Topic suggested by K.Balasubramanian on Wed Apr 28 06:36:49 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

It is obvious that tamil lacks a large number of sounds present in other languages. While every language suffers from this problem to some extent there is no one to advocate increasing the number of letters in tamil. Tamil people pronounce many foreign words wrongly because of this defect as their knowledge is through WRITTEN tamil. Tamil purists will not agree to the introduction of new letters and they may be quite justified. I feel there is a need for Scientific Tamil meant ONLY for writing scientific works in tamil. This can coexist with the accepted tamil. Even in magazines written in accepted tamil new scientific words can be given in brackets so that proper pronunciation can be propagated. But I don't think new SYMBOLS are needed. With the existing letters some new method must be devised to impart proper pronunciation. This is quite challenging. But remember some half-hearted attempts were made by using "Aida" ezhuththu. I suggest some sort of solution like TeX used for typesetting mathematics. Who will take the challenge of developing Scientific Tamil?

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Chandra (@ user-38lcc7d.dialup.mindspring.com) on: Sat Nov 20 16:57:25
  
  What matters is:
  1. How rich the language is in root words and auxiliary words such as prefixes and suffixes and in mechanisms for deriving new words by systematically yet elegantly putting together those components to coin new words.
  
  To truly understand the richness of Tamil language's root words browse through DEDR.
  
  2. The attitude of the people towards employing their language in new situations by readiliy exploiting the wealth as described in #1 above. This is where Tamils have been failing summarily.
  
  
• From: Sinnathurai Srivas (@ ) on: Sun Apr 14 18:45:13
  
  For detail discussions on Tamil phonemes please join
  tamil_araichchi@yahoogroups.com
  The sounds are there. We need to understand how Tamil is written.
  visit http://www.geocities.com/avarangal for Tamil Research.
  
  
• From: Jegan (@ ) on: Sun Dec 28 08:07:02
  
  Can anyone provide me with a list of phonemes of tamil language
  
  
• From: R.Srinivasan (USA) (@ c-67-164-79-114.client.comcast.net) on: Fri Jan 2 01:39:53 EST 2004
  
  ADDING MOUSTACHE TO AJANTHA PAINTINGS ...?
  
  I don't understand the sweeping statement by the Initiator of this Thread, Mr. K.Balasaubrahmanian....
  
  What does he mean specifically?.... and Why? On what Grounds and justifications ? On which sort of PHONETICS?
  
  For the same Question raised earlier by another gentleman, I have replied in detail analytically, under another Thread ...
  
  "UNIQUE LANGUAGE TAMIL.... HOW?"....
  
  I invite him to go through my reply and then come out specifically.
  
  In brief, there cannot be difference of opinion that....
  
  .... Any Language has to adopt itself suiting to the advancement of TIME AND AGES.
  
  And Tamil has invariably stood to that Basic-demand of any Classical-Language, and still living Royally...
  
  ... unlike some other Classical Languages like Sanskrit, Hebrew, Latin etc.....
  
  which are deemed as DEAD LANGUAGES due to this Lacunae.
  
  In the Practical Sense, by way of Tamilians Religion either Hinduism, or Budhism or Jainism ... Sanskrit being their Language of Gospels like Vaedha ... it has become their indispensable Second Language in their day to day living alongside Tamil. Consequently Sanskrit words got mixed up in Tamil, even though logically not necessary.
  
  And to accomodate such of the important and inevitable Sanskrit phonetics some new Alphabets exclusively for this purpose has been CREATED.... such as ....
  
  ƒ, "ì„", †, …, ‚, .... etc.
  
  Further Tamil-Scholars did not feel it necessary to add up any more Alphabets to Tamil, since such an attempt will radically nullify the Basic principle and Beauty of Tamil Language as the....
  
  MOST SIMPLEST and LIGHTEST.... as well as the SWEETEST LANGUAGE..... to mean....
  
  "¡ÁÈ¢ó¾ ¦Á¡Æ¢¸Ç¢§Ä ¾Á¢ú ¦Á¡Æ¢ §À¡ø þÉ¢¾¡ÅÐ ±íÌõ ¸¡§½ý..."
  
  Tamil is so qualified to be attributed because it does not have any TOUGH OR HARSH SOUNDS like
  
  Kha...Ghah...Chha...Jhaha...Pha...Bhah...Ttah... Thhah... Dhah... etc, which sounds are to be generated right from the abdomen, making the whole body to JERK..... causing difficulty to pronounce each time.
  
  But in Tamil we have sounds of Ka, Ga, Cha, Ja, Sa, Ta, Da, Tha, Dha... etc of lighter sound varieties also.
  
  But unlike other Indian Languages, more number of Sounds are created by one and the same letter ... generated from the Throat only
  
  For example one Letter Ka gets the sounds of either Ka, or Ga, or Ha ... suiting to its location.
  
  Similarly one letter Cha gets the sounds of Cha, Sa or Ha ... suiting to its placement in a word. This point I have elaborated in my previous reply under the Thread... "UNIQUE LANGUAGE TAMIL...HOW?"
  
  Many people don't know that in our Contemporary Tamil (Spoken and Literature forms too), not only abundant Sanskrit words but also the words of Foreign Languages like Persian, Portugese, Arab, Hebrew and Latin words we are using profusely such as.....
  
  ºÃ¢, ÍõÁ¡Î, ƒýÉø, ¾¢ÛÍ, ÌøÄ¡ö, À¾¢ø, ¸Î¾¡º¢, ¸¡¸¢¾õ, ÍõÁ¡, ¾¡º¢ø¾¡÷, ƒ¢øÄ¡, ¾¡Ö측, ¾¡Ê, Àí¸Ç¡... etc.
  
  Similarly we have added up several English words also in the Tamil Vocabularly, which I have elaborated in my previous reply.
  
  And further if necessary we don't find anything wrong to add up so from the other Advanced Languages to Tamil vocabulary in the practical aspect and timely needs.
  
  At the same time, we have to remember that in our Contemporary Tamil Language ...
  
  it is JUST ABOUT 40% of the Classical Tamil words only we are using even in the modern Literature ....
  
  ... while the 60% of Senthamizh words are UNKNOWN and hidden only in the Ancient Literature and mostly unfamiliar to the Tamilians themselves.
  
  If such of those words are brought out to use....
  
  Tamil will be TOTALLY SELF-DEPENDANT... rather INDEPENDANT......as well as the ....
  
  MOST ADVANCED MODERN LANGUAGE..... too.
  
  With NO NECESSITY OF ADDITIONS OR ALTERATIONS in any manner whatsoever.
  
  
• From: quake (@ 202.68.154.19) on: Fri Jan 23 11:53:04 EST 2004
  
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• From: Karthik (@ 141.156.201.226) on: Fri Feb 20 11:19:04 EST 2004
  
  http://www.valaippoo.blogspot.com/
  
  

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