I was watching Madharasapattinam last night, and I said to myself “let’s see about that Tamil.” If Amy Jackson could try, so could this Amy, amirite? However, I’m not gonna lie to you- Tamil intimidated me from the get-go. There’s something about those long *VERY LONG) words and all those Rs, Ps, Ks that just made my tongue a mess. But at least I can sorta tell the Tamil alphabet apart, which isn’t the case with Telugu and Malayalam. You have to admit it MUST look really foreigner to outsiders~
I sorta can guess how it works, but I need a place/link where they teach you how to write the alphabet in order. For example, how do you begin writing the symbol for Ai (ஐ)- is it in one stroke? Do I do it like a toppled over 3 with an inverted one, or does it start more like an incomplete heart. Is A (அ) more like two strokes? And what about Aa (ஆ). And the I (இ) looks suuuuuper complicated. Is that on one go?
If anyone stumbling on this post knows Tamil, please, give me some pointers ;) I, at least, would love to pick some up.
Dear Friend;
This is regarding the Tamil Language, an oldest language in the World, It has over 5000 years of History. The existing ancient Grammar work in Tamil is ‘Tholkaappiyam”, It has been identified and accepted to have written in B.C 700.
About the Tamil Alphabets, main letters identified by Tholkappiyam and by the the Current Scholars are 30 and rest 216 are derived from combining 12 Vowels and 18 Consonants (12*18=216).
If you want to learn or know about it I can be of some support to you. I am a lecturer at Annamalai Canada Campus, teach Tamil to BA and MA Students.
Dr. Mrs. S. Sridas
Greetings, Mrs. S. Sridas!
Thank you for leaving a message. I’m Peruvian, living in Peru, so I can’t attend lectures in Canada. I just have one major question- how do you write Tamil Alphabet? I mean, is stroke order extremely important like in Chinese and Japanese characters?
Hi Amy,
Yes stroke order is very important in tamil. I could try some iOS/android apps which will help to do this.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-tamil-language-letters/id1113354648?platform=ipad&preserveScrollPosition=true#platform/ipad
I haven’t tried this personally but you could search and find more apps.
All the best.
Hi, Partha :)
Thank you for the comment.
I found this YT video for starters ^^