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Note on Transliteration

VOWELS

Tamil vowels can be either long or short; short vowels are unstressed and long vowels are stressed. Long vowels are indicated with a dash over the letter.

SHORT VOWELS

a	as in cup
i	as in sit
e	as in net
u	as in put
o	as in old

LONG VOWELS

ā	as in father
ī	as in need
ē	as in lake
ū	as in mood
ō	as in rope

There are also two diphthongs:

ai	as in might
ow	as in cow

CONSONANTS

Consonants are also short and long; short consonants are unstressed, long consonants are stressed. Long consonants are indicated by doubling the letter.

The sounds “b,” “j,” and “g” are represented by p, c, and k. Whether or not they are voiced depends on their position.

Consonants are also differentiated by stops, nasals, and medials. There are six different points of articulation of consonants (velar, palatal, retroflex, dental, labial, and alveolar).

STOPS

Single

velar	k	as in get or hard
palatal	c	as in sing
retroflex		similar to idle (but retroflexed)
dental	t	similar to the
labial	p	as in put or amber
alveolar	r	pronounced like a slightly trilled English r

Double

velar	kk	as in sticky
palatal	cc	as in chick
retroflex		similar to ladder (but longer and retroflexed)
dental	tt	as in tape
labial	pp	as in staple
alveolar	rr	similar to train

NASAL CONSONANTS

velar		as in ink
palatal	ñ	as in lounge
retroflex		similar to under (but retroflexed)
dental	n	as in anthem
labial	m	as in my
alveolar	n	as in man

MEDIAL CONSONANTS

palatal	y	as in pay
flap	r	as in far
lateral	l	as in call
labial	v	as in van or wander
retroflex flap		similar to sir
retroflex lateral		similar to olden

SANSKRIT-DERIVED SOUNDS AND WORDS

In Sanskrit-derived words, ṣ indicates the sound “sh,” as in shut; and in some Sanskrit-derived words, s indicates the sound “s” as in Sam.

NAMES

Names of people, places, deities, and castes are spelled in the book without diacritical marks.