Lajapathi Rai

Vowels

Tamil has pretty much the same vowels you’d find in any other language, but they’re in short and long forms. The difference between the short and long forms is more of a length difference – that is, you literally pronounce a long vowel for a longer period of time than you would a short vowel.

அ (as in cup) a ஆ (as in car) aː இ (as in idiosyncrasy) i ஈ (as in evil) iː உ (as in foot) u ஊ(as in fool) uː எ (as in ate) e ஏ (as in able) eː ஐ (as in wine) aɪ̯ ஒ (as in uh-oh!) o ஓ (as in Oklahoma) oː ஒள (as in mouse) aʊ̯

Consonants

Tamil has eighteen consonant sounds. A 1:1 correspondence between English and Tamil letters does not exist, nor does one exist between Tamil and Hindi or Urdu. Like other Indian languages, we have multiple forms of the letters l, r, and n. However, unlike other Indian languages, Tamil has the worst sound in the world: zh.  

க (ka or ga) k ங (nga, as in sing) ŋ ச (sa as in sardines or cha as in chariot) t͡ʃ ஞ (nya, as in We’re Not Furries) ɲ ட (ta, as in tap, or da, as in dart) ʈ ண (retroflex na – your tongue should touch the back of your teeth; only happens in the middle or at the end of a word) ɳ த (tha as in thanks or dha as in English doesn’t have dha whoops) t̪ ந (na as in name, only happens in the beginning & middle of words) n̪ ப (pa as in pants) p ம (ma as in materialism) m ய (ya as in yard) j ர (ra as in rat) ɾ̪ ல (la as in land) l̪ வ (va as in varsity) ʋ ழ (zha. This one’s weird: curl your tongue back, almost like the bastard child of r and l) ɻ ள (retroflex la – like a normal l but your tongue is curled back) ɭ ற (harder rolled r) r ன (na as in not, only happens in the middle or at the end of a word) n

We Stole From Sanskrit And Aren’t Very Sorry

In some cases, like when transliterating from other languages, Tamil uses borrowed sounds from Sanskrit. These aren’t super common, but they’re pretty good to know anyways.

ஹ (ha as in help) h ஜ (ja as in jump) d͡ʑ ஷ (sha as in shake) ʂ ஸ (sa as in verse) s க்ஷ (ksha as in workshop) [kʂ]

That’s all for this lesson, and thanks for reading! We’ll cover letter combinations next lesson because they can get pretty long.