First steps in Tamil - easy words which sound the same

Official language in	Sri Lanka  Singapore  India: Tamil Nadu[3] Puducherry[4]  ASEAN[5]
Recognised minority language in	Malaysia[6]  Mauritius[7]  South Africa[

You already know and use a few Tamil words, catamaran, cheroot, curry, mango. I didn't realise these words were Tamil. I first knowingly came across Tamil in Singapore.

Where can you hear of speak Tamil?  You see Tamil on the MRT underground railway stations in Singapore and the train map. You also hear Tamil spoken in the station announcements. The English ends with the words thank you. The Tamil ends with nan(d)ri.

I came across a handy guide to Tamil which I had forgotten I had on my bookshelves. I was looking for words in Vietnamese and picked up the Foreign Workers and Domestic Helpers Language guide. I bought it in Mustaph's department store in Little India in Singapore.

The book contains the languages English, Chinese (Mandarin), Tamil and Bahasa Indonesia. (Indonesian is almost the same as Malay.) These are the four official languages in Singapore. The book also contains the languages of Myanmar and Bengali.

The Tamil language looks very pretty, with lovely curves. However, even the shortest word in English has many Tamil letters to recognize.

Nevertheless, this time I persisted. I glanced down the lists of words looking for whatever was easy.

1 I wanted those Tamil words which were only one syllable.
2 I was pleased with words which started with the same letter as the English word.
3 Best of all, words which looked and sounded almost the same.

I was rewarded. Here are my findings which I shall share with you.

The English letter b is often pronounced as p

The English g becomes k

Short one-syllable words in English often end in u making two syllables in Tamil
You might notice that Tamil speakers sometimes add the sound oo onto the end of English words.

Tamil - English sound
one - onru (like one-u)
eight - ettu (like eight-u)

one million - oru milliyan
one billion - oru billiyan

Like other languages
morning - kailai (like the Greek kali spera, good morning)

Words starting with the same letter or sounding similar
noon - nan-pakal

The months sound almost the same
b becomes (unvoiced) p in February
g becomes k (in August); c bcomes k in October

January - janavari
February - pipravari
march - maarch
April - eapral
May - mea
June - joon
July - joolai
August - aakast
September - chepdampar
October - aktopar
November - navampar
December - disampar

Words Which Are The Same
meter - meter

I looked up Tamil Language in Wikipedia. I learned:
Words of Tamil origin occur in other languages. A notable example of a word in worldwide use with Dravidian (not specifically Tamil) etymology is orange, via Sanskrit nāraṅga from a Dravidian predecessor of Tamil nartaṅkāy "fragrant fruit". One suggestion as to the origin of the word anaconda is the Tamil anaikkonda, "having killed an elephant". Examples in English include cheroot (churuṭṭu meaning "rolled up"), mango (from māngāi), mulligatawny (from miḷaku taṇṇīr, "pepper water"), pariah (from paraiyan), curry (from kari), catamaran (from kaṭṭu maram, "bundled logs"), and congee (from kanji – rice porridge or gruel).

Now I have started Tamil ready for my next visit to a Tamil toastmasters club in Singapore, to chat to Indians about language, or to visit India and read signs and calendars.


Flag of India

Useful Websites
translate google
www.mightyminds.sg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_loanwords_in_other_languages
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/06/first-steps-in-tamil-easy-words-which.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/06/tamil-sentence-structure.html
Tamil Bilingual speakers' club in Singapore
https://www.facebook.com/tlcsbilingualsingapore/

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President (2019-2020) of Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters International speakers' club, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg
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