Long vowels in Tamil (Re: CSX)

[kichenas at math.umn.edu]

Yes: in Tamil, the unmarked letters are short by default,
so the macron is required for long vowels (despite the
variations of transliteration, this convention seems
to be universally followed).

By the way, all vowels in Tamil can have three lengths,
(1, 2 or 3 units in duration). For a, these would be
denoted a, A, Aa, both in transliteration and in
the Tamil script. The last form is called aLapeTai
and has an analog for diphtongs (aii).
At any rate, these do not require any further special
symbols.



                                Satyanad Kichenassamy
                                School of Mathematics
                                University of Minnesota
                                kichenas at math.umn.edu