Lesson 1

Tamil is perhaps India's most ancient language. It is spoken by the people of Tamil Nadu and large communities in Sri Lanka , Malaysia and the West. A lot of India's rich heritage of culture is written in Tamil. Please note reader Sathasivam, Bahee bsathasi@dor.state.wi.us , a teacher in Tamil's comments that All Tamil consonants eg the letters L , P , S in Alps etc. should have a dot on top of them . They have been ommitted by mistake in the figures below and in the other lessons . These few lessons will help one to read Tamil script. This figure has the letter M and

the vowel sound AA as in fAther .

Can you read your first word in Tamil ?

Full marks if you got is as Mama ( Maamaa) - uncle . Can you guess the name of this person a King of ancient India?

It is Rama Next we introduce the letter P and the vowel mark i as in this Hindi word for water.

The first letter is P and the next one is the mark AA , followed by N and then the short i.

Note the short i in Tamil comes after the letter. This is Tamil for mother . It has the letter A (pronouced ugh) in the front.

This figure has the double RR , it is what English people call all Indian dishes

The answer is KRRi (curry!). Revise all the letters learnt so far

Here are the answers

And the two vowel marks

Lesson 2
Lesson 3..Home Please note reader Sathasivam, Bahee bsathasi@dor.state.wi.us , a teacher in Tamil's comments that All Tamil consonants eg the letters L , P , S in Alps etc. should have a dot on top of them . They have been ommitted by mistake in the figures below and in the other lessons . Swiss mountains

AA-L-P-s (alps) of course!. Note how the detached vowel AA when it comes at the beginning of a word is written. Also note shape of L , P and S.

Here is a new letter V and the long ee mark as in mEEt in the Tamil and Hindi word for lawyer.

If the EE mark comes at the beginning it is written as this The answer was English EEL. The next word spells English ill . Note the shape of the i when it comes on its own at the beginning of a word and the new letter LL.

The aae vowel mark as in mAt or the animal rAt is written in front of the letter as in the word Chat here. Note Ch and S letters are the same in Tamil

The ae vowel mark as in Ape is also put in front of a letter as in this English word -dont be ....

The answer is late

The detached AAE and AE sounds if they come at the beginning are written as follows

Lets revise all the letters learnt so far .

The answers

And the vowel marks -each is written in the detached form and then the vowel mark next to it.

And the answers

Revise these lessons a couple of times before going on to the next lesson. Reader Sathasivam, Bahee bsathasi@dor.state.wi.us writes TAMIL CONSONANTS SHOULD HAVE THE DOT ON TOP EACH LETTER. FOR THE TAMIL LETTER S THERE SHOULD BE A DOT ON TOP OF S FOR THE TAMIL LETTER L THERE SHOULD BE A DOT ON TOP OF L.

Lesson 3
Lesson 4..Home The next word introduces three new letters. It is the name of a country where Tamil is spoken. See if you can guess which one it is

The answer is India

It has three new letters -another form of N , D ( also DH and TH) and Y . Here is a new constant NG as in loNG .

The word is Hindi for a love meeting-Sangam. The letter O when it comes in front is written as follows at the start of a word

When it modifies a letter it is a combination of aae and aa as in this English word .

The O in OVER is written as follows

Note the O and OH differ only in the slightly curved tail of OH. If it modifies a letter as it does L here it is a combined form of ae before and aa after.

Here are all the new letters in this lesson

And the vowel marks

See if you can read the name of this ancient King of India

Answer

Lesson 4
These are a couple of double letters . This figure shows a SS in an English word.

It reads Miss.

This is a double NN - a girl's name

Its Anna.

The letter J looks like a snake with a curved tail

English JAR

Note that the detached vowel AI pronounced ai as in mai (my) looks very like J except for a slightly different tail.

The word is Aina -Hindi for mirror

The vowel mark ai is written before the letter as it does for the letter M below.

Its the English word MY

The letter SH is modified by ai in this word.

It reads SH ai N (Shine)

Lesson 5

The next letter is a form of N and we might write it as follows in the word Man.

The letter Z may form the word for Zee TV.

A combined letter is k and Sh as in KSH . Rakshak is Hindi for a bodyguard

The letter h forming Him.

The combined letter SHR as in this man's name Mishra.

The OU vowel is written on its own as

and combined in a word for medicine as

When the ou mark modifies a consonant it is written before and after a letter as follows in this word mouse where it modifies the letter M.

The little U in pUt is written as below -see if you can read the word

The answer is Ummah -the global Muslim community

The long u as in rOOt is as follows in this English word.

It is Oops

The u vowel mark is a bit tricky as it can be in the form of a vertical line , a curved line or even as a modified aa mark and the only way is to go through most of the letters of the alphabet and recongise it.

and also

Finally in this lesson here are some combinations which do not fit anywhere and have to be learnt

In the next lesson we will have a look at the whole alphabet and some Tamil words.

Lesson 6

These are all the consonants in the Tamil Alphabet

and the detached vowels

and the vowel marks

Cover up the answers below each word to see if you can identify it yourself first.

Here are some more words