Help Wikitravel grow by contributing to an article. Learn how . Tamil phrasebook Contents [+] Pronunciation guide Vowels Consonants Common diphthongs [+] Phrase list Basics Problems Numbers [+] Time Clock time Duration Days Months Writing time and date Colors [+] Transportation Bus and train Directions Taxi Lodging Money Eating Bars Shopping Driving Authority Tamil (ததததத tamiḻ) is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. Spoken predominantly by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore, it has smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. As of 1996, it was the eighteenth most spoken language, Ads by Google Music Downloads 2Mbps Secured Wireless Broadband at just 10 p./MB. Apply Now! TikonaWibro .in Car Hire Excess Insurance From £1.90 per day. tyres, keys, windscreen and underbody covered. www. carhire- excess- insurance. com Have Fun Learning English Great learning and teaching
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Tamil phrasebookContents
[+] Pronunciation guide
Vowels
Consonants
Common diphthongs
[+] Phrase list
Basics
Problems
Numbers
[+] Time
Clock time
Duration
Days
Months
Writing time and date
Colors
[+] Transportation
Bus and train
Directions
Taxi
Lodging
Money
Eating
Bars
Shopping
Driving
Authority
Tamil (தமி�ழ் tamiḻ) is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. Spoken predominantly by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore, it has smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. As of 1996, it was the eighteenth most spoken language, with over 74 million speakers worldwide. It is one of the official languages of India, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
All dates provided below are approximate, varying by one or two days in the Gregorian Calendar depending on adjustments made to the calendar each year, to bring it in alignment with astronomic observations.
January
15th January to 15th February (Thai)
February
15th February to 15th March (Maasi)
March
15th March to 15th April (Panguni)
April
15th April to 15th May (Chiththirai)
May
15th May to 15th June (Vaikasi)
June
15th June to 15th July (Aani)
July
15th July to 15th August (Aadi)
August
15th August to 15th September (Aavani)
September
15th September to 15th October (Purattasi)
October
15th October to 15th November (Aippasi)
November
15th November to 15th December (Kaarthikai)
December
15th December to 15th January (Margazhi)
The year starts on the first day of the month of
[
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Tamil
Origin
The earliest known Tamil inscriptions date back to at least 500 BC. The oldest literary text in Tamil, Tolkāppiyam, was composed around 200 BC. The Tamil alphabet is is thought to have evolved from the Brahmi script, though some scholars believe that its origins go back to the Indus script.
The alphabet is well suited to writing literary Tamil, centamil. However it is ill-suited to writing colloquial Tamil, koduntamil. During the 19th century, attempts were made to create a written version of the colloquial spoken language. Nowadays the colloquial written language appears mainly in school books and in passages of dialogue in fiction.
Notable features
Type of writing system: syllabic alphabet
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
When they appear the the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written as independent letters.
Some of the non-standard consonant-vowel combinations are not used in official documents.
The alphabet was originally written on palm leaves. As a result, the letters are made up mainly of curved strokes which didn't rip the leaves.
Tamil, a Dravidian language spoken by around 52 million people in Indian, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, the USA, UK and Australia. It is the first language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and is spoken by a significant minority of people (2 million) in north-eastern Sri Lanka.
Tamil alphabet
Vowels and vowel diacritics
Non-standard consonant-vowel combinations
Consonants
The final five consonants (the blue ones) are known as grantha letters and are used to write consonants borrowed from Sanskrit, and also some words of English origin.
Numerals
The numerals rarely appear in modern Tamil texts. Instead, 'Arabic' numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) are used.
Listen to a recording of this text by Muralikrishnan Ramasamy
Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about the Tamil language, literature and peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_literaturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_peoplehttp://www.tamilnation.org
Online Tamil lessonshttp://www.tamil-online.infohttp://www.unc.edu/~echeran/paadanool/http://www.duke.edu/~skc9/tamilclass/
Online Tamil dictionarieshttp://www.dictionary.tamilcube.comhttp://www.ee.vt.edu/~anbumani/tamildict/
Free Tamil fontshttp://www.sooriyan.com/font/http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/fonts/tamil.htmlhttp://www.info.lk/slword/news.htmhttp://www.tamil.net/people/kiru/download.htm
Online Tamil radiohttp://www.bbc.co.uk/tamilhttp://www.ctbc.comhttp://www.thendral.comhttp://www.merina.comhttp://www.thenisai.comhttp://www.olifm.com
Association for Tamil Computinghttp://www.kanithamizh.org
PDF Text - an online Unicode word processor for Tamil and Englishhttp://www.pdstext.com
The number of syllables in a typical Tamil word may range from single syllable to five or six syllables. Vowels in each syllable can be either short or long. Consonants can be either single or strung together (a 'cluster'). Learning to distinguish between short and long vowels and consonant clusters in Tamil words require careful attention and long practice. There are a large number of words in Tamil that make minimal pairs due to length of vowels and consonant clusters (i.e., differ only in having a short/long vowel or a single or doubled consonant). So, unless one learns to distinguish between short and long vowels and simple and clustered consonants, one is very likely to produce ambiguous and improper pronunciation of words as well as misunderstand other people's Tamil.
In this chapter, such minimal pairs are discussed in detail. Unlike in pronouncing written English, Tamil pronunciation is straight forward in the sense that what you see will be what you would say, and only in restricted number of contexts like in clusters, e.g., stop consonants occurring intervocalically etc., will the pronunciation be different than from their typical pronunciation.
Single syllable words:
Single syllable words can be just a single long vowel; or a consonant with a long vowel; or two consonants with a short or long vowel as noted below.
There are words with three to five syllables due to combination of multiple number of suffixes. வந்துபெகி�ண்டிருக்கி�றீர்கிள� (spoken, வந்துகி�ட்டிருக்கி�ங்கிள�, vandukiTTirukkiingaLaa) root verb வ, present progressive form, 2nd person plural suffix and interrogative suffix. 'Have you been coming?' This word can also be written in two separate words like வந்து பெகி�ண்டிருகி�றீர்கிள�, but is pronounced as a single word.
Pronunciation of nasal consonants
The nasal consonants ந, ன, ண, ங and மி are pronounced variously based on the environment in which they occur. The consonants with which these nasals cooccur include த, ப ட and கி. Following are the examples of some of the frequently occurring nasal clusters in Tamil.
பந்து 'pandu' 'ball'
அன்பு 'anbu' 'love'
பெத�ண்லைமி 'toNmai ~ toNme' 'ancient'
வன்லைமி 'vanmai ~ vanme' 'skillful'
தம்ப5 'tambi' 'younger brother'
தங்லைகி 'tangai ~ tange' 'younger sister'
The nasal consonants that occur at the end of words are usually nasalized by the preceding vowels.
ந�ன் 'na~ ' 'I'
அவன் 'avan ~ ava~' 'he'
மிராம் 'maram ~ mara~' 'tree'
பழம் 'pazham ~ pazha~' 'fruit' However, the consonant ண that occurs at the end of words is doubled and an enunciative vowel உ is added in spoken Tamil.
கிண் 'kaN ~ kaNNu' 'eye'
மிண் 'maN ~ maNNu' 'soil/sand'
Pronunciation of Stop Consonants
கி is pronounced g after nasal consonants:
அங்றேகி (angee ~ ange) 'there'
இங்றேகி (ingee ~ inge) 'here'
எங்றேகி (engee ~ enge) 'where'
கி is pronounced 'h' (cf. 'x') between vowels and after ர் and ய்:
பகில் (paxal) 'day'
மிகின் (maxan ~ maxa~) 'son'
மிகிள் (maxaL ~ maxa) 'daughter'
ஊர்கிள் (uurxaL) 'towns'
ந�ய்கிள் (naayxaL) 'dogs'
கி is pronounced 'k' in word initial position and in clusters:
கிப்பல் (kappal) 'ship'
கிடல் (kaDal) 'ocean'
பக்கிம் (pakkam ~ pakka~) 'side'
தூக்கிம் (tuukkam ~ tuukka~) 'sleep'
ச is pronounced 'j' after nasal consonants:
பஞ்சு (anjcu) 'cotton'
நஞ்சு (nanjcu) 'poison'
அஞ்சு (anjcu) 'proper name'
ச is pronounced 's' between vowels and optionally in word initial position
றேத�லைச (toosai ~ doose) 'dosa'
ஆலைச (aasai ~ aase) 'desire'
மி�சம் (maasam ~ maasa~) 'month'
சக்கிராம் (cakkaram ~ cakkara~) 'wheel'
சன� (cani or sani) 'Saturday'
பெசவ்வ�ய் (cevvaay or sevvaay) 'Tuesday'
ச is pronounced 'ch' in word initial position and in clusters:
சக்கிராம் (cakkaram ~ cakkara~) 'wheel'
சன� (cani) 'Saturday'
பெசவ்வ�ய் (cevvaay ~ ceevvaa) 'Tuesday'
பச்லைச (paccai ~ pacce) 'green'
எச்ச*ல் (eccil) 'salaiva'
ட is pronounced D after nasal consonants and between vowels:
துண்டு (tuNdu) 'towel'
கிராண்டி (karaNDi) 'spoon'
நண்டு (naDu) 'crab'
படம் (paDam ~ paDa~) 'picture'
ஓடம் (ooDam ~ ooDa~) 'boat'
ந�டு (naaDu) 'country'
ட is pronounced t in word initial position and in clusters
டமி�ராம் (Tamaaram ~ Tamaara~) 'a drum'
டீ (Tii) 'tea'
லைடம் (Taim) 'time'
பட்டு (paTTu) 'silk'
பூட்டு (puuTTu) 'lock'
கி�ட்டு (kaaTTu) 'show'
த is pronounced dh after nasal consonants and between vowels:
பந்து (pandu) 'ball'
இந்த (inda) 'this - adjective'
அந்த (anda) 'that-adjective'
அது (adu) 'that (thing)'
ப�லைத (paadai ~ paade) 'route/way'
றேமி�து (moodu) 'dash/strike'
த is pronounced th in word initial position and in clusters
தமி�ழ் (tamizh) 'Tamil'
தண்ணீர் (taNNiir ~ taNNi) 'water'
த�ங்கிள் (tingaL ~ tinga) 'Monday'
பத்து (pattu) 'ten'
கித்து (kattu) 'scream'
எழுத்து (ezhuttu) 'letter/script'
ப is pronounced b after nasal consonants and between vowels:
தம்ப5 (tambi) 'younger brother'
த�ரும்பு (tirumbu) 'turn'
எண்பது (eNbadu) 'eighty'
றேகி�பம் (kooba~) 'anger'
அப�யம் (abaaya~) 'danger'
ச�பம் (caaba~) 'curse'
ப is pronounced p in word initial position and in clusters
படி (paDi) 'study'
பழம் (pazha~) 'fruit'
பணம் (paNa~) 'money'
அப்ப� (appaa) 'father'
தப்பு (tappu) 'mistake'
துப்பு (tuppu) 'spit'
On Orthography
With respect to orthography, vowels occur in their isolated character only in the beginning position of words. In all the other positions, such as medial and final positions, they are realized in the form of a secondary symbol.
அது (adu) 'that (thing)'
ஆமி�ம் (aamaam) 'yes'
இது (idu) 'this (thing)'
ஈ (ii) 'fly'
உலகிம் (ulaxa~) 'world'
ஊர் (uur) 'town/village'
எது (edu) 'which (thing)'
ஏழு (eezhu) 'seven'
ஐறேய� (aiyoo) 'alas' - interjection
ஒரு (oru) 'one (adjective)'
ஓடு (ooDu) 'run'
Consonants can occur either as a 'pure' consonant with a dot on it or as part of a syllable represented by a secondary symbol. The dotted consonants, otherwise called 'pure' consonants, occur only in clusters at medial positions. Clusters with identical consonants:
அக்கி� (akkaa) 'elder sister'
பச்லைச (paccai ~ pacca) 'green'
பத்து (paTTu) 'silk'
எண்லைண (eNNai ~ eNNe) 'oil' (எண்பெணஇ)
பத்து (pattu) 'ten'
முன்னூறு (munnuuRu) 'three hundred'
அப்ப� (appaa) 'father'
அம்மி� (ammaa) 'mother'
பெகி�ய்ய� (koyyaa) 'kovva fruit'
பல்லி (palli) 'lizard'
பெசவ்வ�ய் (cevvaay ~ sevvaa) 'Tuesday'
தள்ளு (taLLu) 'push'
முன்ன�ல் (munnaal ~ munnaale) 'in front of'The consonants ங், ஞ், ர் and ழ் do not occur successively as a cluster. Section Clusters with non-indentical consonants
Nasal + Stop
அங்றேகி (angee ~ anga) 'there'
பஞ்சு (panjcu) 'cottorn'
துண்டு (tuNDu) 'towel'
பந்து (pandu) 'ball'
தம்ப5 (tambi) 'younger brother'
எண்பது (eNbadu ~ embLadu) 'eighty'
அன்பு (anbu) 'love'
Others:
கில்கித்த� (kalkattaa) 'Calcutta'
கிர்ன�டகிம் (karnaaDaha~) 'Karnataka'
இட்லி (iDli) 'Idly'
மி�ன்ச�ராம் (minsaara~) 'electricity'
இன்லை�க்கு (inRaikku ~ iNNekki) 'today'
எதற்கு (eda\d rku ~ edukku) 'for what'
கில்வ5 (kalvi) 'education'
கிஷ்டம் (kashTa~) 'difficulty'
புஸ்தகிம் (pustaha~) 'book'
Minimal pairs
Contrasts between short and long vowels; single and clusterd consonants; retroflex and non retroflex consonants; flapped and trilled r etc., cause a large number of minimal pairs in Tamil. Difference in pronunciation in such words is usually subtle, and special attention is needed when one attempts to say those words.
Minimal pairs due to length of vowels
Each of the following pairs represents a minimal form due to short and long form of vowels.
பல் (pal) 'tooth' vs. ப�ல் (paal) 'milk'
கில் (kal) 'stone' vs. கி�ல் (kaal) 'leg'
பல (pala) 'many' vs. பல� (palaa) 'jack fruit'
வ5டு (viDu) 'leave' vs. வீடு (viiDu) 'house'
வ5த� (vidi) 'fate' vs. வீத� (viidi) 'street'
பெகி�டு (koDu) 'give' vs. kootu (kooDu) 'line'
பெத�டு (toDu) 'touch' vs. றேத�டு (tooDu) 'earring'
சுடு (cuDu) 'shoot/fry' vs. சூடு (cuuDu) 'heat'
முடி (muDi) 'hair/tie' vs. மூடி (muuDi) 'lid'
Minimal pairs due to consonant clusters
ப�கு (paaxu) 'sugar syrup' vs. ப�க்கு (paakku) 'betal nut'
பலைச (pasai) 'crease' vs. பச்லைச (paccai) 'green'
குலைட (kuDai) 'umbrellaa' vs. குட்லைட (kuTTai) 'small pond'
கி�து (kaadu) 'ear' vs. கி�ட்டு (kaattu) 'wind'
Minimal pairs due to difference of nature of consonants
Trilled r vs. flapped r
கிலை� (kaRai) 'stain' vs. கிலைரா (karai) 'bank of a river'
Frictionless continuent and alveolar lateral
மிலைழ (mazhai) vs. மிலைல (malai) 'mountain'
Retroflex lateral consonant vs. alveolar lateral
வலைள (vaLai) vs. வலைல 'net'
Retroflex nasal vs. alveolar nasal
மிணம் (maNa~) 'fragrance' vs. மினம் (mana~) 'mind'
List of Abbreviations
anim. abl. Animate ablative case marker
acc. accusative case (object marker)
adj. adjective (adjectival)
adv. adverb(ial)
AJP adjectival participle
AVP adverbial participle
bene. benefactive, உக்கி�கி case suffix, 'for'
compl. வ5டு, completive aspect, also unexpectedness
cond. conditional
conj. conjuction
cont. continuous aspect
dat. dative case ('to', 'from')
emph. emphasis/emphatic (e.g., த�ன், ஏ, கூட)
excl. exclusive (cf., 1st person plural)
fem. feminine (e.g., 3rd person feminine, அவள்)
fut. future tense
gen. genitive case
imp. imperative
impol. impolite/informal/familiar
incl. inclusive (cf. 1st person plural)
inf. infinitive (cf., to X)
instr. instrumental case ('by', 'because of')
lit. literally
loc. locative case ('in')
masc. masculine (e.g., 3rd pers. masc. அவர்)
neg. negative/negation
neut. neuter (e.g., இது இருக்கு 'it be-pres-neut')
obl. oblique (e.g., oblique form of ந�ன் = என்)
perf. perfective aspect, இரு as auxiliary verb after AVP
pers. person (e.g., 1st person = 'I')
pl. plural
PNG person-number-gender (agreement marker on the verb)