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IPA stands for International Phonetic Alpahbets. It is a universally recognized system, which enables us to represent nearly every sort of sound accurately. It has specific symbols to represent the sounds present in all the world's languages.
Tamil Script is a phonemic script. A phoneme is fundamental unit of a language. Even though, Tamil grammar recognizes the existence of just 18 (Consonants) + 12 (Vowels) + 1 (Aytham) phonemes, Tamil has around 100 phones (sounds) . An average native may not realize this while speaking/hearing, but on careful analysis each phoneme has several allophones. (An allophone is variant pronunciation of a standard phoneme.)
Even if a language has several phones (sounds), it is generally considered as a variant of a standard phoneme. Take the grapheme /க/ which corresponds to the phoneme /k/. It has around 8 Allophonic variations. Consider the below words, where /k/ exhibits the following phones.
For native speaker, all the 8 sounds are variant of the standard phoneme /k/.
As you can see, a single phoneme /k/ exhibits such an amount of Variation. In the similar way, all the 12 phonemic vowels and 18 phonemic consonants have several variations. Totally, Tamil has around 100 distinct phones, if we take into account all the Allophonic variant sounds.
Theoretically (in Grammar), each Grapheme (A distinct unit of the Script) of the Tamil Script has a one to one correspondence to a Phoneme. But modern Tamil has lost some phonemes, resulting in two graphemes pointing to the same phoneme. In these cases, two Graphemes represent the same Phoneme. e.g Intervocalic ற & ர , ன ந
For a detailed Analysis of the Tamil phonemes & its allophonic variants in Tamil, refer:
The Knowledge of Tamil allophones is highly necessary to Transcribe Tamil to any foreign language.
The converter analyses the phonemes in the given Tamil text, and generates the necessary symbols for the allophonic variants.
Given a Tamil Text such as below:
மின்னுலகில் தமிழ் என்றும் நிலை பெற தமிழின் வளங்களை மின்பதிப்பாக்கி நிரந்தரப்படுத்த நிறுவிய தமிழ் மரபு அறக்கட்டளையின் மின்னரங்கம் இது. இங்கு தமிழ் எழுத்தை, கலை வடிவங்களை எப்படி நிரத்தரப்படுத்தலாமென ஆலோசிக்கப்படுகிறது. சமகால இலக்கியத்திலிருந்து பல்லாயிரமாண்டு தொன்மையுள்ள இலக்கியம் வரை தமிழ் பாதுகாக்கப்பட வேண்டியுள்ளது. மின் தமிழ்த் தேர் உலா வரத் தொடங்கிவிட்டது. வடம் பிடிக்க வாரீர்
The Converter gives an output such as below:
mɪn̺n̺ɨlʌçɪl t̪ʌmɪ˞ɻ ʲɛ̝n̺d̺ʳɨm n̺ɪlʌɪ̯ pɛ̝ɾə t̪ʌmɪ˞ɻɪn̺ ʋʌ˞ɭʼʌŋgʌ˞ɭʼʌɪ̯ mɪn̺bʌðɪppɑ:kkʲɪ· n̺ɪɾʌn̪d̪ʌɾʌppʌ˞ɽɨt̪t̪ə n̺ɪɾɨʋɪɪ̯ə t̪ʌmɪ˞ɻ mʌɾʌβʉ̩ ˀʌɾʌkkʌ˞ʈʈʌ˞ɭʼʌjɪ̯ɪn̺ mɪn̺n̺ʌɾʌŋgʌm ʲɪðɨ . ʲɪŋgɨ t̪ʌmɪ˞ɻ ʲɛ̝˞ɻɨt̪t̪ʌɪ̯ , kʌlʌɪ̯ ʋʌ˞ɽɪʋʌŋgʌ˞ɭʼʌɪ̯ ʲɛ̝ppʌ˞ɽɪ· n̺ɪɾʌt̪t̪ʌɾʌppʌ˞ɽɨt̪t̪ʌlɑ:mɛ̝n̺ə ˀɑ:lo:sɪkkʌppʌ˞ɽɨçɪɾʌðɨ . sʌmʌxɑ:lə ʲɪlʌkkʲɪɪ̯ʌt̪t̪ɪlɪɾɨn̪d̪ɨ pʌllɑ:ɪ̯ɪɾʌmɑ˞:ɳɖɨ t̪o̞n̺mʌjɪ̯ɨ˞ɭɭə ʲɪlʌkkʲɪɪ̯ʌm ʋʌɾʌɪ̯ t̪ʌmɪ˞ɻ pɑ:ðɨxɑ:kkʌppʌ˞ɽə ʋe˞:ɳɖɪɪ̯ɨ˞ɭɭʌðɨ . mɪn̺ t̪ʌmɪ˞ɻt̪ t̪e:r ʷʊlɑ: ʋʌɾʌt̪ t̪o̞˞ɽʌŋʲgʲɪʋɪ˞ʈʈʌðɨ . ʋʌ˞ɽʌm pɪ˞ɽɪkkə ʋɑ:ɾi:r
If you are not able to see the above passages properly. Please download the following fonts: Dejavu Sans & Dejvu Serif
LimitationThe converter does not recognize word boundaries. Thus, it may result it slight mis-transcription. Consider the word - முகில்பார்க்கும் - The converter would be render it as - mʊçɪlβɑ:rkkɨm with a Voiced Biliabial fricative. However, the desired out put would be - mʊçɪlpɑ:rkkɨm with a Voiceless bilabial plosive.
This is because, there is a word boundary - முகில்|பார்க்கும் - and the usual rule of transcription might not work. As of now, Automatic detection of word boundary is not possible :-)
Hence, if any words like this appear, given a space and then give it to the Converter. |
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Tamil IPA
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