Editing Tamil script (section)

===Basic consonants===
Consonants are called the "body" (''mei'') letters. The consonants are classified into three categories: ''vallinam'' (hard consonants), ''mellinam'' (soft consonants, including all [[Nasal stop|nasals]]), and ''itayinam'' (medium consonants).

There are some lexical rules for the formation of words. The ''[[Tolkāppiyam]]'' describes such rules. Some examples: a word cannot end in certain consonants, and cannot begin with some consonants including r-, l- and ḻ-; there are six [[nasal consonants]] in Tamil: a [[velar nasal]] ங், a [[palatal nasal]] ஞ், a [[retroflex nasal]] ண், a [[dental nasal]] ந், a [[bilabial nasal]] ம், and an [[alveolar nasal]] ன்.

The order of the alphabet (strictly [[abugida]]) in Tamil closely matches that of the nearby languages both in location and linguistics, reflecting the common origin of their scripts from Brahmi.

Tamil language has 18 consonants - ''mey eluttukkal''. Traditional grammarians have classified these 18 into three groups of 6 letters each. This classification is done based on the method of articulation and hence the nature of these letters. ''Vallinam'' (hard group), ''mellinam'' (soft group) and ''idaiyinam'' (medium group). All consonants are pronounced for a half unit (māttirai) time length when isolated (consonants combined with vowels will be pronounced with the time length of the vowel).<ref>{{wikiversity inline |Tamil Language/Letters}}</ref>

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{| class="sortable wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Tamil consonants{{sfn|Steever|1996|p=426-430}}
|-
! Consonant !! [[ISO 15919]] !! Category !! [[help:IPA|IPA]]
|-
| {{lang|ta|க்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|k}} || vallinam || {{IPA|/k/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ங்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|ṅ}} || mellinam || {{IPA|/ŋ/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ச்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|c}} || vallinam || {{IPA|/t͡ʃ, s/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ஞ்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|ñ}} || mellinam || {{IPA|/ɲ/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ட்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|ṭ}} || vallinam || {{IPA|/ʈ/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ண்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|ṇ}} || mellinam || {{IPA|/ɳ/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|த்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|t}} || vallinam || {{IPA|/t̪/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ந்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|n}} || mellinam || {{IPA|/n̪/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ப்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|p}} || vallinam || {{IPA|/p/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ம்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|m}} || mellinam || {{IPA|/m/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ய்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|y}} || idaiyinam || {{IPA|/j/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ர்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|r}} || idaiyinam || {{IPA|/ɾ/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ல்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|l}} || idaiyinam || {{IPA|/l/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|வ்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|v}} || idaiyinam || {{IPA|/ʋ/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ழ்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|ḻ}} || idaiyinam || {{IPA|/ɻ/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ள்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|ḷ}} || idaiyinam || {{IPA|/ɭ/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ற்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|ṟ}} || vallinam || {{IPA|/r/}}
|-
| {{lang|ta|ன்}} || {{transliteration|ta|ISO|ṉ}} || mellinam || {{IPA|/n/}}
|}