Tamil Script Learners Manual

In addition to being an official language of India, Tamil is spoken in other parts of the world. It is spoken in Sri Lanka and the East Asian states of Singapore and Malaysia. Furthermore, a sizable population speaks Tamil in the Fiji Islands, Mauritius, Trinidad, Madagascar and South Africa.

There are thirty characters in the Tamil ethnographic system. There are twelve vowels and eighteen consonants. The Tamil alphabet is syllabic, in that each letter denotes a syllable. A syllable may be formed by a vowel or by a consonant following a vowel. Separate letters only in the initial word position denotes the vowel sounds. Furthermore, when a vowel occurs after a consonant in the middle or at the end of a word, the vowel and consonant are expressed as one letter. For example, in the case of short vowel that follows a consonant, the symbol for a is not expressed in writing because all consonants, unless designated, have an inherent a. The remaining eleven vowels will as written characters when following a consonant. A consonant without a short vowel a is denoted by a corresponding letter with a dot above. The three dotted sign (Œ) is called aaydam in Tamil and denotes that velar sound /x/ precedes a consonant. This sign is not generally used in the modern Tamil. In addition to the traditional alphabet, there are five sounds borrowed from other languages. These sounds, which have a representation in the Tamil script, are known as Grantha letters. These Grantha letters are used in Tamil predominantly when writing the name of a person or of a place, and the letters also appear in borrowed words.

The Tamil numerical system is written with the Tamil alphabet, this is not the only means by which numbers are conveyed. The Arabic numerals (1,2,3,4,5,6…) and Roman figures (I, II, III, IV…) are generally used; however, one may come across the use of Tamil numerals in older Tamil print. In modern Tamil, the numerals of the earlier forms of Tamil are no longer in use.

The Tamil numerals and their Arabic equivalencies are given here for an easier understanding:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 100 1000

This manual is an introduction to reading and writing the Tamil script and the manual employs the strategy of heightening pattern perception and contrastive observation. This manual is partially self-instructional, in the sense that the manual will enable one to read and write the Tamil script. The sound values of the Tamil letters are explained through a phonetic comparison with Roman script. In all cases, the points of articulation in the oral cavity and the manner of articulation are detailed.

This manual introduces the Tamil characters based on shape similarity. This makes learning the script more fluid and easier. While learning to write the script, the learner will also begin to acquire vocabulary. This will make the process of learning Tamil easier. In order to gain the maximum benefit from the manual, the learner is advised to practice writing the letters and the words until the characters become natural.