Tamil letter Aa

It is Tamil’s standalone long-a vowel. Use it when a word begins with that vowel; after a consonant, Tamil attaches the matching vowel sign ◌ா, as in கா.

Why does Tamil use aa for questions? Added to the end of a word as -ஆ, it turns the whole word into a yes-or-no question; in பையனா?, the ending asks about the word before it.

Where does Tamil writing come from?

Tamil-Brahmi adapted an older script to Tamil sounds. Brahmi, an older South Asian script, was adapted to represent Tamil sounds as Tamil-Brahmi. The earliest surviving Tamil evidence dates between the middle of the 3rd century BCE and the early 2nd century BCE.

Cave inscriptions recorded gifts made to support religious communities; pottery carried personal names and other nonreligious marks. Later Tamil writing appears in Vatteluttu and Grantha, names for historical scripts, as well as in modern Tamil forms. Writing on palm leaves favored rounded strokes, which influenced letter shapes.

Which key types ஆ?

The key depends on the Tamil keyboard layout. Tamil99 and Typewriter are separate layouts, so a key that works in one may not work in the other.

On Visual Media Tamil Typewriter, m types standalone ஆ; f then h types கா. Write the independent vowel as ஆ, not as the two-character sequence அூ, which only resembles its shape.