Prof. Keith Oberman studying South Asian ethnic groups think that tamils in Sri Lanka came probably 300 years ago.
He reasoned based on the language affinity of three groups.
Jaffna tamils
Tamilnadu tamils
Upcountry tamils
When two groups separate, changes known as language mutations occur. Prof. Keith Oberman do not think such mutations occured between Tamilnadu tamil, upcountry tamil and Jaffna tamil.
He further says that Tamils in central hills and tamils in Jaffna speak essentially the same language.
He was unable to find any mutations (changes) between
Tamilnadu tamil,
Jaffna tamil and
tamils in central hills.(so called Indian tamils in Sri Lanka).
Three groups essentially speak the same exact language indicating they separate not more than 200 to 400 years ago.
Slavik people (Russians, Polish and Croatians) who separated 1,000 years ago have developed distinctly different languages.
There are Dutch records indicating bringing in many tamils from Tamilnadu to Jaffna.
As per Prof. Oberman, Tamils came to Sri lanka from Tamilnadu very recently, probably not more than 300 years ago.
