Frame 18
As the time passed socio-cultural changes affected languages. Tamil is not exceptional to this. The language development occurred along with the changes from time to time. The industrialization and science and technology development influenced the language use and language under went lot of changes. Due to this, borrowing into Tamil was inevitable at all levels namely phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic levels. Though Sanskrit influence through borrowings was found in Tamil from early times, in the modern times the above said reasons attributed to this borrowing and made the language users to adopt borrowings. Words used in the religious spheres and personal and place names necessitated the Tamils to adopt the sounds as such and used special characters for them known as Grantha characters. Six such letters are used in modern Tamil widely for the sounds s, j, sh, h, ksh, and sri. They are mainly used for writing proper names, place names and scientific terms to retain original pronunciation. They take vowel symbols(secondary symbols) in the same way as pure Tamil consonants of similar form except the vowels, 
and 
. Only one secondary symbol is used for each. The secondary symbols for 
and 
vowels for the Grantha letters (s, j, sh, h, ksh) are 
and 
respectively (see Exercise-item 8 in F-18, Chart-1, and see Appendix I & II for hand movements, and a Table at the end if this Frame). The last one, sri is treated as a word. This is used as a respect form before male names like Mister (Mr.) in English. Also sri is found as part of names. ksh is combination of k and sh.
(s) in its production the blade of the tongue is positioned very closely to the alveolar ridge. The air squeezes out with friction through a narrow passage between the alveolar ridge and the tip of the tongue. The vocal cords do not vibrate. The soft palate is raised. This sound may be described as a voiceless alveolar fricative. It occurs initially and medially. Medially it occurs as a single consonant (pure consonant with a dot- 
) between two vowels and as the second member of a consonant cluster.
Observe the hand movements and copy three times (see Appendix I for hand-movements).
(j). The movements of the speech organs are the same as those for (c) except for the vibration in the vocal cords during its production. This is described as a voiced palatal.
This sound occurs in the word initial positions, medially as a pure consonant between vowels, as the second member of a consonant cluster and an identical consonant cluster.
Observe the hand movements and copy three times (see Appendix I for hand-movements).
(sh). This sound is produced when the tip of the tongue is curved slightly towards the hard palate. But this curving does make a complete closure. The air stream passes through the narrow passage between the hard palate and the tip of the tongue. The vocal cords do not vibrate. The soft palate is raised. This sound is voiceless retroflex fricative. It occurs medially as a pure consonant between vowels and as the first member of a consonant cluster.
Observe the hand movements and copy three times (see Appendix I for hand-movements).
(h). In its production the mouth is kept as in the production of vowels. The air stream passes through the wide open glottis with week friction. The soft palate is raised. This is a glottal fricative. This occurs word initial and medial positions.
Observe the hand movements and copy three times (see Appendix I for hand-movements).
(ksh) is combination of (k) and (sh). The production processes of these sounds are discussed in Frame 3 and 18.
Observe the hand movements and copy three times (see Appendix I for hand-movements).
Observe the hand movements and copy three times (see Appendix I for hand-movements).
Read the following words.
