Design and development of Tamil letters - 1

 கீழே வரும் தொடர் Script Grammer for Tamil என்ற தொடரின் பகுதியாய் ஆங்கிலத்தில் எழுதியது. பின்னொரு நாள் இதைத் தமிழில் மொழிபெயர்க்க வேண்டும் என்று எண்ணியிருந்தேன். ஏதோ காரணத்தால் இது தள்ளிப் போகிறது. இனிமேலும் காத்திருக்க வேண்டாம் என்றெண்ணி ஆங்கிலப் பதிப்பை அப்படியே வெளியிடுகிறேன். இப் பகுதி உயிரெழுத்தை மட்டும் பேசுகிறது. மெய்யெழுத்தையும், உயிர்மெய்யையும் அடுத்துவரும் பகுதியில் பார்ப்போம். 

The modern Tamil letters have developed out of the 2500 year-old Thamizhi. Tholkaappiam (700 BCE) talks many aspects of script grammar. Each vowel and consonant has 2 glyph parts, viz., the vowel/consonant base and a marker (made of 2 dashes at the maximum) added suitably. 

Let us first look at the design of vowels. It appears that the vowels அ, இ and உ are the initial ones. They are also called as didactic or pointing letters (சுட்டெழுத்துக்கள்) in the ancient Grammar Tholkaappiam. 

The long vowels (ஆ, ஈ and ஊ) were obtained from the short ones (அ, இ, உ) by addition of a dash marker to the right. 

ஏ was obtained by connecting the three dots of Thamizhi இ and 

ஓ was obtained by adding a dash marker to the Thamizhi உ. 

Further a dash is added to the central dot of இ. This was extended long enough to give ஈ a different look from இ. Further this got rotated by 90 deg before 490 BCE. 

The long vowel ஓ is obtained by adding a dash to the left of உ.

The short vowels எ and ஒ  were obtained by adding a dot on the top of long vowels ஏ and ஓ. 

Inscriptional evidences are obtained (from the earliest periods) only for 10 vowels. The diphthong ஐ appearing to be a combination of அ and ய் came about by 9th century CE. Tholkappiam talks about an alternative representation of ஐ as அஇ and அய். 

Similar is the diphthong ஔ (which is ஒ with the marker present in உ/ஊ) with an alternate representation as அஉ and அவ். The letter ஔ appears to be a development in the 14th century CE only.  

The simple- looking 12 vowels gradually changed over to the present forms due to prolonged writing on palm-leaves. As a result, the dash marker in ஆ  morphed into a chuzhi at the bottom of kaal. The three dots of இ changed over to  around 19th century and further changed to the present form  at the beginning of 20th century due to artistic consideration. Many may be surprised to know that the present form of இ is just 150 years old. Had we maintained the form that had prevailed till 19th century, we could have avoided certain typographic problems we face today with the modern இ.  

(In the modern context, the three dots have re-appeared to denote aytham). Further, a decorative cuzhi or kaN is added to the start of all 11 vowels other than ஈ; a starting vertical and horizontal strokes were added to ஈ.