bilabial | labio-velar | dental | alveolar | retroflex | palatal | velar | glottal | |
stop | p, b | t̪, d̪ | ʈ, ɖ | c, ɟ | k, g | |||
trill | r̪ | r | ||||||
fricative | ʐ | h | ||||||
nasal | m | n̪ | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | ||
approximant | w | j | ||||||
lateral approximant | l̪ | ɭ |
front | central | back | |
close | i | u | |
close-mid | e | o | |
open | a |
front | central | back | |
close | iː | uː | |
close-mid | eː | oː | |
open | aː |
/ai/, /au/
Ø
Source: Annamalai, E.; and Sanford B. Steever. 1998. Modern Tamil. The Dravidian languages, ed. by Sanford B. Steever, 100–128. Routledge language family descriptions. London ; New York: Routledge.
Comments: “In the spoken language, virtually all words end in vowels, while in the literary language, words may end in certain nasals and liquids as well” (103).
Contributed by: Dmitry Nikolaev (dnikolaev@fastmail.com)