Tamil vowels, consonants and English transliteration equivalents

Although these are available in the video as transliterations, I thought it would be useful to have them here in the lessons.

அ as in up (or final of America)

ஆ as in father

இ as i in ink

ஈ as ee in eel

உ u as in full

ஊ u as in June

எ e as in ember

ஏ a as in ache

ஐ the word eye

ஒ o as in police

ஓ o as in opium

ஔ ou as in ounce

க k as in kill

ங - the nasal ங has the sound of nga. But it is always mute(except in compound of the rare word ஙனம்). When following this letter, the consonant க always takes a g sound; as அங்கே(ange - there), இங்கே(inge - here) எங்கே(enge- where).

ச - the sound varies in different parts of the Tamil Nadu. It is equivalent to the s in sun.

ஞ - has the soft sound of gnya. It only combines with the vowels அ, ஆ, எ and ஒ.

ட - has a very hard metallic d sound, which is not found in English. காடு - kaadu - forest, மாடு - maadu - cow

த - has two sounds namely th and dh..தெரு- theru - street. கத்தி - kaththi - knife, இது - idhu-this, அது- adhu -that, எது - edhu - which one. The letter த when it stands singly in the middle or end of a word, takes the dh sound. பாதம் - paadham - feet, காது - kaadhu - ear.

ண - The letter ண as a very hard metallic n sound, which is not found in English.

ந - The letter ந has a softer sound than ன. ன is pronounced like English n, but ந is pronounced with the tongue in the same position as in pronouncing த. naan - நான் - I

ப - pa as in papa or ba as in baa baa black sheep.

ம - ma as in mama

ய - as English y

ர - as English R

வ - va as in English van. It is between English v and w

ல - la as in laalaa

ழ - zha is a peculiar sound that is special to Tamil.பழம்(pazham - fruit) and மழை(mazhai - rain)

ள - has a hard metallic sound of l, not found in English. நாள்(naaL - day), பள்ளம்(paLLam-low land), பிள்ளை(piLLai - child).

ற - has a rough R sound.

ன - is equivalent to English n.

ஸ்ரீ - Sri is a grantha letter included to represent some words from sanskrit origin.