CONSONANTAL VOWELS - FIRST SET

உயிர் மெய் எழுத்துக்கள் (soul - body letters)
(CONSONANTAL VOWELS)
(Page 16 - 22 of the ebook)

In the earlier posts we learnt that in Tamil there are 12 vowels and 18 consonants. Each consonant joins with each vowels i.e the eighteen consonants join with each of the twelve vowels to give 216 consonantal vowels.

These letters are written without the dot on its top.

  Vowels               :               12

  Consonants           :               18

  Consonantal vowels   :   12 X 18 :   216 characters.

Consonantal vowels will be introduced slowly along with some example words which will help you in pronouncing the words and also to increase your vocabulary.       

CONSONANTAL VOWELS FORMATION:

FIRST SET:

Now let us see how the first set of consonantal vowels are formed.

The following table demonstrates how the first vowel ‘அ’ combines with each of the 18 consonants to form consonantal vowels. The last column in both the tables is the equivalent sounds in Japanese language.

When forming the first set of consonantal vowels i.e. when each consonant combine with the first vowel ‘அ’, the dot on the consonants are removed. There are no other changes. All the consonantal vowels so formed ends with ‘அ’ sound like ‘ka’, inga, sa, gna, na (listen to the audio for proper pronunciation) and so on.

You can download from here the entire book for learning Tamil scripts. An applet showing the stroke order for the scripts can be downloaded from here.

Note: You need Java to view the applet. Unzip the zip file and open the "Tamil.html" file to view the applet. Click on the scripts to view the writing pattern. The audio icons seen in the image below will not work but the same will work in the ebook provided for download.

** Letters like ங and ஞ are rare letters are hence example words are not given for them.

It may please be noted that there are few letters which almost carry the same sound with slight difference. They are (ண, ன), (ல, ள), (ர, ற), (ந, ன). The chart below will shows the tongue position for these letters and practice will make you perfect.  

This completes the first set of consonantal vowels. 

See you soon. Please post your comments.

CONSONANTS

மெய் எழுத்துக்கள் (body letters)
(Consonants)

 (Page 12 -13 of the ebook)

There are 18 consonants in Tamil. All the consonants have a dot on its top.

Consonants are classified into:

1. வல்லினம்” (Vallinam) - க், ச், ட், த், ப், ற். (hard consonants)

2. மெல்லினம்” (Mellinum) - ங், ஞ், ண், ந், ம், ன். (soft consonants - nasal consonants)

3. இடையினம்” (Idaiyinum) - ய், ர், ல், வ், ழ், ள். (medium consonants)

You can download from here the entire book for learning Tamil scripts. An applet showing the stroke order for the scripts can be downloaded from here.

Note: You need Java to view the applet. Unzip the zip file and open the "Tamil.html" file to view the applet. Click on the script to view the writing pattern. The audio icons seen in the image below will not work and it will work in the ebook provided.

 

INTRODUCTION AND VOWELS

INTRODUCTION

Tamil is a language with a long and ancient literary tradition that has been spoken in southern India for several millennia. The Tamil language is a member of the Dravidian language family, including about thirty languages.

Tamil language is spoken in a wide range of countries, including India, Northern Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji, South Africa, and parts of East Africa, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Trinidad, Guyana, and Mauritius. It is an official language in India, Sri Lanka, and Singapore.

Tamil is a di-glossic language, which means there is a large difference between the written form of the language and the spoken form. These differences include grammatical, vocabulary, and pronunciation differences. The literary form is considered prestigious, while the spoken from is used in informal settings by all social classes.

You can download from here the entire book for learning Tamil scripts. An applet showing the stroke order for the scripts can be downloaded from here.

Note: You need Java to view the applet. Unzip the zip file and open the "Tamil.html" file to view the applet. Click on the script to view the writing pattern. The audio icons seen in the image below will not work here but the same will work in the ebook provided for download.

 

ABOUT ME AND THIS BLOG

Dear friends,

I am C.T. Parthiban and I am from a town named Puducherry or Pondicherry, as it was called earlier, in India. I am a Mechanical Engineer with a little knowledge in Computers.

Through this blog I am going to teach you Tamil language. I propose to post lessons regularly and I request the learners to visit the blog frequently for updates. 

The medium of instruction will be English. But since I know a little bit of Japanese language I will deliver the similarities between these languages. I will present the lessons in such a way that Japanese with minimum knowledge in English can easily learn and understand the Tamil language.

The lessons are organized into two parts. In the first part, I propose to introduce the scripts of the Tamil Language. As the scripts are introduced vocabulary will also be added slowly. Audio of these lessons will also be made available for download for further learning. In the second part I propose to post the lessons along with its grammar.

So, let us start and enjoy learning world’s one of the oldest and spectcular language the “Tamil”.

Welcome to learn Tamil.

C.T. Parthiban