Tamil Phonology

Below are three key features of accents for Tamil speakers of English. For those Tamil speakers searching for tools to explore Received Pronunciation (RP), read on below:

1. Tapped [ɻ] ~ [ɹ] – If you are a Tamil speaker of English, you may find it comfortable to tap the bottom portion of the tip or blade of your tongue against the hard palate or postalveolar area of the roof of the mouth, when realising sounds spelt with the letter <r>. In RP, no contact is made, despite the tongue tip reaching towards the alveolar ridge. You can make this adjustment by slightly bunching the back of your tongue, and stretching out the tongue tip forwards and upwards, without quite making contact.
2. [w], [ʋ] and [v] – the letters <w> and <v>, when speaking English, may be interchangeable for Tamil speakers of English, or furthermore, may be realised in a medial position. The phoneme /w/ (not to be confused with the letter <w>, which can be generated in many ways) is realised with lips rounded very close to one another, while the back of the tongue lifts towards the soft palate; the /ʋ/ phoneme is realised with the top teeth almost making contact with the bottom lip, although not quite; and the /v/ phoneme is realised with the top teeth making contact with the bottom lip, causing friction as air passes through this space. All three phonemes are voiced, meaning that we feel vibration if we gently place our hand on our throat while making the sounds. As a Tamil speaker of English, and if you are looking to explore shifts towards RP, you might wish to work for consistency in realising the letter <w> as the phoneme /w/ and the letter <v> as the phoneme /v/, as outlined above.
3. Aspiration on /p/, /t/ and /k/ – in phonetics, aspiration refers to a burst of air that can be felt when making a consonant sound, usually a plosive. Although Tamil speakers of English tend to minimise aspiration on unvoiced plosives, such as /p/, /t/ and /k/, those wishing to explore RP sounds might wish to experiment with increasing levels of aspiration on these three consonantal phonemes.

Of course, these are only 3 possible sounds that Tamil speakers of English might use, and not all Tamil speakers will realise sounds as outlined above. However, many speakers will relate to aspects of these sounds, and if it’s your intention to explore RP, we hope that this article helps you along journey.