Note on Politeness and Formal/Informal Tamil
When introducing someone to others, attention must be paid to use the appropriate polite forms. Elders should be addressed with the form உங்க
'your-polite' as opposed to உன் 'your-intimate', which is normally used among equals and children. The plural pronominal forms in Tamil are used to denote polite singular, besides marking plural number. Also, only spoken informal variety is used in speech as opposed to formal literary variety, which is used only in platform speech and written communication. For example, உங்கள் is a formal
literary variety whose spoken informal form is உங்க. These two varieties are distinguised based on a sequence of sound changes to the formal
variety, as in this case the loss of ள் in உங்கள் makes it an informal spoken variety. This type of sound changes are an automatic phenomenon, and the learner is required to pay extra attention to learn the distinction between spoken informal variety and formal written/literary variety. Sound changes also tend to occur in intra-word level in sentences. Example, the phrase என் பேரு 'my name' is used in speech as எம் பேரு with ன் becoming ம் in the word என் due to the following labial plosive sound ப்.
Stop sounds in Tamil have a tendency to assimilate the preceding nasal sounds to their place of articulation. This type of sound changes is very common in fast speech.
Following table lists a predominantly used formal and informal variety of pronominal forms.
Formal variety | Informal variety | Meaning |
நீங்கள் | நீங்க | You |
உங்கள் | உங்க | Your |
அவர்கள் | அவுங்க | they/their/his (polite) |
அவன் | அவர் | He |
அவள் | அவ/அவுங்க | She |
தான் | தாங்க | yourself (dialectal) |