--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "suzmccarth" <suzmccarth@...> wrote:

> Hi Doug,
>
> Thanks for always being willing to respond to my questions!
>
> How about o + k + u = k + ou ?
>
> This would then display properly as o + k + u. Is this possible?

I don't see this combination on the Tamil unicode page. Do you mean

visual <vowel sign e> + <k> + <aa> => stored <k> + <o>, equivalent
to stored <k> + <vowel sign e> + <aa>?

In Thai, visual and stored <sara e> + <k> + <sara aa> is
pronounced /kau/ and seems to correspond historically. Other
possibly relevant groups are

<sara e> + <k> + <mai han-akat> = /ke?/
<sara ae> + <k> + <mai han-akat> = /kE?/ (low-mid front vowel,
transcribed <ae>)
<sara e> + <k> + <ii> + <y> = /kia/
<sara e> + <k> + <uee> + <character o ang> = /kMa/ (first vocalic
element is high back unrounded vowel)
<sara e> + <k> + <character o ang> = /k7:/ (close-mid back unrounded
vowel)

<character o ang> is a glottal stop, but it also serves (mater
lectionis in an abugida?) for the open-low back rounded vowel (/O/).

You could possibly modify my 'Thai for Tamil' proposal to use <Thai
character sara a> U+0E30 for <Tamil vowel sign aa> and use <Thai
character sara aa> for <Tamil au length mark>.

Thai Thai value Tamil value Tamil script
กะ /ka?/ /ka:/ கா
เกะ /ke?/ /ko:/ கொ
แกะ /kE?/ /ko/ கோ
เกา /kau/ /kau/ கௌ

(That 'toy' at http://www.jaffnalibrary.com/tools/Unicode.htm saved
me the hassle of looking up a Tamil keyboard or converting Unicode
codes from hex to decimal. Let me know if you want me to
reciprocate for Thai.)

Richard.