The Tamil
script is a South
Indian script. South Indian scripts are structurally related to the North Indian scripts, but they are used to write the
Dravidian languages of southern
India and of
Sri Lanka, which are generally unrelated to the North Indian languages such as
Hindi,
Bengali and
Gujarati. The shapes of the letters in the South Indian scripts are generally quite distinct from the shapes of the letters in
Devanagari and its related scripts. The difference is partly a result of the fact that the South Indian scripts were originally carved with
needles on
palm leaves, a technology that apparently favored
rounded letter shapes rather than
square block-like shapes.
The Tamil script is used to write the Tamil language of Tamil Nadu state in India, as well as minority languages such as Badaga. Tamil is also used in Sri Lanka, Singapore and parts of Malaysia. This script has fewer consonants than other Indic script. It also lacks conjunct consonant forms,
U+0BCD ் Tamil sign virama
is normally fully depicted in Tamil text.
U+0BD7 ௗ Tamil au length mark
is provided as an encoding for the right side of the surroundrant (or two-part) vowel
U+0BCC ௌ Tamil vowel sign au
Unicode's
Tamil code block reserves the
128 code points from U+0B80 to U+0BFF, of which
72 are currently assigned.
Oriya <-- Tamil --> Telugu
Number of characters added in each version of the Unicode standard :
Unicode 1.1 : 61
Unicode 4.0 : 8
Unicode 4.1 : 2
Unicode 5.1 : 1
Number of characters in each General Category :
Letter, Other Lo : 37
Mark, Non-Spacing Mn : 3
Mark, Spacing Combining Mc : 11
Number, Decimal Digit Nd : 10
Number, Other No : 3
Symbol, Currency Sc : 1
Symbol, Other So : 7
Number of characters in each Bidirectional Category :
Left To Right L : 61
European Number Terminator ET : 1
Non Spacing Mark NSM : 3
Other Neutral ON : 7
The columns below should be interpreted as :
- The Unicode code for the character
- The character in question
- The Unicode name for the character
- The Unicode General Category for the character
- The Unicode Bidirectional Category for the character
- The Unicode version when this character was added
If the characters below show up poorly, or not at all, see Unicode Support for possible solutions.
Tamil
Based on ISCII 1988
- U+0B82 ஂ Tamil sign anusvara Mn NSM 1.1
- * not used in Tamil
- U+0B83 ஃ Tamil sign visarga Lo L 1.1
- aka aytham
Independent vowels
- U+0B85 அ Tamil letter A Lo L 1.1
- U+0B86 ஆ Tamil letter aa Lo L 1.1
- U+0B87 இ Tamil letter I Lo L 1.1
- U+0B88 ஈ Tamil letter ii Lo L 1.1
- U+0B89 உ Tamil letter U Lo L 1.1
- U+0B8A ஊ Tamil letter uu Lo L 1.1
- U+0B8E எ Tamil letter E Lo L 1.1
- U+0B8F ஏ Tamil letter ee Lo L 1.1
- U+0B90 ஐ Tamil letter ai Lo L 1.1
- U+0B92 ஒ Tamil letter O Lo L 1.1
- U+0B93 ஓ Tamil letter oo Lo L 1.1
- U+0B94 ஔ Tamil letter au Lo L 1.1
Consonants
- U+0B95 க Tamil letter ka Lo L 1.1
- U+0B99 ங Tamil letter nga Lo L 1.1
- U+0B9A ச Tamil letter ca Lo L 1.1
- U+0B9C ஜ Tamil letter ja Lo L 1.1
- U+0B9E ஞ Tamil letter nya Lo L 1.1
- U+0B9F ட Tamil letter tta Lo L 1.1
- U+0BA3 ண Tamil letter nna Lo L 1.1
- U+0BA4 த Tamil letter ta Lo L 1.1
- U+0BA8 ந Tamil letter na Lo L 1.1
- U+0BA9 ன Tamil letter nnna Lo L 1.1
- U+0BAA ப Tamil letter pa Lo L 1.1
- U+0BAE ம Tamil letter ma Lo L 1.1
- U+0BAF ய Tamil letter ya Lo L 1.1
- U+0BB0 ர Tamil letter ra Lo L 1.1
- U+0BB1 ற Tamil letter rra Lo L 1.1
- U+0BB2 ல Tamil letter la Lo L 1.1
- U+0BB3 ள Tamil letter lla Lo L 1.1
- U+0BB4 ழ Tamil letter llla Lo L 1.1
- U+0BB5 வ Tamil letter va Lo L 1.1
- U+0BB6 ஶ Tamil letter sha Lo L 4.1
- U+0BB7 ஷ Tamil letter ssa Lo L 1.1
- U+0BB8 ஸ Tamil letter sa Lo L 1.1
- U+0BB9 ஹ Tamil letter ha Lo L 1.1
Dependent vowel signs
- U+0BBE ா Tamil vowel sign aa Mc L 1.1
- U+0BBF ி Tamil vowel sign i Mc L 1.1
- U+0BC0 ீ Tamil vowel sign ii Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0BC1 ு Tamil vowel sign u Mc L 1.1
- U+0BC2 ூ Tamil vowel sign uu Mc L 1.1
- U+0BC6 ெ Tamil vowel sign e Mc L 1.1
- * stands to the left of the consonant
- U+0BC7 ே Tamil vowel sign ee Mc L 1.1
- * stands to the left of the consonant
- U+0BC8 ை Tamil vowel sign ai Mc L 1.1
- * stands to the left of the consonant
Two-part dependent vowel signs
These vowel signs have glyph pieces which stand on both sides of the consonant; they follow the consonant in logical order, and should be handled as a unit for most processing.
- U+0BCA ொ Tamil vowel sign o Mc L 1.1
- U+0BCB ோ Tamil vowel sign oo Mc L 1.1
- U+0BCC ௌ Tamil vowel sign au Mc L 1.1
Various signs
- U+0BCD ் Tamil sign virama Mn NSM 1.1
- U+0BD0 ௐ Tamil om Lo L 5.1
- U+0BD7 ௗ Tamil au length mark Mc L 1.1
Digits
- U+0BE6 ௦ Tamil digit zero Nd L 4.1
- U+0BE7 ௧ Tamil digit one Nd L 1.1
- U+0BE8 ௨ Tamil digit two Nd L 1.1
- U+0BE9 ௩ Tamil digit three Nd L 1.1
- U+0BEA ௪ Tamil digit four Nd L 1.1
- U+0BEB ௫ Tamil digit five Nd L 1.1
- U+0BEC ௬ Tamil digit six Nd L 1.1
- U+0BED ௭ Tamil digit seven Nd L 1.1
- U+0BEE ௮ Tamil digit eight Nd L 1.1
- U+0BEF ௯ Tamil digit nine Nd L 1.1
Tamil numerics
- U+0BF0 ௰ Tamil number ten No L 1.1
- U+0BF1 ௱ Tamil number one hundred No L 1.1
- U+0BF2 ௲ Tamil number one thousand No L 1.1
Tamil symbols
- U+0BF3 ௳ Tamil day sign So ON 4.0
- U+0BF4 ௴ Tamil month sign So ON 4.0
- U+0BF5 ௵ Tamil year sign So ON 4.0
- U+0BF6 ௶ Tamil debit sign So ON 4.0
- U+0BF7 ௷ Tamil credit sign So ON 4.0
- U+0BF8 ௸ Tamil as above sign So ON 4.0
Currency symbol
- U+0BF9 ௹ Tamil rupee sign Sc ET 4.0
- * Rupee
Tamil symbol
- U+0BFA ௺ Tamil number sign So ON 4.0
http://unicode.org
Some prose may have been lifted verbatim from unicode.org,
as is permitted by their terms of use at http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html