Tamil Alphabet Chart - Learning Tamil Through English/hindi Page 11
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38BEFORE YOU BEGIN, PLEASE KNOW THIS (1 of 8)
1. The Tamil alphabet is derived from the ancient Indian inscriptional Brahmi script and was
known as Brahmi-Tamil script.
,
,
,
2. Like Sanskrit (unlike Hindi and English), the Tamil vowel letter shapes (
அ
ஆ
இ
) can come only at the beginning of a word. They never come in the middle or at
ஈ...ஔ
the end of a word. In the middle or end they are used only in their sign (maa%aa) forms attached
to the right, left, up or below a consonant.
3. In Tamil there are 12 vowels and 18 Consonants. Like Sanskrit or Hindi (unlike English), in
Tamil there are no Capital letters.
4. Tamil short vowels are pronounced more abruptly than the corresponding Hindi or English
sounds.
5. When there are short and long vowels within a word, the long ones are pronounced more
distinctly.
6. While learning the 18 consonants by heart, the first 10 consonants are repeated in five pairs
of two consonants each, then the rest eight consonants are said singly or in pairs of two.
7. The long Tamil vowels like (]â , Aaâ ) have a drawing pronunciation (like Punjabi ], }| in Aae ] !
Baa}| ! ). They can not be exactly rendered in Hindi or English.
8. Please remember that English equivalent pronunciations of Tamil characters are rarely exact.
If you can read Sanskrit/Hindi, you can write, read and express them quite exactly.
9. Each letter of the alphabet can be named by adding (suffixing)
கர
krma` karam to short
கார
karma` kaaram to long letters and prefixing
இ
} i to the mute Tamil letters.
letters,
அ
A a = Akr a-kar;
ஆ
Aa aa = Aakar,
க
k‘ k = }k‘ ik etc.
e.g.
10. Tamil is spoken by over 80 million people in the world. Tamil is spoken by people in
almost every country in the world.
NOW YOU ARE READY TO LEARN : READING AND WRITING THE TAMIL SCRIPT.
RangaRakes
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