Page:Arden - A Progressive Grammar of Common Tamil.djvu/17



10. There are no Tamil vowels which have the exact sounds of the English a in pan or of the English o in hot. Great care must be taken not to give these sounds to and. One of the most common and ruinous faults in an Englishman's pronunciation is to pronounce like a in pan. Hence it is better from the first to associate with the sound of u in up, although it might be equally well represented by final a in China. When transliterating, it is better to represent by ă.

11. In order to explain the Tamil consonants, at first a few only of them will be given which present no difficulties in pronunciation, and with them the general system of Tamil writing and reading will be illustrated. The remainder of the consonants will then be given, some of which present special difficulties in pronunciation.

12. As a consonant cannot be sounded without the help of a vowel, it is necessary to introduce the sound of a vowel, in order to pronounce the consonants in any alphabet. Thus, in English, the sounds of the vowels e and a respectively are introduced to pronounce the consonants