Prime Letters

12 vowels and 18 consonants are classified as the prime letters.

• The vowels (உயிரெழுத்துகள் uyireḻuttukaḷ): அ (a), ஆ (ā), இ (i), ஈ( ī), உ (u), ஊ (ū), எ (e), ஏ (ē), ஐ (ai), ஒ (o), ஓ (ō), ஔ (au)
• The consonants (மெய்யெழுத்துகள் meyyeḻuttukaḷ): க், ங், ச், ஞ், ட், ண், த், ந், ப், ம், ய், ர், ல், வ், ழ், ள், ற், ன்

The vowels are called uyir, meaning soul, in Tamil. The consonants are known as mey, meaning body. When the alphasyllabary is formed, the letter shall be taking the form of the consonants, that is the body, and the sound shall be that of the corresponding vowel, that is the soul.

The vowels are categorized based on the length, as short (kuril) and long(nedil). The short vowels are pronounced for a duration 1 unit, while the long vowels take two units. Based on the duration of the sound, the vowels form 5 pairs. The other two vowels ஐ(ai) and ஔ(au) are diphthongs formed by joining the letters அ(a)+இ(i) and அ(a)+உ(u). Since these two are a combination two short letters, their pronunciation takes 2 units of time, that is they fall under nedil category. ஐ(ai) and ஔ(au) can also be spelt அய் and அவ். This form is known as eḻuttuppōli and is generally not recommended.

The consonants are categorised into three groups, வல்லினம் valliṉam (hard), மெல்லினம் melliṉam (soft) and இடையினம் iṭaiyiṉam (medium), based on the nature of the sound.

From the 30 prime letters, the dependent letters are formed.

Dependent Letters

Tamil grammar defines 10 categories of Dependent letters.

• Alphasyllabic letters உயிர்மெய் எழுத்து uyirmey eḻuttu
• Aidam ஆய்த எழுத்து āyta eḻuttu
• Elongated vowel உயிரளபெடை uyiraḷapeṭai
• Elongated consonant ஒற்றளபெடை oṟṟaḷapeṭai
• Shortened u குற்றியலுகரம் kuṟṟiyalukaram
• Shortened i குற்றியலிகரம் kuṟṟiyalikaram
• Shortened ai ஐகாரக் குறுக்கம் aikārak kuṟukkam
• Shortened au ஔகாரக் குறுக்கம் aukārak kuṟukkam
• Shortened m மகரக்குறுக்கம் makarakkuṟukkam
• Shortened Aidam ஆய்தக்குறுக்கம் āytakkuṟukkam

The alphasyllabic letters – 216 in total – are formed by combining the consonants and the vowels. The duration of the sound is that of the vowel attached to the consonant (or the inherent vowel, in case of the pure consonants). For example, the table below shows the formation of க் based letters.

Aidam is also known as தனிநிலை taṉinilai (stand alone). The aidam is always preceded by a single short letter (தனிக்குறில் taṉikkuṟil) and followed by a hard alphasyllabic letter (வல்லின உயிர்மெய் valliṉa uyirmey). It takes half unit time for pronunciation.

Uyiraḷapeṭai (உயிரளபெடை) and Oṟṟaḷapeṭai (ஒற்றளபெடை) are formed by elongating the duration of pronunciation of a letter to satisfy certain grammatical rules while composing poetry. In Uyiralapetai, the intrinsic vowel of the letter that is elongated is written next to it, to indicate that the letter now is pronounced for 3 units of time.

In Kutriyalukaram, the duration of the short 'u' letters of vallinam category (கு, சு, டு, து, பு, று) is reduced to half units, when the letter is found at the end of the word, preceded by multiple letters or a single nedil(long) letter.

If a word with kutriyalikaram is followed by a word with 'ய'(ya) as the first letter, the u sound is corrupted to i sound and takes a half unit of time for pronunciation.

In Aikarakurukkam and Aukarakurukkam, the duration of the letters ஐ and ஔ are reduced to 1 1/2 units if they are the first letters of the word. If situated elsewhere it is reduced to 1 unit.

Rationality

The nouns are divided into two main classes based on rationality: The "high class" (உயர்திணை uyartiṇai), and the "lower class" (அஃறிணை aḵṟiṇai).

All the rational beings fall under the category of "high class". Examples could be Adult humans and deities. All the irrational beings and inanimate objects fall under the "lower class". Examples could be animals, birds, plants and things. Since children are considered to be irrational, the word "child" குழந்தை kuḻantai is considered "lower class" or neuter.

Noun inflection

Nouns are inflected based on number and grammatical case, of which there are 9: nominative case, accusative case, dative case, instrumental case, sociative case, locative case, ablative case, genitive case, and vocative case. If the plural is used, the noun is inflected by suffixing the noun stem with first the plural marker -kaḷ, and then with the case suffix, if any. Otherwise, if the singular is used, the noun is instead inflected by suffixing either the noun stem with the case suffix, or the oblique stem with the case suffix. An optional euphonic increment -iṉ or -aṉ can occur before the case suffix.

Oblique Stems

The oblique stem of a noun is used before adding case suffixes, as a modifier in genitive function before a head noun, as the first element of a compound, and before postpositions.

Genders and number

The grammatical gender of Tamil nouns corresponds to their natural sex. Nouns in Tamil have two numbers, singular and plural.

Grammatical gender, known as பா pā in Tamil, encompasses both the concepts of gender and number. Masculine and feminine genders are only applicable to "higher class" nouns. Even though the genders of animals are marked in a sentence (e.g.: பெண் நாய் peṇ nāy "female, dog"), grammatically they are handled as a neuter noun. Thus there are five genders in Tamil, namely, masculine singular (ஆண்பால் āṇpāl), feminine singular (பெண்பால் peṇpāl), high-class plural (பலர்பால் palarpāl), lower-class singular (ஒன்றன்பால் oṉṟaṉpāl), lower-class plural (பலவின்பால் palaviṉpāl). These are summarized in the table below.

Demonstratives and Interrogatives

In Tamil, the demonstrative particles are a- (அ), i- (இ), and u- (உ) (archaic and has fallen out of use, except in Sri Lankan dialects). These demonstrative particles display deictic properties. i- (இ) is a near deixis form, which demonstrates the objects around/near the first person, while a- (அ) has distant deixis form, which demonstrates things near the 3rd person. u- (உ) was used to indicate objects near the second person, but has gradually fallen out of use. In modern Tamil i- (இ) indicates objects nearer and a- (அ) indicates objects in a distance. Using these particles demonstrative pronouns are derived. The same set of pronouns is also used as personal pronouns in 3rd person. e.g. avan (he), atu (that object/being), anta (that)

e- (எ) and yā- யா are the two important interrogative particles in Tamil. e- (எ) is used for deriving the interrogative pronouns. e.g. evaṉ (which one, 3rd person singular masculine), enta (which), etaṟku (for what?)

Personal pronouns

First person plural pronouns in Tamil, distinguish between inclusive and exclusive we. In Tamil, plural terminators are used for honorific addressing. It could be noted in both 2nd and 3rd persons. There are unique personal pronouns available for first and second persons while demonstrative pronouns are used in place of personal pronouns as well.

Auxiliaries

Tamil has no articles. Definiteness and indefiniteness are indicated either by context or by special grammatical devices, such as using the number "one" as an indefinite article. In the first person plural, Tamil makes a distinction between inclusive pronouns that include the listener and exclusive pronouns that do not. Tamil does not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs – both fall under the category uriccol. Conjunctions are called iṭaiccol.

Verb auxiliaries are used to indicate attitude, a grammatical category which shows the state of mind of the speaker, and his attitude about the event spoken of in the verb. Common attitudes include pejorative opinion, antipathy, relief felt at the conclusion of an unpleasant event or period, and unhappiness at or apprehension about the eventual result of a past or continuing event.