Tamil Language - Sounds

Sounds

Tamil phonology is characterised by the presence of retroflex consonants and multiple rhotics. Tamil does not distinguish phonologically between voiced and unvoiced consonants; phonetically, voice is assigned depending on a consonant's position in a word. Tamil phonology permits few consonant clusters, which can never be word initial. Native grammarians classify Tamil phonemes into vowels, consonants, and a "secondary character", the āytam.

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Famous quotes containing the word sounds:

    “Why is it that reality, when set down untransposed in a book, sounds false?”
    —Simone Weil (1909–1943)

    “She sang a song that sounds like life; I mean it was sad. Délira knew no other types of songs. She didn’t sing loud, and the song had no words. It was sung with closed lips and it stayed down in one’s throat.... Life is what taught them, these Negresses, to sing as if they were choking back sobs. It is a song that always ends with a beginning anew because this song is the picture of misery, and tell me, does misery ever end?”
    —Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)

    “I suppose any note, no matter how sour, sounds like a song if you hold onto it long enough.”
    —Dewitt Bodeen (1908–1988)