No roman transliteration can perfectly match the original Tamil. We use a simplified system, already widely in use in Canada, USA and Australia based on modern English. It is intended for easy assimilation by the young whose first language is English and who have no awareness of the meaning of special diacritical marks. In cases where the roman alphabet offers two options for the same phoneme forms with same sound (e.g. "day" and "hey" sound the same in English) arbitrary decisions have been made. More details on the scheme, rationale behind the decisions made, the challenges and our solutions are on the web site.

Vowels It is important to observe long vowels! This does not mean stress or louder as we do for English accented syllables. The sound is simply elongated, mouth more open. "Seevan" is "soul" but "Siva" is "God Siva" a big difference. "Naathan" is correct, not "Nathan."

a	short "a"	as in "about" "ago"
a	long "aa"	as in "father" "far" (open mouth)
i	short "e/i"	as in "dig" "pit" (not "eye"!)
ee	long "ee"	as in "geek" "seek" "peek"
u	short "u"	as in "put" --a and very short at the end of words
oo	long "u"	as in "Google" "fool"
e	short "eh"	as in "pet" "get"
ey	long "eh"	as in "day" "pay" "hey" "clay"
ai	long "i"	as in "hi" "pie" "sky" (dipthong, open mouth))
o	short "o"	as in "over" "chosen"
oh	long "o"	as in "Oh!"
au	long "au"	as in "cow," "ouch!" "couch" (dipthong)

It is equally important not to "stretch" short vowels. This is especially challenging for English or Latin language speakers, who must pay special attention to this issue. The singing style of English and Latin languages elongates vowels in time with the music. You simply cannot do this in Tamil singing. If you do, it makes you sound like an western choir singer and "breaks" the Tamil.

If time is needed between two syllables with short vowels time is added by stretching consonants values or adding pauses between words. The most common are elongated nasals. For example, "Enthan manam" ("my mind") has four short vowels. "Enthaaaan Maaanam" is not an option, as the words would no longer mean "my mind." There may not even be such words in Tamil and it will sound very strange. Instead we sing "enthannnn manam" or "enthan (pause) manammmm." If a three syllable word like "Ponnadi" must fill a four beat measure, you should sing "Pon nn a di" and elongate the double "nn" consonant. To sing "Po oh na di" (stretching out the 'o' to a long "oh" sound) is incorrect because the vowels in this word are all short. This requires practice and is most easily learned by singing along with audio files. Natchintanai kareoke is both fun and good practice. We encourage you to learn the Tamil script, , even if you never become fluent in Tamil.

Consonants

With the except of the "high l," our transliteration scheme does not try to represent the subtle differences in dental, cerebral or retroflex N or L. If someone knows Tamil will enough to make these kinds of distinctions they would be able to read the Tamil script. Unlike short and long vowels, imperfect consonant pronunciation is more forgiving. In general, Tamil consonants are very soft, in contrast to English and Sanskrit. Relax and do not sharply "attack" the consonants as one might do in an English elocution contest.

Special Cases

t "T-Th"

The letter "t" in Tamil is soft which is indicated by adding an "h" after it, but this is not aspirated, and the tongue does not protrude underneath the front teeth, as it does in the word "Thank you." It is more like the "th" in "father," pronounced softly as a "dental t" - lightly touch the tongue to the back of the front teeth. There is debate as to whether transliterations should even include the "h" after the "t" when representing t in the roman transliteration. In practice we find that the uninitiated will mispronounce it whether you write "t" or "th" and only only say it correctly after being told and with practice. We decided to retain the "h" after pleadings from some Tamil speakers that without it, the proper representation of the dental "t" would be lost.

k "G-K-H" The Gutteral

The Tamil letter "k-g" is called a "gutteral fricative" -- one barely closes the back of the throat, as air passes through. It will sound like a "g" in some words, a gentle "k" in others and may even be pronounced like "h" in between "a" and "o" or "o" and "a". And to make it even more interesting "akila" will be pronounced "agila" by one authentic singer and then "ahila" by an equally authoritative voice from a different region. Either way is correct, but never a harsh "gha!" or "kha!" which you will not hear in Tamil. We decided, after much discussion, to use "g" because westerners typically aspirate "k" ("kite") and "h" ("height"). z "High L" This sound is unique to Tamil and must be learned from a teacher. This is our one exception to the use of marks to indicate phonetics. We use "l" followed by "dot" (l.) to indicate the letter, because the old use of "zh" for this letter is problematic for the current generation. In Mauritius, for example, we now have 4th generation Tamil boys saying their name is "Pazzjhani" (for "Palani"). Just pronounce regular "l" if you don't know how to pronounce it.

[f[ "nn, nng, tth, ttr, ll, kk etc." (Consonant Clusters)

In Tamil we always enunciate consonant doubles and clusters where a consonant ends one syllable and starts the next. Sometimes called "stops"--"kk," "tth," "nng," "nd" etc., where the singer "lingers" on the last consonant of one syllable (especially nasals), especially where time, as mentioned above, is needed to fill the talam (musical measure). "Sonna" ("he said") may be sung as "son nn na", the nasal being elongated to fill out the musical measure, or "Solllll vaye" elongates the "L" sound, while keeping the short vowels precisely short. This gives Tamil singing it's special richness, rhythm, and natural syncopation, and is required to be correct, because short vowels must be kept short.

bf "R-Stop"

The conventions and the grammatical rules for compound words written Tamil lead to the transformation of final letters of the first word. The original final letter may be an "l" and "n" or a "t" but is often changed to R-Stop. The proper way to represent and pronounce the "Infamous R-Stop" or "double-suli R" is a matter of controversy. The most striking example is in the very title of Yogaswami's songs. The two words "Nalla Chintanai" (Good Thoughts) combined, form a compound word, Tamil rules require the "lla" be transformed into the R-stop, because the first word becomes an adjective for the second: "Narchintanai" because it is a stop sound it is usually written as "Natchintanai" and pronounced as "t" by Jaffna Tamils. Another phrase frequently found in Natchintanai is "pon patham = "Gold Feet". But since "gold" is an adjective you must write: "porpatham" = "Golden Feet". How this should be transliterated and pronounced is the controversial issue. It is spelled with a "t" in printed works from Sri Lanka, but in Chennai they will ask you "Why do you use 't'?"

What is the solution? Think of the two English words "Port Allen" -- you cannot say "Pot Allen" and you cannot say "Por Allen" . If you say "Port Allen" -- everyone is happy. Similarly, pronounce words like "porpatham" as "portpatham," making the "rt" very soft.

Word Breaks and Sandhis (Liason Letters)

Written Tamil inserts sandhi (liason/joining) letters ("y" "v" "k" "t" "m" etc. ) between words, to join them without spaces, or end the last syllable of one or begin the first syllable of the next. These provide a smooth phonetic transition between words, and though technically not part of the words, were required to be added in "old" written Tamil. This has been an a serious problem for those trying to read or understand this old style Tamil. One of the mandates for this particular version of the Natchintanai is that it should serve as an aid in learning Tamil. So, wherever possible we have introduced logical word breaks and removed the liason letters in the transliteration. This was done to facilitate recognition of the Tamil words which are otherwise obscured by being run together.

In some cases the grammattical mode suffix of the first word in a compound is dropped and only the root is retained. We did not go so far as to re-introduce these "ellipsed" final syllables as it makes it impossible to sing correctly. For example, the very first line of ennai enakkarivithan, engal Gurunathan is actually "ennai" (about me) "enakku" (to me ) "arivitthan" (he informed). But the second two words go together and the "ku" suffix of the first word is dropped: enakkarivithan. In this case the talam (rhythm) will not allow us to insert the missing "ku" and it is dropped in singing.

The sandhi letters maybe vocalized or not. Either way is correct. and some singers will even break compound words, and reinsert the final suffixes of the first word, where the talam of the song may allow it. You can sing "thaagatthai(y)aakki" (add a "y" sound in the middle) But to sing: "thaagatthai (break) aakki" is also correct. They may be vocalized by one singer in one repetition, but then the same singer will clearly separate the two words in the next repetition. Even though they are removed from the transliteration, we can freely use the liason letters when singing. They vary depending on context, but will come easily as they just represent the natural way our mouths will try to go from one sound at the end of a word, to the beginning of the next. For those interested in the fine points of these linguistic/transliteration issues, you can find more details at the web site.

Recap of pointers

Open your mouth when you sing! Pronounce vowels correctly. There are ten different ways to enunciate the letter "e" or "a" in English, but only one in Tamil (or Sanskrit). Keep short vowels short, long vowels long and consonants very "soft." If you listen to the elder Mannickavasagar on the web site, you will hear just how very soft Tamil consonants can be. Have some fun. Sing along with the audio. Record yourself and listen to your own voice and then make corrections. Learn the Tamil script and get training or at least some pointers from Tamil speakers.