Tamil

தமிழ் எழுத்து

Abugida · 47 letters

Each consonant carries an implied vowel — ka, not k — and marks hung above, below or around it change that vowel. You learn the consonants, then the vowel marks, then the combinations: three steps instead of one. Every script of India, plus Thai and Khmer.

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What pays off on the road

• Wide letters, almost never stacked: Tamil, in Tamil Nadu — but also in Sri Lanka and Singapore, where the surroundings decide.
• தமிழ்நாடு, the state's name, then மாவட்டம் district, நகரம் city and சாலை road: four words that cut up a sign.
• Reading a name: the six hard ones first. Their place in the word decides whether they are voiced, and every reading trap is there.

How it works

Eighteen consonants, and three families

Tamil has eighteen consonants where its neighbours have thirty-three. It has not lost any: it never needed them. The language is Dravidian, not Indo-Aryan, and it does not oppose voiceless to voiced.

Its grammar sorts them into three families of six, and these are the names Tamils use: the vallinam, hard; the mellinam, soft, which are all nasals; and the idayinam, medium.

Three regular groups beat seven uneven classes: it is the simplest table in the whole Indian family, and it is learnt in an evening.

The letter does not say how it reads

க reads "k" at the start of a word and "g" between vowels. ப reads "p" then "b". ட reads "t" then "d". The letter is the same; its position decides.

A reader of Latin finds this disconcerting, and a Tamil does not notice it: the difference does not exist in the language, and writing two letters where one suffices would seem as odd to them as writing two different "a"s would to us.

The practical consequence: you cannot transliterate a Tamil name without knowing it. Of the sixteen sign words on this page, seven do not come out of the table the way they are written: நகரம் would give "nakaram" where the sign says "nagaram", வடக்கு "vatakku" where it says "vadakku".

That is why there is no place name quiz here. The words below do carry their transliteration, written by hand.

Three n's, two l's, two r's

Tamil writes three "n"s — ண, ந, ன —, two "l"s — ல, ள — and two "r"s — ர, ற. They note real differences of pronunciation, which the language tells apart and transliteration erases.

So there is nothing to learn in order to read them: all give the same Latin letter. What matters is knowing they exist, without which you wonder why three signs give one sound.

ழ is the exception: a sound nobody else in India writes, and Tamils name their language after it — தமிழ், "tamizh".

Where it is read, and what that does not tell you

Tamil is official in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, but also in Sri Lanka and Singapore. Seeing it is therefore not enough to say you are in India — the only Indian script in this section in that position.

The rest of the reading is very regular: twelve vowels, a dot to close syllables, and four letters borrowed from Sanskrit for the words that come from it.

Cheat sheet

The hard ones (vallinam)

Six consonants, and none says whether it is voiced: position in the word decides. This is the family where every reading trap sits.

The soft ones (mellinam)

Six consonants, all nasal — one per point of articulation. Three of them transliterate as "n", which surprises and complicates nothing.

The medium ones (idayinam)

Six consonants, including ழ — the sound peculiar to Tamil, which Tamils put in the name of their language.

The twelve vowels

Each is written out in full when nothing carries it, and as a mark on the consonant otherwise. Length is not transliterated: signs do not note it either.

The vowel marks

The same sound, set on the consonant. It replaces the "a" the consonant carries: without it, க is "ka", not "k".

Neither consonant nor vowel

Two signs, including the dot that closes syllables — the commonest in the script after the letters themselves.

The four borrowed ones

Tamil writes words from Sanskrit with four letters that are not its own. They show up on shop signs and in proper names.

The words on signs

Countries

India · Singapore · Sri Lanka

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