The Tamil alphabet

30 letters, each with its name and roughly the sound it makes. The sounds are English approximations — enough to sound a word out, not enough to pass for a local.

த Tamil · An abugida: each consonant carries a vowel already, and other vowels are marks on it.

The smallest consonant set of the Indian scripts here — eighteen, where Devanagari has thirty-three — because Tamil does not write the puffed and voiced pairs separately; whether ப is p or b depends on where it sits in the word. It has been written continuously for more than two thousand years.

Vowels

• அ a u in but
• ஆ aa a in father
• இ i i in bit
• ஈ ii ee in see
• உ u u in put
• ஊ uu oo in boot
• எ e e in bet
• ஏ ee e in they
• ஐ ai i in like
• ஒ o o in got
• ஓ oo o in go
• ஔ au ow in cow

Consonants

• க ka k or g
• ங nga ng
• ச cha ch or s
• ஞ nya ny in canyon
• ட ta t, tongue curled back
• ண na n, tongue curled back
• த tha t on the teeth
• ந na n on the teeth
• ப pa p or b
• ம ma m
• ய ya y
• ர ra r
• ல la l
• வ va v
• ழ zha r and l at once, unique to Tamil
• ள la l, tongue curled back
• ற ra hard r
• ன na n

Now read something in it

The letters are the smaller half. The 2,201 commonest Tamil words are where they start meaning something.

Reading it is one thing.

Being understood when you say it is another. That takes a person.

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