are used in the family, like mother and father. Here’s a list of some of these words, in the order of “English Term: Tamil Word (pronunciation), Korean Word (pronunciation)”:

1. Mother: அம்மா (amma), 엄마 (eomma)

2. Father: அப்பா (appā), 아빠 (appa)

3. Sister-in-law: அண்ணி (aṇṇi), 언니 (eonni)

4. Grass: புல் (pul), 풀 (pul)

5. Come: வா (vā), 와 (wa)

6. I: நான் (nān), 나 (na)

7. You: நீ (nī), 너 (neo)

8. Day: நாள் (nāḷ), 날 (nal)

Where Do These Similarities Come From?

There are quite a few linguistic similarities between the languages of Tamil and Korean, like agglutinative grammar, SOV sentence structure, and shared vocabulary. Thus, many believe that this suggests a historical link between the two languages. However, more likely than not, these similarities are coincidental because these features can emerge independently in unrelated languages due to universal linguistic patterns or simply chance. For example, in Spanish and even English, people use “mama” and “papa” to refer to their mother and father, which sound similar to Korean and Tamil. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that these four languages share a past link. In reality, it’s just a fun coincidence.

Many people bring up the story of Princess Sembavalam, a 16-year-old from Tamil Nadu’s Ayuta Kingdom who, per the Samguk Yusa, sailed to Korea in 48 CE to marry King Kim Suro of Gaya. This adds to the speculation of cultural exchange. She brought Tamil traditions, like the Pandyan twin-fish emblem, and her descendants, including millions from the Gimhae Kim, Heo, and Lee clans, revere her as a deity. However, there is no direct evidence that ties her journey to the linguistic similarities we see in Korean and Tamil. So, as cool as a historical link would be, these similarities are probably just a result of chance.