Chennai, February 21 Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin released the fourth volume of the 'Tamil-Indo-European Root Words Comparative Dictionary' and inaugurated an international conference on the subject on Saturday.
The dictionary project, a collaborative effort between the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation and Oxford University Press, aims to explore the deep linguistic connections between Tamil and Indo-European languages. The fourth volume was received by Professor Klaus Peter Sauer from Norway on the occasion of International Mother Language Day.
The project was initially announced in the 2022-23 State Budget with an allocation of Rs 8 crore. Under the supervision of the Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation, a team of 20 scholars led by Editor-in-Chief K Arasendran has been working on this four-year initiative since July 2022.
The research is based on the findings of English etymologist Walter Skeat, who identified 461 root words as the basis of Indo-European languages. The project committee believes that 300 of these root words have a direct connection with Tamil.
According to the official release, the fourth volume traces how 19 Tamil root words served as the foundation for words in Western Indo-European languages – including Latin, Greek, German, French, and English – as well as Eastern Indo-European languages like Sanskrit, Pali, and Sinhala, based on established hypotheses.
The state government had previously signed an agreement with Oxford University Press on January 13, 2025, to publish the research findings in 12 volumes. Chief Minister M K Stalin had released the general introduction and the first volume in March 2025, followed by the second and third volumes during the Chennai International Book Fair in January 2026.
The event was attended by several state ministers, including M P Saminathan (Tamil Development), P K Sekarbabu (Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments), and Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi (School Education), alongside international scholars and senior government officials.