Tamil Scripts

when printing was introduced in the 16th century CE. The major addition to the alphabet was the incorporation of Grantha letters to write unassimilated Sanskrit words, although a few letters with irregular shapes were standardized during the modern period. A script known as Vatteluttu (“Round Script”) is also in common use.

The vatteluttu letters were also added to it for sounds which are not available in Sanskrit. By the 8th century, the new script replaced vatteluttu in the Chola and Pallava kingdoms. Vatteluttu sustained to be utilized in the Chera and Pandyan kingdoms until the Pandyan kingdom was occupied by the Cholas in the 11th century. Over the course of time, the Chola-Pallava script advanced into the modern Tamil script. As palm leaves were used as the prime medium for writing, therefore several changes were made in the script accordingly.

The following is the basic Tamil script.
Tamil Characters: The Tamil alphabet (vowels) has 12 and the consonants have 18 and these combines to form (12x18) 216 compound characters. And have one special character that is ayudha eluthu, giving the total of 247 Tamil characters.

The Tamil vowels has 12 letters

The Tamil Consonants has 18 letters

Compound table of Tamil letters 216

The forms of few letters were streamlined in the 19th century to make the script easier to typescript. Further, in the 20th century, the Tamil script was simplified in a series of reforms. The vowel markers were regularized, which were used with consonants by removing special markers and most unbalanced forms. In modern period Tamil scripts doesn’t change but the way of speaking the Tamil language is changed. Tamil language is split into the Tamil dialects.
The Tamil dialects are:
1) Madurai Tamil
2) Coimbatore or Kongu Tamil
3) Jaffna or Yazhpanam Tamil
4) Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli Tamil
5) Tirunelveli or Nellai Tamil
6) Kanyakumari Tamil