QCAA Tamil (SEE) cheat sheet

Tamil is a diglossic language: the formal written register (senthamil / written Tamil) differs systematically from the colloquial spoken register (kodunthamizh) in verb endings, pronouns and vocabulary; exam tasks in each macro-skill should match the register the task specifies.

The Tamil script is an alphasyllabary (abugida): 12 vowels (uyir), 18 consonants (mei), and 216 vowel-consonant combinations (uyirmei) give 246 basic letters, plus the ayudha letter ஃ and the pulli (virama) dot that cancels the inherent vowel.

Vowel signs (vowel diacritics) attach to consonants: e.g. க + ா = கா, க + ி = கி, க + ு = கு; a consonant with no vowel sign carries the inherent vowel 'a' (க = ka), and the pulli makes it a bare consonant (க் = k).

Consonant classes follow place of articulation: வல்லினம் (hard: க ச ட த ப ற), மெல்லினம் (soft/nasal: ங ஞ ண ந ம ன), இடையினம் (medial: ய ர ல வ ழ ள); spelling rules depend on these classes.

Tamil is agglutinative and suffix-driven: case (வேற்றுமை) is marked by eight case suffixes, and verbs carry tense, person, number and gender; a single Tamil verb form may correspond to several English words.

Tamil is a null-subject, SOV language: the default clause order is subject–object–verb, and the finite verb agrees with the subject in person, number and gender (e.g. அவன் வந்தான் vs அவள் வந்தாள் vs அவர்கள் வந்தார்கள்).

Sandhi (புணர்ச்சி) governs how morphemes combine: இயல்பு புணர்ச்சி (no change), விகார புணர்ச்சி (change, e.g. மரம் + கள் → மரங்கள்), and தோன்றல்/கெடுதல் rules explain inserted or deleted sounds.

In listening and speaking tasks, pronunciation distinctions that carry meaning include ந/ன/ண, ர/ற, ல/ள/ழ, and short vs long vowels (e.g. கல் 'stone' vs கால் 'leg'); these contrasts are assessed in oral and aural work.

Writing conventions: Tamil uses no capital letters; the full stop is the same as English, but traditional punctuation includes the single and double quotation marks and the question marker -ஆ; numerals are written with Tamil digits (௦–௯) or Arabic digits depending on task instructions.

Tamil is a classical language with a literary history of over two millennia; the Sangam corpus (எட்டுத்தொகை and பத்துப்பாட்டு) is dated roughly to 300 BCE–300 CE and is organised by the அகம் (inner/love) and புறம் (outer/public) poetic divisions.

The Tolkappiyam is the oldest extant Tamil grammar and treatise on poetics; it sets out the threefold classification of இயல் (grammar), பொருள் (meaning/poetics) and யாப்பு (prosody), and the concept of திணை (landscape-poetic categories).

Thirukkural, attributed to Thiruvalluvar, consists of 1330 couplets (குறள்) in three books - அறத்துப்பால் (virtue), பொருட்பால் (wealth/statecraft) and காமத்துப்பால் (love) - each couplet in the குறள் venpa metre of 7+4 syllables.

The twelve Alvars and sixty-three Nayanmars represent the Vaishnava and Shaiva bhakti movements; their hymns (e.g. Nammalvar's Tiruvaymoli, Appar's Tevaram) shaped devotional Tamil and are cultural reference points in texts and films.

Tamil cultural calendar and festivals include Pongal (தைப்பொங்கல், mid-January harvest festival over four days: Bhogi, Thai Pongal, Maattu Pongal, Kaanum Pongal), Tamil New Year (Puthandu, 14 April), Deepavali and Karthigai Deepam.

Classical performing arts tied to Tamil culture include Bharatanatyam (Tamil Nadu's classical dance), Carnatic music with Tamil compositions (Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, Syama Sastri), and folk forms such as Karagattam, Oyilattam and Villu Pattu.

The Tamil diaspora is global - Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji, the Gulf, Europe, North America and Australia - so intercultural tasks may involve register and vocabulary variation, code-mixing with English, and differing naming conventions.

Tamil naming conventions traditionally place the father's name or village name before the given name (patronymic order), and honorific suffixes (அவர்கள், ஐயா, அம்மா) index respect; address forms (நீ, நீங்கள், தாங்கள்) encode social hierarchy and are assessed in intercultural response tasks.

Key cultural values expressed in Tamil texts and interaction include அன்பு (affection), பணிவு (humility), விருந்தோம்பல் (hospitality), நன்றி (gratitude) and மரியாதை (respect); interpreting a text's stance requires recognising these framing values rather than translating word-for-word.