Tamil Letter Nga

It makes the “ng” sound at the end of “sing.”

That nasal sound is made with the back of your tongue against the soft palate. English spells it with two letters; Tamil gives it its own consonant letter, a velar nasal.

In Literary Tamil, this sound usually comes before க, the Tamil consonant for k, as in ங்க; it does not normally begin native Tamil words. Bare ங has a short inherent a. The pulli, a mark that suppresses that vowel, makes ங்; a vowel sign makes forms such as ஙா.

How did ங become part of Tamil writing?

Tamil writing developed through a long script tradition.

Tamil-Brahmi was a southern regional form of Brahmi adapted for Old Tamil. Its earliest evidence is dated to the 3rd century B.C.E.; inscriptions put Tamil speech into writing, and the script used extra signs for sounds not clearly represented in the wider Brahmi set. That date applies to the writing tradition, not the exact screen outline of ங.

Later South Indian inscriptions used Tamil, Vatteluttu, and Grantha in different regional and language settings; Grantha served Sanskrit. Tamil-script inscriptions appear from the 7th century C.E. The scripts and their forms changed over time; ங serves as a consonant sign for a sound in Tamil words.

How do I type ங without guessing?

Choose a Tamil layout; the keystrokes depend on that layout.

On the Keyman Tamil99 layout, b produces ங; f after it adds the pulli to make ங். To type ஙா, enter b then q. Backspace removes the vowel part first and the base letter on a second press.

A vowel mark that looks shifted does not necessarily mean the text is wrong: Tamil stores dependent vowel signs after the consonant, though a font can draw their parts around it. Fonts may also draw the pulli as a dot or ring.