Tamil phonology

Tamil phonology is characterised by the presence of “true-subapical” retroflex consonants and multiple rhotic consonants. Its script does not distinguish between voiced and unvoiced consonants; phonetically, voice is assigned depending on a consonant's position in a word, voiced intervocalically and after nasals except when geminated.[1] Tamil phonology permits few consonant clusters, which can never be word initial.

Compare the article Tolkappiyam chapter 1–3
Main article: Tamil language

Vowels
Monophthongs of Tamil, from Keane (2004:114)

The vowels are called உயிரெழுத்து uyireḻuttu ('life letter'). The vowels are classified into short and long (five of each type) and two diphthongs.

The long (nedil) vowels are about twice as long as the short (kuṟil) vowels. The diphthongs are usually pronounced about 1.5 times as long as the short vowels, though most grammatical texts place them with the long vowels.

Monophthongs[2]
Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close i இ iː ஈ u/ɯ உ uː ஊ
Mid e எ eː ஏ o ஒ oː ஓ
Open ä அ äː ஆ

Tamil has two diphthongs: Tamil pronunciation: [/aɪ/] ஐ and Tamil pronunciation: [/aʊ/] ஔ, the latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items. Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|ɯ]] is found as a variation of Tamil pronunciation: [/u/] at the end of words.

Colloquially, an initial Tamil pronunciation: [/i(:)/] or Tamil pronunciation: [/e(:)/] may have a Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|ʲ]] onglide; likewise, an initial Tamil pronunciation: [/o(:)/] or Tamil pronunciation: [/u(:)/] may have a Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|ʷ]] onglide, e.g. Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|ʲeɾi]] and Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|ʷoɾɯ]].[3] This does not occur in Sri Lankan dialects.[4]

Colloquial Tamil also has nasalized vowels formed from word final vowel + nasal cluster (except for /Vɳ/ where an epenthetic Tamil pronunciation: [u] is added after it). Long vowel + nasal just nasalizes the vowel, short vowel + nasal may also changes the quality, for example, Tamil pronunciation: [/an/] gets fronted to Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|ɛ̃]] அவன் Tamil pronunciation: [/aʋan/] becomes Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|aʋɛ̃]] (Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|aʋæ̃]] for some speakers), Tamil pronunciation: [/am/] gets rounded to Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|õ]] மரம் Tamil pronunciation: [/maɾam/] becomes Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|maɾõ]], நீங்களும் Tamil pronunciation: [/n̪iːŋkaɭum/] becomes Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|n̪iːŋɡaɭũ]], வந்தான் Tamil pronunciation: [/ʋant̪a:n/] becomes Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|ʋan̪d̪ã:]] remaining only gets nasalized.[3][5]

In spoken Tamil sometimes an epenthetic vowel Tamil pronunciation: [/u/] is added to words ending in consonants, e.g. nil > nillu, āḷ > āḷu, nāḷ > nāḷu (nā in some dialects), vayal > vayalu etc. If another word is joined at the end, it is deleted.[6]

Colloquially, the high short vowels Tamil pronunciation: [/i/], Tamil pronunciation: [/u/] (when next to a short consonant in the first syllable) and Tamil pronunciation: [/a/], Tamil pronunciation: [/aɪ/] are lowered to Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|e]] and Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|o]]. For example, இடம் Tamil pronunciation: [/iʈam/] becames Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|eɖam]]; and உடம்பு Tamil pronunciation: [/uʈampu/] becomes Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|oɖambɯ]]. Tamil pronunciation: [/aɪ/] also monophthongises to an Tamil pronunciation: [/e/] but it causes the lowering of Tamil pronunciation: [/i/], Tamil pronunciation: [/u/] before it, eg. ilai > ele.[7] Additionally, the front long vowels Tamil pronunciation: [/eː/] and Tamil pronunciation: [/iː/] are subject to retraction when present in the first syllable of a bisyllabic word and followed by a retroflex consonant. As such, Tamil pronunciation: [/ʋiːɖu/] "house" becomes Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|ʋɨːɖɪ̈]], but its inflected forms Tamil pronunciation: [/ʋiːʈʈukku/] remains Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|ʋiːʈ(ː)uk(ː)ɪ̈]]. Likewise, Tamil pronunciation: [/t̪eːɖu/] "search!" becomes Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|t̪əːɖɪ̈]], but Tamil pronunciation: [/t̪eːɖinaːn/] "(he) searched" remains Tamil pronunciation: [[Help:IPA/Tamil|t̪eːɖinãː]]. The presence and degree of retraction for each vowel may be different; it varies between dialects and even individual speakers.[5] Almost all words end with vowels in SpT.[7]

For some speakers in SpT the front vowels /i(:), e(:)/ get rounded to their corresponding rounded back vowels when they are after a labial consonant /m, p, ʋ/ and before a retroflex consonant, some words with it are quite acceptable like பெண் /peɳ/ > பொண்/பொண்ணு [poɳ~poɳ:ɯ] but others like வீடு /ʋi:ɖu/ > வூடு [ʋu:ɖɯ] are less accepted and may even be considered vulger.[8]

Consonants

The consonants are known as மெய்யெழுத்து meyyeḻuttu ('body letters'). The consonants are classified into three categories with six in each category: vallinam ('hard'), mellinam ('soft' or nasal), and idayinam ('medium'). Tamil has very restricted consonant clusters (for example, there are no word-initial clusters) and has allophonic aspirated stops. There are well-defined rules for voicing stops in the written form of Tamil, Centamil (the period of Tamil history before Sanskrit words were borrowed). Stops are voiceless when at the start of a word, in a consonant cluster with another stop and when geminated. They are voiced otherwise.

Tamil is characterized by its use of more than one type of coronal consonants: like many of the other languages of India, it contains a series of retroflex consonants. Notably, the Tamil retroflex series includes the retroflex approximant /ɻ/ (ழ) (example Tamil; often transcribed 'zh'), which is rare in the Indo-Aryan languages. Among the other Dravidian languages, the retroflex approximant also occurs in Malayalam (for example in 'Kozhikode') and Badaga, disappeared from spoken Kannada around 1000 AD (although the character is still written, and exists in Unicode, ೞ as in ಕೊೞೆ), and was never present in Telugu. In some dialects of colloquial Tamil, this consonant is seen as disappearing and shifting to the retroflex lateral approximant /ɭ/ in the south and palatal approximant /j/ in the north.[9]

The proto Dravidian alveolar stop *ṯ developed into an alveolar trill /r/ in many of the Dravidian languages while *ṯṯ and *ṉṯ remained. The stop sound is retained in Kota and Toda (Subrahmanyam 1983).[10]

[n] and [n̪] are in complementary distribution and are predictable, [n̪] word initially and before /t̪/ and [n] elsewhere, ie they are allophonic.[3]

/ɲ/ is extremely rare word initially and is only found before /t͡ɕ/ word medially. [ŋ] only occurs before /k/.[3]

A chart of the Tamil consonant phonemes in the International Phonetic Alphabet follows:

Tamil consonants[11]
LabialDentalAlveolarRetroflexAlveolo-palatalVelarGlottal
Nasal m ம்(n̪) ந்n ன்ɳ ண்ɲ ஞ்(ŋ) ங்
Stop p ப்t̪ த்tːr ற்றʈ ட்k க்
Affricate t͡ɕ ~ t͡ʃ ச்1
Fricative (f)1s5 ஸ் (z)1(ʂ)1 ஷ்(ɕ)1 ஶ்(x)2(h)2 ஹ்
Tap ɾ ர்
Trill r ற்
Approximant ʋ வ்ɻ ழ்j ய்
Lateral approximant l ல்ɭ ள்
  1. /f/, /z/ and /ʂ/ are only found in loanwords, and may be considered marginal phonemes; though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic.
  2. Intervocalic /k/ is pronounced as [ɣ~h] by Indian Tamils and [x] in Sri lanka.[12]
  3. For most speakers in spoken Tamil the distinction between the tap and trill is lost except in the southern Kanyakumari dialect.[13]
  4. In SpT the /tːr/ can either be pronounced as /tːr/ or merge with /t̪t̪/.[14]
  5. /t͡ʃ/ in SpT varies a lot, some speakers pronounce it as [s] initially only and affricate pronounciation medially, other speakers have [t͡ʃ] before certain vowel and [s] for others, eg. சின்ன [t͡ʃin:a] "small" but சாவி [sa:ʋi] "key", some speakers have only [t͡ʃ] except intervocalically.[15]

The voiceless consonants are voiced in different positions.

Tamil stop allophones
PlaceInitialGeminateMedialPost-nasal
Velar kkːg~x~ɣɡ
Palatal tɕ, stːɕsdʑ~dʒ
Retroflex —ʈːɖ~ɽɖ
Alveolar —tːrr(d)r
Dental t̪ t̪ːd̪~ðd̪
Labial ppːb~βb

In modern Tamil, however, voiced plosives occur initially in loanwords, and some native words as well. Geminate stops get simplified to singleton unvoiced stops after long vowels, suggesting the primary cue is now voicing (cf. kūṭṭam-kūṭam becoming kūṭam-kūḍam in modern speakers). Altogether, we see a shift in progress towards phonemic voicing, more advanced in some dialects than others.[3]

Āytam

Classical Tamil had a phoneme called the āytam, written as ‘ஃ'. Tamil grammarians of the time classified it as a dependent phoneme (or restricted phoneme[16]) (cārpeḻuttu), but it is very rare in modern Tamil. The rules of pronunciation given in the Tolkāppiyam, a text on the grammar of Classical Tamil, suggest that the āytam could have glottalised the sounds it was combined with. It has also been suggested that the āytam was used to represent the voiced implosive (or closing part or the first half) of geminated voiced plosives inside a word.[17] The āytam, in modern Tamil, is also used to convert p to f when writing English words and a few other sound using the Tamil script.

Overview

Unlike Indo-Aryan languages spoken around it, Tamil does not have distinct letters for aspirated consonants and they are found as allophones of the normal stops. The Tamil script also lacks distinct letters for voiced and unvoiced stop as their pronunciations depend on their location in a word. For example, the voiceless stop [p] occurs at the beginning of the words and the voiced stop [b] cannot. In the middle of words, voiceless stops commonly occur as a geminated pair like -pp-, while voiced stops do not. Only the voiced stops can appear medially and after a corresponding nasal. Thus both the voiced and voiceless stops can be represented by the same script in Tamil without ambiguity, the script denoting only the place and broad manner of articulation (stop, nasal, etc.). The Tolkāppiyam cites detailed rules as to when a letter is to be pronounced with voice and when it is to be pronounced unvoiced. The only exceptions to these rules are the letters ச and ற as they are pronounced medially as [s] and [r] respectively.

Some loan words are pronounced in Tamil as they were in the source language, even if this means that consonants which should be unvoiced according to the Tolkāppiyam are voiced.

Elision

Elision is the reduction in the duration of sound of a phoneme when preceded by or followed by certain other sounds. There are well-defined rules for elision in Tamil. They are categorised into different classes based on the phoneme which undergoes elision.

1.Kutr iyal ukaram (short nature U)the vowel u
2.Kutr iyal ikaram (short nature I)the vowel i
3.Aiykaara k kurukkam ( AI shortening)the diphthong ai
4.Oukaara k kurukkam ( AU shortening)the diphthong au
5.Aaytha k kurukkam ( h shortening)the special character akh (aaytham)
6.Makara k kurukkam ( M shortening)the phoneme m

1. Kutr iyal ukaram refers to the vowel /u/ turning into the close back unrounded vowel [ɯ] at the end of words (e.g.: ‘ஆறு’ (meaning ‘six’) will be pronounced [aːrɯ]).

2. Kutr iyal ikaram refers to the shortening of the vowel /i/ before the consonant /j/.

Changes from Proto Dravidian to Standard Tamil

Consonants
  1. Deletion of y initially eg. PD. *yĀt̠u, Ta. ār̠u "river", it was preserved in a few words in old Tamil but compretely lost after that.[18]
  2. Deletion of c initially through c > s > h > ∅ eg. PD. *cōṭam > Ta. ōṭam "boat", loaned into Sanskrit as hoḍa.[19] It is an ongoing process in some Gondi dialects.[19]
  3. Palatalization of k to c before non back vowels and if the following consonant isnt retroflex eg. PD. *kewi, Ta. cevi "ear" but Ta. kēṭka "to listen".[20]
  4. Loss of the laryngeal H eg. PD. ∗puH- Ta. pū "flower", it survived into old Tamil in a few words as a restricted phoneme called Āytam. According to Tolkāppiyam in old Tamil it patterned with semivowels and it occurred after a short vowel and before a stop; it either lengthened the previous vowel, geminated the stop or was lost if the following segment is phonetically voiced in the environment.[21]
  5. The t̠ became a trill r̠ eg. PD. cāṯu, Ta. ār̠u "six".
  6. Many of the ñ- became n- eg. PD. ñaṇṭ- Ta. naṇṭu "crab".[22]

Vowels
  1. Neutralization of ā̆ and ē̆ after y, it also happens to a lesser extent with ñ- and c-.[23]
  2. Short e, o were raised to i, u when it was followed by a short consonant and a short a eg. PD. *pokay Ta. pukai, this change was reverted in colloquial Tamil where u, i gets lowered eg StTa. pukai, SpTa. poge.[24]

Sample text

English

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Tamil

மனிதப் பிறிவியினர் சகலரும் சுதந்திரமாகவே பிறக்கின்றனர்; அவர்கள் மதிப்பிலும், உரிமைகளிலும் சமமானவர்கள், அவர்கள் நியாயத்தையும் மனச்சாட்சியையும் இயற்பண்பாகப் பெற்றவர்கள். அவர்கள் ஒருவருடனொருவர் சகோதர உணர்வுப் பாங்கில் நடந்துகொள்ளல் வேண்டும்.

Romanisation (ISO 15919)

maṉitap piṟiviyiṉar cakalarum cutantiramākavē piṟakkiṉṟaṉar; avarkaḷ matippilum, urimaikaḷilum camamāṉavarkaḷ, avarkaḷ niyāyattaiyum maṉaccāṭciyaiyum iyaṟpaṇpākap peṟṟavarkaḷ. Avarkaḷ oruvaruṭaṉoruvar cakōtara uṇarvup pāṅkil naṭantukoḷḷal vēṇṭum.

IPA

/manit̪ap piriʋijinaɾ sakalaɾum sut̪ant̪iɾamaːkaʋeː pirakkinranaɾ ǀ aʋaɾkaɭ mat̪ippilum uɾimai̯kaɭilum samamaːnaʋaɾkaɭ aʋaɾkaɭ nijaːjat̪t̪ai̯jum manat͡ʃt͡ʃaːʈt͡ʃijum ijarpaɳpaːkap petːraʋaɾkaɭ ǁ aʋaɾkaɭ oɾuʋaɾuʈanoɾuʋaɾ sakoːt̪aɾa uɳaɾʋup paːnkil naʈant̪ukoɭɭal ʋeːɳʈum/

See also

References
  1. Schiffman, Harold F.; Arokianathan, S. (1986), "Diglossic variation in Tamil film and fiction", in Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju; Masica, Colin P. (eds.), South Asian languages: structure, convergence, and diglossia, New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, pp. 371–382, ISBN 81-208-0033-8 at p. 371
  2. Keane (2004:114–115)
  3. Keane, Elinor. Tamil (Thesis). Oxford University Phonetics Laboratory.
  4. https://de.zxc.wiki/wiki/Aussprache_des_Tamil
  5. F.Schiffman, Harold. Spoken Tamil (Thesis). Cambridge University press.
  6. Tamil, A Reference Grammar of Spoken (Schiffman) (1999), p. 5.
  7. Tamil, A Reference Grammar of Spoken (Schiffman) (1999), p. 4.
  8. Tamil, A Reference Grammar of Spoken (Schiffman) (1999), p. 19.
  9. Rajam, V. S. A Reference Grammar of Classical Tamil Poetry (Thesis). Oxford University Phonetics Laboratory.
  10. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 146.
  11. Keane (2004:111)
  12. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 149.
  13. Tamil, A Reference Grammar of Spoken (Schiffman) (1999), p. 7.
  14. Tamil, A Reference Grammar of Spoken (Schiffman) (1999), p. 9.
  15. Tamil, A Reference Grammar of Spoken (Schiffman) (1999), p. 9-10.
  16. Krishnamurti 2003, p. 154
  17. Kuiper 1958, p. 191
  18. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 142.
  19. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 122.
  20. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 128.
  21. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 154-155.
  22. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 139.
  23. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 99.
  24. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 173.

Bibliography
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