Orthographic knowledge, reading and spelling development in Tamil: the first three years

Book section

Tamil (tamiḻ) is a South Dravidian language with a contained orthography in contrast to the other more extensive akshara orthographies of South Asia. In this chapter we briefly describe the Tamil orthography, introducing the rich vocabulary available in the language to describe the symbol set. Similar descriptions are given for Tamil phonology and morphology. We also focus on Tamil teaching before presenting research findings on early literacy development. Our survey data suggest that important milestones in the journey to mastery of word reading and spelling include learning about the native and grantha consonants and unconnected diacritic markers, especially those with ambiguous visual elements such as the thunaikaal. A discussion on writing routines, diglossia and children’s spontaneous writing is also included.

Authors: Nag, S; Narayanan, B

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer
• Host title: Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography
• Pages: 55-83
• Series: Literacy Studies
• Series number: 17
• Place of publication: Cham, Switzerland
• Publication date: 2019-06-12
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-05977-4_4
• EISSN: 2214-0018
• ISSN: 2214-000X
• EISBN: 9783030059774
• ISBN: 9783030059767
• Language: English
• Keywords: writing routines; Tamil; contained orthography; reading; orthographic knowledge; literacy instruction; spelling; diglossia