[INDOLOGY] Tamil initial vowels with vowel signs

[Satyanad Kichenassamy]

On Thu, 19 May 2022 11:22:46 +0100
Jan Kučera <jan.kucera at matfyz.cz> wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
>  
> 
> has anyone come across a Tamil orthography where a vowel sign would be attached to an initial vowel, presumably most likely it would be A or AA, e.g. ஆா?

Dear Jan,

The convention for writing உயிரளபெடை for isolated vowels is the same for isolated or final vowels: one should append the appropriate short vowel to the long vowel. For a, i, u, e, o, this gives ஆஅ இஈ ஊஉ ஏஎ and ஓஒ). For ai and au, the forms are ஐஇ and ஔஉ. This is prescribed in தொல்காப்பியம், எழுத்ததிகாரம், ௪௧-௪௨. The examples I gave are found in the examples on the same page in the edition published by the சைவசித்தாந்த​ நூற்பதிப்புக்கழகம், 1979, with நச்சினார்க்கினியர்'s commentary.

I hope this helps,

         Satyanad K.
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you and best regards,
> 
> Jan
> 


-- 
**********************************************
Satyanad KICHENASSAMY
Professor of Mathematics
Laboratoire de Mathématiques de Reims  (CNRS, UMR9008)
Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne
F-51687 Reims Cedex 2
France
Web: https://www.normalesup.org/~kichenassamy
**********************************************