Tamil transliteration

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Transliteration

The transcription from an alphabet of one language to that of another is known as transliteration. In general one needs to know typing particular to a language in which the contents are produced using a typewriter or a personal computer. Special keyboards which serve this purpose while being connected to a computer are available in the market.

Tamil transliteration softwares and keyboard drivers

Several softwares and keyboard drivers that convert text typed in English into Tamil text are available. These do this function of transliteration based on the input containing an english alphabet or a set of English alphabets as a phonetic equivalet that denotes each Tamil alphabet. There is no need to know Tamil typewriting or use any special keyboard other than the English keyboard being universally used.

Tamil alphabets

There are 12 vowels known as "uyir ezhuththukkaL" (உயிரெழுத்துக்கள்) and 18 consonants known as "mei ezhuththukkaL" (மெய்யெழுத்துக்கள்) in Tamil language. These vowels and consonants give birth to 216 (12*18=216) hybrid letters known as "uyirmei ezuththukkaL" (உயிர்மெய் எழுத்துக்கள்). There is a special alphabet known as "aaitha ezhuththu" (ஆய்த எழுத்து) denoted by the symbol ஃ which is used occasionally to express certain unique words in Tamil and often to express the sound equivalent to the english letter "F". The total number of Tamil alphabets altogether is thus 217.

Tamil vowels and their phonetic equivalents

The 12 Tamil vowels are அ, ஆ, இ, ஈ, உ, ஊ, எ, ஏ, ஐ, ஒ, ஓ, ஔ, ஃ

Tamil letter Phonetic equivalent
அ a
ஆ aa, A
இ i
ஈ ii, I, ee
உ u
ஊ uu, U, oo
எ e
ஏ E, ae,
ஐ ai
ஒ o
ஓ O, oa, oe
ஔ au, ow, ou
ஃ q

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[edit] External links

  • Girgit Online Indic to Indic Transliteration of Webpages தமிழ் (Tamil) to and from বংলা (Bengali), हिन्दी (Devanagari), ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada), മലയാളം (Malayalam), ଓଡ଼ିଆ (Oriya), ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ (Punjabi), తెలుగు (Telugu), ગુજરાતી (Gujarati), English