Comparison of keymap of tamil transliteration schemes and fonts

A comparison of transliteration schemes and keymapping of tamil fonts

Unfortunately there is yet no standard universally adopted for transliterating tamil texts in romanised/ASCII form NOR there is one for the keymapping of different tamil fonts. Some of the tamil fonts use the keymapping of classical tamil typewriters (still widely in use in South India) while others the keymapping is based on phonetically linking the tamil character being typed with the roman letter under which they are based. The latter approach is to facilitate the typing process on computers that use invariably the English/roman keyboard! The following table attempts to provide a comparison of different tamil transliteration schemes and keymaps of tamil fonts. The comparison is representative and is no means exhaustive (Every new tamil font appears to have its own keymap!).

In the absence of standards, convertors come handy. Conversion softwares such as ADHAWIN of Dr. K. Srinivasan (for use on Windows PCs) and TAMILCONVERTOR of Chris Goringe (for use on Macintosh PCs) allow interconversion between most of these formats.

KEYMAP ASSIGNMENTS IN TRANSLITERATION AND TAMIL FONTS

Tamil character	MADURAI	ADAMI/ADHAWIN	KOELN	MYLAI	PALLADAM	TAMILASER
a	a	a	a	`	a	m
aa	A	aa (A)	A	~	A	M
i	i	i	i	;	i	,
ii	I	ee (I, ii)	I	:	I	<
u	u	u	u	u	u	c
uu	U	oo(U, uu)	U	U	U	C
e	e	e	e	'	e	v
eh	E	E	E	"	E	V
ai	ai	ai	ai	_	j	I
o	o	o	o	o	o	x
oo	O	O	O	O	O	X
ow	au	oq (au)	au	oq	opt o	xs
ah	q/ah(H)	.	H	#	F	\
-------	-------	-------	--------	-------	-----	----------
ka	ka	k(g,h)	k	k	k	f
nga (ga)	nga (ga)	n(nG, ng)	g	g	g	'
ca	ca	c(ch)	c	c	c	r
nya (n^a)	nya (n^a)	n (NY)	n^(jn)	w	c	"
ta/da(Ta)	ta/da(Ta)	t(d)	T	d	d	l
Na	Na	N	N	]	]	z
tha (ta)	tha (ta)	th (dh)	t	t	t	j
(n^a) (na)	n^a (na)	n (nN,n^)	n	n	n	e
pa	pa	p (b)	p	p	p	g
ma	ma	m	m	m	m	k
ya	ya	y	y	y	y	a
ra	ra	r	r	r	r	u
la	la	l	l	l	l	y
va	va	v	v	v	v	t
za	za	zh (z)	z	z	z	H
La	La	L	L	q	q	s
Ra	Ra	R	R	b	b	w
na	na	n (nN)	n_ (n2)	[	[	d
-------	-------	-------	--------	-------	-----	----------
ja	ja	j	..	j	j	$
sa	Sa	sh	..	s	s	!
sha	sha(sa)	S	..	x	x	=
ksha	(kSa)	x(ksh)	..	X	..	+
ha	ha	H	..	h	h	&
sri	sri	SRI	..	!	..	_

Return to Tamil fonts and softwares

This file was last updated on 12 December 1995
You are

th
Visitor of this Homepage since October 10, 2002
Please send your comments on this page to Dr. K. Kalyanasundaram
(email: kalyan@oocities.com)