Tamil is an internationally-spoken language, with 75 million total speakers worldwide, making it the twenty-first most spoken language in the world. The language is also used ubiquitously in multiple countries, as an official language in India, Sri Lanka, and Singapore, as well as a recognized minority language in Malaysia, Mauritius, and South Africa. It is also spoken by notable minority populations in Canada, Fiji, Germany, Philippines, the United States, the Netherlands, Mauritius, Indonesia, and Réunion. The language, considered the oldest living language in the world, has been declared as a classical language by UNESCO, one of only seven languages to bear this title. In late 2017, the United States Census Bureau began tracking Tamil speakers. The University of Chicago, University of California at Berkeley, and University of Texas at Austin have long had chairs or programs in Tamil studies, while groups are working to endow another chair at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. Harvard University has also reviewed and accepted a proposal to endow an eternal professorship for the Tamil language at the university.

In spite of these accolades, Tamil is far behind when it comes to technology, as the language sees little to no widespread representation in software. This bars rural communities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and monolingual Tamil refugees affected deeply by the Eelam Wars from partaking in the technological revolution. It also contributes indirectly to language loss among Tamil immigrant communities. Apple’s popular mobile operating system, iOS, extends language support to languages such as Norweigan, Catalan, Slovak, Italian, and Croatian, which, while undeniably beautiful languages with unique linguistic features, statistically benefit far fewer users than a Tamil-language operating system would, taking into account the number of global Tamil speakers and their geographic spread. While iOS’ option for an Alternative Calendar option exists for the Chinese, Hebrew, and Islamic calendars, the sidereal Tamil calendar, often called the Thiruvalluvar calendar, is unsupported. To add, Apple’s virtual assistant Siri is currently unavailable in the language. Not to mention, the Maps application does not support navigation or directions in Tamil. It is worth mentioning that all these shortcomings are applicable to Apple’s desktop operating system, MacOS, as well as tvOS and watchOS.

As per the Apple website, Tamil is only available as a keyboard on iOS. It does not have QuickType keyboard support, predictive input, dictation support, spell check or dictionary support available.

As a native Tamil speaker and a linguist, I, along with the global Tamil diaspora of over 75 million speakers, understand how crucial technological advancements are to the preservation of language and culture, and call attention to this lack of support. Technological support is key to conserving the rich cultural and linguistic history of the Tamil community and passing it on to future generations. We urge the prominent technology conglomerate Apple, Inc. to extend support of their operating systems and other services to the Tamil language.