Learning Tamil, My experiences: continued

**Braandan** · 13th February 2006, 11:02 AM

Yes it is used almost like Sanskrit visarga, but not exactly like that. It is used to make the letter sound like a foriegn (Non Tamil) letter. Like "fa" as in "fan" and "phi" as in "philosophy", by prefixing it before the Tamil "pa". Recently there was a Tamil film with the name of this letter "Aaytha ezhuthu".

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**Shakthiprabha.** · 13th February 2006, 12:02 PM

I suppose that letter comes into picture when we have anything to do with.

"F"

and

"h"

**Lambretta** · 13th February 2006, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by skanthan

Gotcha loud and clear, Lambretta!

2 years ago, Shanthi had me count from 1 to 100 in Tamil! very interesting and somewhat difficult especially in the numbers from 10 to 20 namely because some of those numbers use panni instead of padhi. She said that one day, she will have me count from 1 to 1000!

I hope she was only joking!

Hmm.....I hope so too skan!

Sorry who's Shanthi btw??

Or do u mean Shakti??
Or is this sumone in the old hub (as u say 2 years ago), in which case I wudn't hav known her....

**Shakthiprabha.** · 13th February 2006, 12:22 PM

Which shakti?

btw, he means shanthi his friend (who teaches or learns tamizh with him.... not a hubber)

**Lambretta** · 13th February 2006, 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by Shakthiprabha

Which shakti?

Wat do u mean??

How many Shaktis do we (or I) know in the Hub apart from U??!! :P

btw, he means shanthi his friend (who teaches or learns tamizh with him.... not a hubber)

Ohh.....ok!

**skanthan** · 13th February 2006, 06:42 PM

I have also seen that ahenam written before "pa" and sometimes, "va" to make "fa". I think in the ancient times, that letter was read as "ba", not "fa". Also very rarely I have seen the word ehu(egu) which is spelt as e-(ahEnam)-ku.

**skanthan** · 16th February 2006, 05:32 AM

A couple years ago, Shanthi told me, "Tamil is not a sweet language". I do not know why!

Whenever I speak or sing in Tamil, I almost imagine that I am getting a sweet taste like milk and honey in my mouth!

**skanthan** · 21st March 2006, 12:00 AM

I have a question regarding the word "mayir". A few years ago, Shanthi told me this word is a bad word and that the proper word for "hair" is "mudi". This always confused me because all the Tamils fro Sri Lanka use this word and have no reservation about using it. Is it that this word is frowned on as being a bad word in Tamil Nadu where as in Sri Lanka it is not? Please enlighten me on this one.

**dev** · 21st March 2006, 12:08 AM

skanthan,

U r right... It's considered to be a bad word in TN... But I guess mayir & kUnthal are the proper tamil word for hair... mudi is colloq...

All tamil pulavars here, pls correct me if I'm wrong...