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.