Tamil – Class:2 / Teaching Through English

Class -2

The vowels we learnt in Class-1 are actually known as Life-Letters in Tamil (i.e) உயிர் எழுத்துக்கள். The bare consonants are known as Body-Letters (i.e) மெய் எழுத்துக்கள். When these consonants get life when combining with vowels, they are called Life&Body-Letters, (i.e.)   உயிர்மெய் எழுத்துக்கள். This is really a unique and apt description of alphabets of a language.

In Class-1, we learnt most of these Tamil Alphabets. Now let us learn a few words using them. Let us see a few words using the letters Ma and Ra, (i.e), ம and ர.

மா – Maa – Big or Mango

மாமா – MaaMaa – Uncle

மாமி – MaaMi – Aunty

மை – Mye – Ink or Dye

மரம் – MaRaM – Tree

மரு – MaRu – Mark (on the skin) or Name of a plant

மார் – MaaR – Chest

மோர் – MoR(e) – Buttermilk

மரை – MaRrai – Thread (as in bolt and nut)

மாமரம் – MaaMaRam – Mango Tree

மாரி – MaRi – Rain, A Village Goddess

மரி – MaRi – To Die

மேரி – Mery – Mary, a name

மும்முரம் – MuMMuRaM – Deeply involved

ரமா – RaMaa – Name of a girl

ராம் – Raam – Name of a Hindu God

It is a language of universal knowledge. It has assimilated the great literary and social features of all Indian classical languages such as Pali, Prakrit and Tamil. It has also contributed in evolution and development of all the languages in India, including Tamil. Sanskrit (or Samskrit) is an important language of India. Sanskrit (or Samskrit) is an important language of India. From very early days of Indian history, may be even  from 4-th century BC, Tamil and Sanskrit have been studied with equal interest by all intellectuals of South India. Sanskrit is also the language of science and religion for all the ancient religions such as Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism.

Now let us learn a few special characters inducted into Tamil to enable us writing words from other languages like Sanskrit, English etc. They are known as Northern letters or Grantha letters.

ஸ	ஜ	ஷ	ஹ	ஸ்ரீ
S  as in ‘Sulk’	J as in ‘Just’	Sh as in   ‘Rush’	H as in       ‘Hut’	Sri as in  ‘Sridhar’

The first four of the above can combine with all vowels by taking same symbols we learnt in class-1

Let us learn a few words using the above letters along with ம (Ma) and ர (Ra)

மாஸம் – MaaSaM – Month

ரஸம் – RaSaM – Juice, Extract,  a spicy sauce eaten with rice

ஸமம் – SaMam – Equal

மேஜை – MayJai – Table

ரோஜா – ROJaa – Rose

ராஜா – RaaJaa – King

ரிஷி – RiShi – Saint

ஹரி – HaRi – Another name for Hindu God Vishnu

மஹா – MaHaa – Great, Big

ஸ்ரீராம் – SriRaaM – God Ram with respectful title ‘Sri’

ஹாரம் – HaaRaM – Necklace, Garland

All the above words have explicitly derived from Sanskrit, though there are many other words also derived from Sanskrit which have been, may I say, fully Tamilized.

You may again revise all the alphabets learnt in Class 1 and 2.

We will meet in Class-3.

Bye for Now.

(L V Nagarajan)

 

Teaching Tamil through English

Many parents of Tamil origin may not have learnt Tamil as a language anytime in their life. Some of them may regret it now and may want to learn Tamil, at least as a language of conversation and understanding. They may also want to teach their children Tamil, as they are not learning the same in their schools. Once children learn basic Tamil, they, depending on their interest, may pick-up deeper knowledge of Tamil on their own at a later stage in life. Unfortunately, not much work is done on such teaching of Tamil, and the regular pedagogy kills even their initial interest and more often than not, they discontinue learning and teaching Tamil. I have two lovely granddaughters (Mili and Tara) who have also started learning Tamil recently in California. I am sure the Tamil classes there is adequately interesting and enthusing for them to continue. With my small experience of teaching Tamil to my daughter and son in early 80’s, I thought of putting together my way of teaching Tamil in a series of blogs, which could be useful to Tamil loving parents in the US and elsewhere. Let me start straight away.

Class – 1

It is always said that Tamil Alphabet has 247+ characters. Any learner who hears this, immediately loses interest to some extent.  In its actual sense, Tamil language has only 26+ characters. Of course it has a dozen more symbols (and a few special characters for writing words from Sanskrit and other foreign languages). Let us first have a look at all these characters.

Five Basic Vowels: The following are the basic vowels in Tamil. Their pronunciation is also given right below.

அ	இ	உ	எ	ஒ
A as in ‘Avatar’	I as in ‘In’	U as in ‘pUt’	E as in ‘End’	O as in ‘One’

 

Two Composite Vowels: There are two composite vowels as below:

ஐ	ஔ
Ai as in ‘Aisle’	Ou as in ‘Out’

The first one above is a combination of: அ  and  இ   =    ஐ

Second one above is a combination of:   அ  and   உ = ஔ

 

Five Extended Vowels: The five basic vowels as above have their extended versions with slightly elongated pronunciation as compared to

A as in ‘Avatar’ – I as in ‘In’ –   U as in ‘pUt’ –  E as in ‘End’ –   O as in ‘One’

(As below)

ஆ	ஈ	ஊ	ஏ	ஓ
Au as in ‘Aunt’	Ea as in ‘Easy’	Oo as in ‘Ooze’	A as in ‘Area’	Ow as in ‘Own’

                   

Special Character:

ஃ     —    Akh

This is a special character grouped along with vowels to add a specific accent to a few consonants. We will list it here but learn about it later.

 

Eighteen Consonants: There are eighteen consonants in Tamil. They are as below:

க	ச	ட	த	ப	ற
Ka Ga	Cha Sa	Ta Da	Tha Dha	Pa Ba	Rra Tra

The above six are called Hard consonants. However same letters are used for softer pronunciations also as shown.

 

ங	ஞ	ண	ந	ம	ன
Nga	Gnya	Rn as in ‘BoRn’	Na	Ma	Na

The above six letters are known as Soft consonants. The two ‘Na’s are used in different contexts. They are also used to soften the corresponding hard consonants shown earlier. We will learn about them later.

 

ய	ர	ல	வ	ழ	ள
Ya	Ra	La	Va	Zha	Rl as in Pearl

The above six letters are known as Medium consonants. The letter ‘Zha’ is very special for Tamil language and its pronunciation presents some difficulty even for some Tamils. La (ல) is pronounced with the tip of the tongue just behind the upper teeth. Rla (ள) is done with the tip of the tongue slightly behind in upper cavity. Zha (ழ) is done with the tip of the tongue still behind.

 

Symbols: The following table shows the symbols used to add the vowels to the above consonants. A few typical consonants are shown with symbols added.

Basic Vowels:
அ	இ	உ	எ	ஒ
Symbols
_	ி	3 types	ெ	ொ
Consonants with symbol added:
க	கி	கு	கெ	கொ
Ka	Ki	Ku	Ke	Ko
ச	சி	சு	செ	சொ
த	தி	து	தெ	தொ

 

Composite Vowels:
ஐ	ஔ	ஃ
Symbols:
ை	ௌ	●
Consonants:
கை	கௌ	க்
kai	kau	k as in ‘Park’
சை	சௌ	ச்
தை	தௌ	த்

 

Extended Vowels
ஆ	ஈ	ஊ	ஏ	ஓ
Symbols
ா	ீ	3 types	ே	ோ
Consonants
கா	கீ	கூ	கே	கோ
kaa	kee	koo	kay	koe
சா	சீ	சூ	சே	சோ
தா	தீ	தூ	தே	தோ

The letters with a dot above them are known as ‘Otru’ – that is, it sounds without any vowel, like, ‘ch’ and ‘th’.

 

There are a few more special characters and symbols which we can learn later.

The complete list of alphabets as per the above scheme is given in

http://tamilcube.com/learn-tamil/tamil-alphabets-chart.aspx

This is enough for class-1. In Class -2 we will learn a few words using some of these alphabets

Bye for now.