Help:IPA/Tamil

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Tamil on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Tamil in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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This page contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Tamil pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Tamil has phonological process by which voiceless plosives are altered to their respective voiced sounds because of their position in a word (word initial versus word medial) or presence of preceding vowel sounds.

See Tamil phonology for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Tamil.

Consonants
IPA	Example		English approximation
IPA	Tamil script	ISO 15919	English approximation
b	தம்பி, ஆபத்து, அன்பு	b	band
ɕ	ஶிவா	ś	sheep
d^[1]	தமிழ்நாடு	Not Defined by ISO 15919.	Western Accents, duck
d̪^[1]	பந்து	d	Not common in English, Similar to the tongue touching the teeth. Hindi दोस्त (dhost).
ɖ^[1]^[2]	வண்டி, traditionally spoken, படி	ḍ	Indian english, done
dʑ	இஞ்சி, ஜானகி	not defined in ISO 15919. Aproximately rounded to j.	Not common in English, somewhat like jar Japanese じかん,(jikan).
ɡ	அங்கே, பாகு	g	gate
h^[3]	மஹா, ஹரி	h	heat
j	யானை, உய்ய	y	yak
k	கால், மக்கள், கற்க	k	skate
l	வலி, வல்லி, இலங்கை, வந்தால்	l	let
ɭ	வளி, வள்ளி, வந்தாள்	ḷ	somewhat like carl, (American English), Marathi बाळ (Child)
m	மலை, அம்மாள், தம்பி, வண்ணம்	m	much
n^[4]	பன்றி, சின்ன, வந்தான்	ṉ	ten
n̪^[4]	நயம், பந்து, நன்றி, எந்நன்றி	n	tenth
ɲ	ஞானம், அஞ்ஞானம், இஞ்சி	ñ	Malaysian accent, canyon
ɳ	வண்டி, வண்ணம்	ṇ	corn (American English)
ŋ	அங்கே, அங்ஙனம்	ṅ	song
r^[5]	கறி, பன்றி	ṟ	trilled r
ɾ	கரி, பரி, இரவி, வந்தார்	r	atom (American English)
ɻ^[6]	தமிழ், வழி	ḻ	right
s^[7]	பாசம், ஸந்தியா	s	sum
ʂ	உஷா	ṣ	shrimp
t̪^[1]	தனி, பத்து, யுக்தி	t	(Most Indian accents) think
ʈ^[1]	பட்டு	ṭ	(Most Indian Accents) tongue
tːr	குற்றாலம்	This is a double consonant part, so it does not have any definition. This pronunciation happens, when ற் joins with a variant of ற.	(Most Indian accents) trend
tɕ	பேச்சு, கட்சி	Not defined by ISO 15919. Approximated to either j or c.	Not common in english, Chinese 北京 (beijing)
ʋ	வழி, அவ்வழி	v	between w and v
x	Only in loanwords. சிங்கிஸ் ஃகான்	k͟h	Scottish loch or German Bach
f	Only in loanwords. ஃப்ரான்ஸ்	f	fan
z	Only in Loanwords. அஃஜாருதீன்	z	zoo

Vowels
IPA	Example		English approximation
IPA	Tamil script	ISO 15919	English approximation
a	கல் ('stone')	a	Not common in Everyday english, Most accents, Honey
aː	கால் ('leg')	ā	car
aɪ	கைது ('arrest')	ai	Indian accent, bite
aʊ	கௌதாரி (a type of bird)	au	Indian accent house
e	கெடு ('time limit')	e	bet
eː	கேடு ('destruction')	ē	Most south asian accents, may
i	கிரி ('mountain')	i	machine
iː	கீரி ('mongoose')	ī	seep
o	கொடு ('give')	o	story (short)
oː	கோடு ('a line drawn')	ō	story (long)
u	குடம் ('pot')	u	foot
uː	கூடம் ('hall')	ū	cool
ɯ^[8]	அழகு ('beauty')	It is a phonetic variant. Mostly not defined by ISO 15919. Approximated to either u, or ū	foot, but with the lips unrounded, turkish kırmızı
̃	வரான், வரோம் (spoken Tamil only)	-	nasal vowel ([ãː], [õː], etc.)

Suprasegmentals
IPA	Notes
ˈ◌	stress (placed before stressed syllable)
◌ː	doubled consonant (placed after doubled consonant)

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Tamil contrasts dental [t̪] and [d̪] with retroflex [ʈ] and [ɖ]. Both sets sound like /t/ and /d/ to most English speakers although the dental [t̪] and [d̪] are used in place of the English /θ/ and /ð/ for some speakers with th-stopping. The alveolar [d] can occur rarely as a phonetic variant of [ɖ] in the dialect of Madras Bashai, spoken in Chennai while [ð] can very rarely occur as an intervocalic allophone of [t̪] and [d̪] in some Tamil varieties.
^ [ɖ] and [ɽ] occur as word-medial and intervocalic allophones of /ʈ/.
^ ⟨க⟩ represents [h] in intervocalic position, but not when it appears as the first letter of a word.
^ ^a ^b Dental [n̪] and alveolar [n] are allophones in Tamil. Both sound like /n/ to English speakers.
^ ⟨ற⟩ represents [dr] and [tːr] after corresponding nasal consonant and when geminated, respectively, in which the [t] and the [d] represent the voiceless and voiced postalveolar stops.
^ In spoken Tamil, ⟨ழ⟩ is undergoing a merger with ⟨ள⟩ [ɭ], even in educated speech.
^ ⟨ச⟩ represents [s] in intervocalic position.
^ word final /u/ is pronounced as [ɯ]

Bibliography

Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001549

External links

Tamil to IPA converter : Free online tool to convert Tamil text to IPA phonetic transcription.

[coronalstops-1] Tamil contrasts dental [t̪] and [d̪] with retroflex [ʈ] and [ɖ]. Both sets sound like /t/ and /d/ to most English speakers although the dental [t̪] and [d̪] are used in place of the English /θ/ and /ð/ for some speakers with th-stopping. The alveolar [d] can occur rarely as a phonetic variant of [ɖ] in the dialect of Madras Bashai, spoken in Chennai while [ð] can very rarely occur as an intervocalic allophone of [t̪] and [d̪] in some Tamil varieties.

[ʈ-2] [ɖ] and [ɽ] occur as word-medial and intervocalic allophones of /ʈ/.

[3] ⟨க⟩ represents [h] in intervocalic position, but not when it appears as the first letter of a word.

[dental-4] Dental [n̪] and alveolar [n] are allophones in Tamil. Both sound like /n/ to English speakers.

[5] ⟨ற⟩ represents [dr] and [tːr] after corresponding nasal consonant and when geminated, respectively, in which the [t] and the [d] represent the voiceless and voiced postalveolar stops.

[6] In spoken Tamil, ⟨ழ⟩ is undergoing a merger with ⟨ள⟩ [ɭ], even in educated speech.

[7] ⟨ச⟩ represents [s] in intervocalic position.

[8] word final /u/ is pronounced as [ɯ]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

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Help:IPA/Tamil

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