Tamil Uyirmei Ezhuthukkal

Tamil Uyirmei Ezhuthukkal (உயிர்மெய் எழுத்துக்கள்) are combined syllable letters formed by joining a Tamil consonant (மெய்) with a vowel (உயிர்). The word “uyirmei” literally means “life-body” — combining the soul (vowel) and body (consonant) into a single character.

There are traditionally 216 Uyirmei letters (18 consonants × 12 vowels). This chart extends that to include 5 Grantha consonants, giving a total of 23 consonants and 299 syllables.

This chart contains 299 syllables — 23 consonants (18 traditional + 5 Grantha) combined with 13 vowel forms each (12 vowels + 1 pure consonant form with pulli ்).

The traditional Uyirmei count uses only 18 consonants × 12 vowels = 216 letters, which is the figure cited in Tamil grammar texts. The extra 83 syllables in this chart come from the 5 Grantha consonants used in loanwords.

Tamil letters are classified into three types: Uyir (உயிர்) are the 12 pure vowel letters; Mey (மெய்) are the 18 pure consonant letters (written with pulli ் to show no vowel sound); and Uyirmei (உயிர்மெய்) are the 216 combined syllable letters formed when a consonant merges with a vowel sign.

Together, Uyir + Mey + Uyirmei + Aayutham (ஃ) make up 247 core Tamil characters — the complete traditional Tamil alphabet used in everyday reading and writing.

Tamil vowel signs (māttira / மாத்திரை) are diacritics that attach to a consonant to change its vowel sound. For example, adding ா (aa) to க (ka) produces கா (kaa).

The position of the sign varies: signs like ா (aa) and ை (ai) appear after the consonant; signs like ெ (e) and ே (ee) appear visually before the consonant (but are typed after in Unicode); and split signs like ொ (o) and ோ (oo) wrap around both sides of the consonant.

The pulli (புள்ளி ்) is the Tamil virama mark. It is written above a consonant to suppress the inherent vowel sound, producing a pure consonant with no following vowel — for example, க (ka) becomes க் (k) with a pulli.

The last column of every row in this chart shows the pure consonant form with pulli for all 23 consonants. This is also how consonant clusters are formed in Tamil — by placing a pulli consonant before another consonant.

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