LANGUAGE IN INDIA

A NEW KEYBOARD FOR TAMIL
Simpler and Easier to Learn and Use
S. T. Arumugam

SPEED OF TYPING AND KEYBOARD

The speed of typing, either on the typewriter or the computer, depends upon the number and the simplicity of the alphabet that a language has. The letters of some languages are very simple, and therefore, those are very easy to learn and can be typed quickly.

CHANGES IN TAMIL SCRIPT

Tamil language is older than many other languages in the world, and has seen a number of changes brought about in the forms of its letters over a long period. There have been several proposals made in the past to reform the Tamil script and to make it simpler. While some of the changes advocated by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, have been accepted through government promotional effort, I do believe that the Tamil script still needs some drastic changes.

THE NEED TO SIMPLIFY THE TAMIL KEYBOARD

It is imperative that, in this computer age, the key board of Tamil for typewriters as also computers be simplified to help improve typing speed, for easy learning and to use this language extensively on computers.

In Tamil, the forms of some of the letters differ from one to another for the same vowel sound. This is the reason for the inclusion of a high number of letters in the Tamil keyboards designed so far.

I am a trained stenographer and have had experience in dealing with Tamil keyboards for over thirty years. It should be remembered here that the original modern keyboard for Tamil was designed by a talented stenographer!

A NEW KEYBOARD FOR TAMIL

For the last three years, I have been trying to remove the differences in the representation of vowel sounds when they are combined with the consoanants, and to re-design the Tamil keyboard to achieve faster typing like in English. Hard work has resulted in achieving a new design for the Tamil keyboard. Surprisingly, in the process of arranging Tamil letters in the new design, the total number got reduced to 215 from as high as 247 just because of a few modifications in the form of letters.

For example, a curve introduced for the consonants for the vowel sound 'oo' (as it sounds in book) and 'oo' (as it sounds in hook) straight away reduces 17 letters in the keyboard.

Some other suggestions that I make help reduce another 15 letters in the keyboard.

Existing Tamil keyboard on computers has 63 letters, and the keyboard is rather congested. But the new keyboard designed by me will have just 31 letters in all.

Annexure 1 Existing Tamil Key Board

Annexure 2 Newly designed Sampurna Tamil Key Board (for which patent registration is requested)

Annexure 3 Tamil Materials Typed Using the New Keyboard

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