"Azhagi" refers to a beautiful girl or woman in Tamil language. The sage "Vatsyaya" in his famous book "kamasutra" has explained the factors and qualities to be taken into consideration to distinguish and compare the beauty of women. These not only include the physical conditions but also the mental status and intellectual of women that account for their social behaviour and other virtues.

Likewise Vishy, the creator of "Azhagi" has made the software so beautiful by taking sufficient care to make the transliteration features of the software the most versatile among all other such softwares with as many alternative keystrokes as possible to enable the user create and edit tamil contents with ease.

The transliteration for the twelve vowels of Tamil namely அ, ஆ, இ, ஈ, உ, ஊ, எ, ஏ, ஐ, ஒ, ஓ, ஔ is configured by suitably combining the five vowels of English namely a, e, i, o, u giving due consideration to the most natural combinations for the sound corresponding to each vowel.

"a" gives "அ";
"aa" and "A" give "ஆ";
"i" gives "இ"
"ii", "I" and "ee" give "ஈ";
"u" gives "உ";
"uu", "U" and "oo" give "ஊ";
"e" gives "எ";
"ae" and "E" give "ஏ";
"ai" gives "ஐ";
"o" gives "ஒ";
"oa" and "O" give "ஓ";
"au", "ou" and "ow" give "ஔ".

As many alternatives as possible are given for consonants of Tamil as well as grantham (க்ரந்தம்).

"c", "k", "kh", "g" and "gh" give "க்";
"nG" gives "ங்" and "ng" gives "ங்க்";
"s" and "ch" give "ச்";
"S" gives "ஸ்"; "sh" gives "ஷ்"; "ksh" gives "க்ஷ்";
"sri" and "Mr" gives "ஸ்ரீ";
"nj" and "Gn" give "ஞ்";
"t" and "d" give "ட்";
"N" gives "ண்";
"th" and "dh" give "த்";
"n" gives "ந்" and "ன்" depending on the position of the letter in the word while "nh" gives "ந்" anywhere.
"p", "b" and "bh" give "ப்" while "ph" gives "ஃப்";
"m" gives "ம்";
"y" gives "ய்";
"r" gives "ர்";
"v" gives "வ்";
"z" and "zh" give "ழ்";
"L" gives "ள்";
"R" gives "ற்";
"h" gives "ஹ்";

Words like "அங்ஙனம்", "அங்கே", "இங்ஙனம்", "இங்கு" etc. are created by typing "anGnGanam", "angae", "inGnGanam", "ingu" etc. easily. The words such as "விஸ்வம்", "பஸ்மாசுரன்", "பஸ்பம்" can be directly typed as "visvam" or "viswam", "basmaasuran", "baspam" or "basbam" without having to type "S" for "ஸ்". The words like "லக்ஷ்மி", "பக்ஷம்", "மோக்ஷம்" can be obtained by directly typing "lakshmi", "paksham" and "moaksham". "விஞ்ஞானம்" can be obtained by typing "viGnGnaanam". The words like "மஞ்சம்", "நெஞ்சம்", "கொஞ்சம்" can be directly typed as "manjam", "nenjam", "konjam".

The words line "கண்டம்", "துண்டு", "இரண்டு" can be directly typed as "kandam", "thundu", "irandu" without having to type "N". The words like "மெய்", "பொய்" can be obtained by typing "mei" or "mey" and "poi" or "poy". The words like "தென்றல்", "மன்றம்", "என்று" can be directly typed as "thendral", "mandram", "endru" without having to type "R". The words like "பற்று", "கற்றவர்", "மற்றவர்", "கொற்றவன்" can be directly typed as "patru", "katravar", "matravar", "kotravan" without having to type "R" at all.

You get "சொந்தம்", "பந்தம்", "சுந்தரம்" by directly typing "sontham" or "sondham", "bantham" or "bandham" and "suntharam" or "sundharam". you can get "என்தன்" by typing "enThan".

There is much more to come and will be covered in later chapters.

AKR

To be continued....

Transliteration with Azhagi part I அழகியை அறிந்தவர்கள்