The Tamil script is a South Indian script. South Indian scripts are structurally related to the North Indian scripts, but they are used to write the Dravidian languages of southern India and of Sri Lanka, which are generally unrelated to the North Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati. The shapes of the letters in the South Indian scripts are generally quite distinct from the shapes of the letters in Devanagari and its related scripts. The difference is partly a result of the fact that the South Indian scripts were originally carved with needles on palm leaves, a technology that apparently favored rounded letter shapes rather than square block-like shapes.

The Tamil script is used to write the Tamil language of Tamil Nadu state in India, as well as minority languages such as Badaga. Tamil is also used in Sri Lanka, Singapore and parts of Malaysia. This script has fewer consonants than other Indic script. It also lacks conjunct consonant forms, U+0BCD    Tamil sign virama   is normally fully depicted in Tamil text.

U+0BD7    Tamil au length mark   is provided as an encoding for the right side of the surroundrant (or two-part) vowel U+0BCC    Tamil vowel sign au  


Unicode's Tamil code block reserves the 128 code points from U+0B80 to U+0BFF, of which 72 are currently assigned.

Oriya <-- Tamil --> Telugu

Number of characters added in each version of the Unicode standard :
Unicode 1.1 : 61
Unicode 4.0 : 8
Unicode 4.1 : 2
Unicode 5.1 : 1

Number of characters in each General Category :

Letter, Other            Lo : 37
Mark, Non-Spacing        Mn :  3
Mark, Spacing Combining  Mc : 11
Number, Decimal Digit    Nd : 10
Number, Other            No :  3
Symbol, Currency         Sc :  1
Symbol, Other            So :  7

Number of characters in each Bidirectional Category :

Left To Right                 L : 61
European Number Terminator   ET :  1
Non Spacing Mark            NSM :  3
Other Neutral                ON :  7

The columns below should be interpreted as :

  1. The Unicode code for the character
  2. The character in question
  3. The Unicode name for the character
  4. The Unicode General Category for the character
  5. The Unicode Bidirectional Category for the character
  6. The Unicode version when this character was added

If the characters below show up poorly, or not at all, see Unicode Support for possible solutions.

 

Tamil

     Based on ISCII 1988

U+0B82   ஂ   Tamil sign anusvara Mn NSM 1.1
* not used in Tamil
U+0B83   ஃ   Tamil sign visarga Lo L 1.1
aka aytham

     Independent vowels

U+0B85   அ   Tamil letter A Lo L 1.1
U+0B86   ஆ   Tamil letter aa Lo L 1.1
U+0B87   இ   Tamil letter I Lo L 1.1
U+0B88   ஈ   Tamil letter ii Lo L 1.1
U+0B89   உ   Tamil letter U Lo L 1.1
U+0B8A   ஊ   Tamil letter uu Lo L 1.1
U+0B8E   எ   Tamil letter E Lo L 1.1
U+0B8F   ஏ   Tamil letter ee Lo L 1.1
U+0B90   ஐ   Tamil letter ai Lo L 1.1
U+0B92   ஒ   Tamil letter O Lo L 1.1
U+0B93   ஓ   Tamil letter oo Lo L 1.1
U+0B94   ஔ   Tamil letter au Lo L 1.1

     Consonants

U+0B95   க   Tamil letter ka Lo L 1.1
U+0B99   ங   Tamil letter nga Lo L 1.1
U+0B9A   ச   Tamil letter ca Lo L 1.1
U+0B9C   ஜ   Tamil letter ja Lo L 1.1
U+0B9E   ஞ   Tamil letter nya Lo L 1.1
U+0B9F   ட   Tamil letter tta Lo L 1.1
U+0BA3   ண   Tamil letter nna Lo L 1.1
U+0BA4   த   Tamil letter ta Lo L 1.1
U+0BA8   ந   Tamil letter na Lo L 1.1
U+0BA9   ன   Tamil letter nnna Lo L 1.1
U+0BAA   ப   Tamil letter pa Lo L 1.1
U+0BAE   ம   Tamil letter ma Lo L 1.1
U+0BAF   ய   Tamil letter ya Lo L 1.1
U+0BB0   ர   Tamil letter ra Lo L 1.1
U+0BB1   ற   Tamil letter rra Lo L 1.1
U+0BB2   ல   Tamil letter la Lo L 1.1
U+0BB3   ள   Tamil letter lla Lo L 1.1
U+0BB4   ழ   Tamil letter llla Lo L 1.1
U+0BB5   வ   Tamil letter va Lo L 1.1
U+0BB6   ஶ   Tamil letter sha Lo L 4.1
U+0BB7   ஷ   Tamil letter ssa Lo L 1.1
U+0BB8   ஸ   Tamil letter sa Lo L 1.1
U+0BB9   ஹ   Tamil letter ha Lo L 1.1

     Dependent vowel signs

U+0BBE   ா   Tamil vowel sign aa Mc L 1.1
U+0BBF   ி   Tamil vowel sign i Mc L 1.1
U+0BC0   ீ   Tamil vowel sign ii Mn NSM 1.1
U+0BC1   ு   Tamil vowel sign u Mc L 1.1
U+0BC2   ூ   Tamil vowel sign uu Mc L 1.1
U+0BC6   ெ   Tamil vowel sign e Mc L 1.1
* stands to the left of the consonant
U+0BC7   ே   Tamil vowel sign ee Mc L 1.1
* stands to the left of the consonant
U+0BC8   ை   Tamil vowel sign ai Mc L 1.1
* stands to the left of the consonant

     Two-part dependent vowel signs
These vowel signs have glyph pieces which stand on both sides of the consonant; they follow the consonant in logical order, and should be handled as a unit for most processing.

U+0BCA   ொ   Tamil vowel sign o Mc L 1.1
U+0BCB   ோ   Tamil vowel sign oo Mc L 1.1
U+0BCC   ௌ   Tamil vowel sign au Mc L 1.1

     Various signs

U+0BCD   ்   Tamil sign virama Mn NSM 1.1
U+0BD0   ௐ   Tamil om Lo L 5.1
U+0BD7   ௗ   Tamil au length mark Mc L 1.1

     Digits

U+0BE6   ௦   Tamil digit zero Nd L 4.1
U+0BE7   ௧   Tamil digit one Nd L 1.1
U+0BE8   ௨   Tamil digit two Nd L 1.1
U+0BE9   ௩   Tamil digit three Nd L 1.1
U+0BEA   ௪   Tamil digit four Nd L 1.1
U+0BEB   ௫   Tamil digit five Nd L 1.1
U+0BEC   ௬   Tamil digit six Nd L 1.1
U+0BED   ௭   Tamil digit seven Nd L 1.1
U+0BEE   ௮   Tamil digit eight Nd L 1.1
U+0BEF   ௯   Tamil digit nine Nd L 1.1

     Tamil numerics

U+0BF0   ௰   Tamil number ten No L 1.1
U+0BF1   ௱   Tamil number one hundred No L 1.1
U+0BF2   ௲   Tamil number one thousand No L 1.1

     Tamil symbols

U+0BF3   ௳   Tamil day sign So ON 4.0
U+0BF4   ௴   Tamil month sign So ON 4.0
U+0BF5   ௵   Tamil year sign So ON 4.0
U+0BF6   ௶   Tamil debit sign So ON 4.0
U+0BF7   ௷   Tamil credit sign So ON 4.0
U+0BF8   ௸   Tamil as above sign So ON 4.0

     Currency symbol

U+0BF9   ௹   Tamil rupee sign Sc ET 4.0
* Rupee

     Tamil symbol

U+0BFA   ௺   Tamil number sign So ON 4.0

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