Explanation: Tamil is one of the oldest living languages in the world, with a rich and continuous literary tradition that dates back over 2000 years. It is a Dravidian language, which is a family of languages spoken primarily in southern India and parts of Sri Lanka. The Dravidian language family is distinct from the Indo-Aryan languages, which include languages like Hindi and Sanskrit.
The earliest Tamil inscriptions date back to the 2nd century BCE, and the language has a continuous literary tradition since the 3rd century BCE. This makes Tamil one of the oldest languages with a literary tradition in the world. The Tamil script, known as the Tamil Brahmi script, is one of the earliest known writing systems in South Asia.
Tamil is spoken by approximately 77 million people worldwide, primarily in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and has been declared a classical language by the Indian government due to its long and rich literary tradition.
In contrast, Hindi, which is an Indo-Aryan language, evolved from Sanskrit and other Prakrit languages. The earliest written records of Hindi date back to the 10th century CE, making it much younger than Tamil. Malayalam, another Dravidian language, evolved from Tamil around the 9th century CE, making it significantly younger than Tamil. Arabic, while having a rich history, has its earliest written records dating back to the 6th century CE, which is still later than the earliest Tamil inscriptions.
Therefore, among the given options, Tamil is the oldest language, with a continuous literary tradition dating back over 2000 years. This makes it a significant language in the study of linguistics and the history of Indian languages.