Making a Tamil transliterator

I built a JavaScript tool to transliterate English typing into Tamil script. It uses a phonetic mapping system for vowels and consonants, supports copy-pasting into documents, and includes a Google Gadget for searching the web in Tamil.

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 • updated Mon, 23 Mar 2009 • How I do things, Tools • tamil, transliteration, javascript, unicode • Permalink

I've built a simple Tamil transliterator. You can type in words in English and it will spell them out in Tamil. You can copy-paste the Tamil above into Microsoft Word, etc.

You may need to turn on tamil scripts to see the Tamil fonts above. If you have Windows 98, it may not work well. If you've visited this page recently, you will need to refresh this page as well (press F5).

Browse through my Javascript to see how it works. Feel free to reuse.

I've also made a Google Gadget that searches Google in Tamil using this tool.

Here's what to type:

Tamil	English
அ	a
ஆ	A or aa
இ	i
ஈ	I or ee
உ	u
ஊ	U or oo
எ	e
ஏ	E
ஐ	ai
ஒ	o
ஓ	O
ஔ	au
க	k or g
ங	n
ச	ch or s
ஜ	j
ஞ	n
ட	t or d
ண	N
த	th or dh
ந	n
ப	p or b
ம	m
ய	y
ர	r
ல	l
வ	v
ழ	zh
ள	L
ற	R
ஷ	sh
ஸ	S
ஹ	h

I also have a gadget that lets you search in Tamil.

Comments

Arun 31 Aug 2006 8:29 am: Very cool. Why the UI change?
S Anand 31 Aug 2006 10:55 am: Mostly because I wanted to shift focus from “linking” to “writing”.
Sathya 31 Aug 2006 11:06 am: wow … the commenting is back ! great ! In my spare time I would test this and if possible enhance the transtamil. Currently “Aiyya” does not get transliterated and so on.
S Anand 31 Aug 2006 4:19 pm: Try ‘aiyya’ with the small ‘a’. That works. I am allowing only lowercase except for long vowels.
Arun 1 Sep 2006 6:23 am: Ah, ok. Just a suggestion. Maybe you could use up more of the screen width? Lot of screen real-estate is not used currently (at least, on Firefox), so there’s a lot of scrolling (down) to do.
S Anand 1 Sep 2006 7:13 am: Arun, I thought a lot about this. While this makes it tougher on people who visit my site a lot, most newcomers find a linear flow easier. Since 90% of the traffic to my site is newcomers (most regular readers use RSS), I thought it best to design it this way. Just curious – what do you scroll down for? The links?
Arun 1 Sep 2006 11:55 am: I scrowl down for the links, yes. Actually, I don’t check all of them out when I first see your updates. Usually, return 2-3 times a day, when I am more in the mood to read. I sometimes tend to return to your old posts 4-5 days later. Also, I was a bit confused about the separation between the links and your writings. I didn’t realize that till you explained in your previous comment. Actually, I see your updates on google reader, but for whatever reason, I check your page too. Don’t know why I do that! :-)
sathish 21 Sep 2006 3:59 am: very nice anand. Thank you.
Vidya 6 Oct 2006 5:42 am: how can i get sri?
Vidya 6 Oct 2006 5:45 am: got it.. Dont bother to reply
RMurali 20 Nov 2006 7:06 pm: Dear Anand, I got to know your site while searching London on youtube videos. you are doing a good job. keep it up !
Victor 17 Jan 2007 10:21 pm: try aeiou as a word. remains as aeiou. Seems to be a method to the madness since these are all vowels
venkatachalam 18 Jan 2007 4:46 pm: thsi is very nice.can you please tell me which free software help me to do this transliteration.pl mail to [email protected]
Siva Prasadh 12 Apr 2007 3:28 pm: Its very useful i like it very much
senthil 28 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: its good buddy.. very easy…
sridhar 28 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: Superappu…..!
sriram 28 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: how do you write the character ‘akk’? (Aaytha ezhuthu), as in ‘fa’ inn faathima?
meenakshi 28 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: great tool!! checked it and worked very well, only issue i had was i could not figure out how to get the nya working, as in kavinyar.
Kavitha 28 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: Ur site is simply excellent. Very very useful for Tamilians….Tamil Patru Ullavanga across the world.
ராஜ் தொழில்நுட்பம்.com 28 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: வணக்கம் ஐயா,
தமிழ் எண்கள் க, உ ஆகியவை செயல்படுத்தச்செய்தால் மிக நன்று. இருந்தாலும் மிக அருமை.
இங்ஙனம், ராஜ்
thozhilnutpam.com; geocities.com/tamildictionary
RAAJARAM K 28 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: மிக அருமை. இண்டெர்னெட் ல் இல்லாத போது உபயோகிப்பது எவ்வாறு என்று தெரிவித்தால் நன்றாக இருக்கும்.

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