Category: Uncategorized

Some Things I Have Picked Up Over Time About Letters

So someone asked me what the difference is between ல், ள், and ழ்(the three Ls). The difference is just the tongues placement when pronouncing the letter. This is also the same issue with ந், ண், and ன்(the three Ns). When speaking pronunciation difference doesn’t matter, but when it comes to spelling, it does. I will go into detail about their pronunciation in a later post.

Small Tip

  • if the word sounds like it ends with an L, then some variation of ள் often is found near the end of the word
  • if the word starts with an N sound, then some variation of ந் it is usually found as the first letter of the word
  • the difference between a consonant that has been combined with ஐ and ன
    • the consonant-vowel has a round end ை followed by the consonant
    • ன has sharp lines at the end(Kind of like a T)

Tamil Consonant-Vowels

In the Tamil Alphabet, there is a total of 216 consonant-vowel letters. These consonant-vowels are created by combining each of the consonants with a vowel. உயிர்மெய் அழத்துக்கள் is the Tamil way of writing consonant-vowel letters.

Some Key Pointer

  • all consonants, when combined with with a vowel, lose the dot placed at the top
  • the consonant-vowels that are combined அ, ஆ, இ, ஈ, எ, ஏ, ஐ, ஒ, ஓ, and ஔ share the same characteristics
    • Eg. For all consonants combined with the vowel, ஐ, the consonant-vowel letter begins with a ை(ignore the dotted circle, it’s where the consonant is supposed to go).
    • I did not mention உ and ஊ because not all the consonant share the same characteristics when combined with these two vowels.

Here is an example of what one consonant would look like when combined with each vowel:

க்+அ=க​
க்+ஆ=கா
க்+இ=கி
க்+ஈகீ
க்+எ=கெ
க்+ஏ=கே
க்+ஐ=கை
க்+ஒ=கொ
க்+ஓ=கோ
க்+ஔ=கௌ

Tamil Alphabet Chart

Tamil Consonants

There are eighteen consonants in the Tamil Alphabet. These letters are broken up into three categories. I do not know these letters are broken up into categories or what these categories are called. On a later date, I will go looking through my old notes to find out what the categories are, what letter goes in which category.

மெய் அழத்துக்கள் is the Tamil way of writing consonants. It is also refereed to as body letters.

மெய் is pronounced mey

எழுத்துக்கள் is pronounced eluthukal

These are what the eighteen consonants look like and how to pronounce the sound they make:

Letter How to Pronunciation the Sound

  1. க் ek
  2. ங் eng
  3. ச் ec
  4. ஞ் eniya
  5. ட் ed
  6. ண் en
  7. த் eth
  8. ந் en
  9. ப் ep
  10. ம் em
  11. ய் ey
  12. ர் er
  13. ல் el
  14. வ் ev
  15. ழ் el
  16. ள் el
  17. ற் er
  18. ன் en

The following like will lead you to a website.This website has useful resources to help you with the sound pronunciation for each consonant:
http://www.southasia.sas.upenn.edu/tamil/consonants.html

Tamil Vowels

As I stated in my previous blog post the Tamil Language has 12 vowels. உயிர் எழுத்துசக்கள் is the Tamil way of writing the word vowels. The Tamil Word உயிர் translates into English as the word life and எழுத்துக்கள் translates into English as the word letters.

உயிர் is pronounced uyir

எழுத்துக்கள் is pronounced eluthukal

Another thing to note about Tamil Vowels is that they are broken into two categories. The two categories write in Tamil as குறிள் and தெடில். I don’t know the meaning to those words but I do understand what these categories represent. குறிள் represents the vowels with the shorter sounds while தெடில் represents the vowels with longer sounds. This will make sense if you look at the pronunciation I place beside each vowel bellow.

Bellow are the twelve Tamil Vowels: Here are the twelve Tamil Vowels and their sound is pronunciation(Just like how in the English Alphabet each letter has a name and a sound. A sounds like ah, etc ).

Letter How to Pronunciation the Sound

  1. அ A
  2. ஆ AA
  3. இ I
  4. ஈ II
  5. உ U
  6. ஊ UU
  7. எ E
  8. ஏ EE
  9. ஐ AI/AY
  10. ஒ O
  11. ஓ OO
  12. ஔ AU/OW

The following like will lead you to a website. This website has buttons that pronounce the letters sound to you:
http://www.southasia.sas.upenn.edu/tamil/tamilsound.html

I will not go into how to say the name of the Tamil Letter. Maybe some other day?

A Little Bit About the Creation of This Blog

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBD_enCA803CA803&biw=1366&bih=625&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=F6-8XO6JM9KotQXU_rSQAQ&q=tamil+language&oq=tamil+&gs_l=img.1.0.0i67j0j0i67l5j0j0i67j0.29938.29938..34087...0.0..0.128.128.0j1......1....1..gws-wiz-img.Gzvmtlzkc78&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=MYCg0QMqD9OcqM:

I was born and raised in Canada. My parents are both from Sri Lanka, and they both speak Tamil.

I am creating this blog for a school project. My inspiration for making a Tamil learning blog is because I have a friend who has a Tamil background but knows nothing about it. That and because Tamil Culture is an underrepresented minority group. Through this blog, I hope to educate some people on a culture that they most likely never knew existed until now. I also made this blog to help people with a Tamil background but don’t have the resources necessary to learn about their culture.

Note: I would like to apologize in advance for any grammar and/or spelling mistakes I make in Tamil. Or any translation errors I make.

Tamil Alphabet

The Tamil Language has a total of 247 letters in its alphabet. Twelve of the Tamil Letters in the alphabet are vowels, eighteen of these letters are consonants, 216 of these letters are consonant-vowels, and the last letter, ஃ, has its own category. I don’t know the exact reason why ஃ has its own category or what the name of this letter translates to. I also do not know why in Tamil they have continent-vowel letters.

Another thing to note is that the Tamil Alphabet does not have some of some letters that the English Alphabet does. They do not have Bs, Fs, Gs, Hs, Js, Qs, Ss, Ws, Xs, and Zs. You would think with 247 letters the Tamil Alphabet would cover all the letters in the English Alphabet. Instead, the Tamil Alphabet barrows these letters from the Sanskrit Alphabet.

Tamil Alphabet