It doesn’t take long for the hardcore K-drama fan/certified Koreaboo (that would be people obsessed with Korean culture) from India to sit up and ta

Korea’s intriguing Tamil connect

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2025-01-04 00:00:05

It doesn’t take long for the hardcore K-drama fan/certified Koreaboo (that would be people obsessed with Korean culture) from India to sit up and take notice of several familiar sounding words that fall from the lips of a Kim, Park, Choi or Song on-screen.

Out in South Korea (and the North too, for all we know) fathers are referred to as ‘appa’. Mothers are ‘omma’. Elder sisters are ‘eonni’, ‘anni’ in Tamil. ‘Pul’ is grass in both Tamil and Korean; ‘kundi’ is butt in Tamil, ‘gungdi’ is just that in Korean. ‘Nal’ is day in Tamil and Korean; ‘nan’ is me in both languages; come in is ‘ulle vaa’ in Tamil, ‘iliwa’ in Korean.

Apparently there exist more than 500 words in Tamil and Korean, words that not only sound similar but hold similar meanings, too. Comparative linguist Kang Gil-un has identified 1,300 Dravidian Tamil cognates in Korean and suggests that Korean is probably related to the Nivkh language spoken by the Nivkh people in Outer Manchuria, and influenced by Tamil.

Those who cotton onto the Tamil connect are at first puzzled, then delighted, then avidly curious. And the last category invariably starts to delve into the whys and wherefores of this cultural and linguistic similarity between a state in the south of India and a country some 5,000 km away.