Udhayanidhi Stalin releases fourth volume of etymological dictionary of Tamil, Indo-European languages

Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Saturday (February 21, 2026) released the fourth volume of the comparative etymological dictionary of Tamil and Indo-European languages and inaugurated an international seminar on the same topic at Victoria Public Hall in Chennai.

The initiative is part of the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation’s collaboration with Oxford University Press to bring out a 12-volume comparative etymological dictionary of Tamil and Indo-European languages. The State government had sanctioned ₹8 crore for the project, in which 20 experts, headed by Professor G. Arasenthiran, have been working since 2022.

Etymologist Walter William Skeat had identified that Indo-European languages originated from 461 root words. Of these, the project team considers that 300 roots have connections with Tamil. To publish these research findings, the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation signed an MoU with Oxford University Press in January 2025.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin released the general introduction volume and the first volume last year. He also released the second and third volumes during the Chennai International Book Fair this year. The fourth volume traces the historical development of words in Western Indo-European languages such as Latin, Greek, German, French, and English and in Eastern Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit, Pali, and Sinhala deriving them from 19 Tamil root words.

Following the book release, seminars were held with the participation of international linguists. Minister for Tamil Development M.P. Saminathan, Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments P.K. Sekarbabu, and Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi were among those present. Claus Peter Zoller, Professor of South Asian Studies, University of Oslo, Norway, also spoke.