G or K-Malayalam words in English
The thing with South Indian languages is that people are always arguing about the spellings of transliterations from those languages into English or about how South Indians (increasingly don’t like these categories of “North Indian” and “South Indian” but will use them here) spell Hindi and Sanskrit words in English. Am guilty of this myself. Of course when it comes to pronouncing the “zh”‘s of Tamil and Malayalam, I am simply useless, though I DO try.
Some time ago I read an article on The Times, in the travel section where the author describes travelling to Kerala and seeing a school of fish commit mass suicide. There is a Malayalam word for this phenomenon. But Mallus themselves can’t agree how to spell it in English. The comments section on the article is hilarious….and this is because Malayalis often interchange “g” with “k”.
I have heard, for example, the word jathakam pronounced variously as jadagam, jatagam, jathakam…I think all pronunciations should be accepted, because that is the way things are.
But have a look at the argument between Malayalis on the Times.
On a separate note, how I miss Kerala. Am reduced to reading about other people’s adventures there at the moment.
MG,
Like “zha” sound in Tamil being pronounced zha by sticklers of the language and as “la” by others,it depends on factors like education,socio-economic condition if to pronounce “ka” as ga or ka.
An average Malayalee’s pronunciation,made fun of by a lot of people has an excess of “la” kaarams and bluntness.
-Nikhil
Not my intention to make fun of them in a mean way at all. Hope it didn’t come across like that! It was the comments that got me laughing, what must the author think! What do you mean by bluntness?
nice write-up (via the link).
Though zha is used in classical Tamil, in several parts of Tamil Nadu, it is used as ‘la’, and is not particularly wrong either. It’s just a different dialect/pronunciation.
I have a problem withe k & kh of Hindi. One is supposed to be more guttaral I think. I have the same problem with guttaral sounds in Arabic, because Tamil and English (my main languages) are kind of flat in their sounds.
Am interested in classical Tamil poetry and love the sound of it-therefore attempts to pronounce it. Marathi also has a “zh” but it’s slightly different, I think. I can pronounce that one.
Exactly-I don’t think using either “g” or “k” is wrong-it’s become part of dialects.
ahh..
As you know there is only one letter ka in Tamil/Malayaalam (I think) for all ha, ka, ga sounds. when there is a n before ka, it is pronounced as ga (I think). there is another ga sound in city Tamil, such as azhagu for azhahu (beauty), which is written as azhaku.
see! and some words such as athu (that) is written as adhu or worse, adu (when transliterated back becomes அடு (hope you can read). And, don’t get me started on correctly pronouncing zha. 
We maduraites never bother. We are the easy-going people who pronounce zha as la (first of the three “la”s). I myself go confused a lot of times what they mean when they say such as “mala varuthu” (rain is coming), which sounds like “mala varuthu” (hill is coming)!!
jathakam (ஜாதகம்) is pronounced as jaathaham in my area and jaad(h)agam in Madras and in some cities. I can understand Jaadhagam and Jaadagam, but jaatagam? Jaathagam or Jaathakam is what the other variations I would have thought of. Jaatagam? why people why?
(Hope I could preview the comment and edit if required)
I haven’t checked out the links you have given yet. Will do.
Another thing what we all don’t appreciate much is that India is a huge country. Tamil Nadu alone is as big as England app. Yorkshire accent and pronunciations are so different from how people speak in Cornwall or Kent. Similarly there are so many accents within Tamil Nadu itself. Adding some dialects because of multicultural social set up (for generations and generations of mixing up) it makes it even more complicated and diverse. And there is this City Tamil and There is this Madras Tamil.
(It is a separate language, not Tamil 
)This is within Tamil nadu itself. So, if we start talking about naarth Indians with hindi ka, kha ga and gha confusions… It is a topic for a PhD.
It is indeed a topic for a PhD. Can’t read Tamil. Have only struggled through some transliterations. Will you teach me?
MG,
No, you did not come across like that.Bluntness I meant phonetically.
Am not getting an example right away. Will mail you when I get some examples.
@premalatha
Correction there,Malayalam has ka,kha,ga,gha,nga unlike Tamil that has just one ka.
-Nikhil
Thanks Nikhil. Sorry I didn’t know. I am ashamed for not knowing that as I love malayaalam (though I cannot speak or understand) as I grew up in kerala though only for very few years much before I started speaking.
Tamil has nga though. but that is different from ga. the ga sound in tamil is for ng + ka ( to correct what I meant in my previous comment).
Thanks for the correction. I have learnt something new today that Malayaalam differs so much from Tamil in its basic itself that it has more kha, and other ‘ka’s (ga,gha)! Do Malayaalam also have ta, tha, da dha? also do you have ta and da as in tada?
me, teaching you? You are asking for trouble.
(btw, check out my new post. it has two videos of Avni. You will enjoy them)
Premalatha,
I am no know all on the language.
Gave you my 2 paisa gyaan, thats it.
Malayalam unlike Tamil has the whole set of consonants, like say Hindi.This has to do with the Sanskrit influence, me thinks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam_script
Not sure if you can check this page without installing Malayalam fonts.
Sure, will do.
I love scripts,languages,etymology and their connection with history.
-Nikhil
Brought a huge smile…
Am a marathi married to a mallu and no one gets the pronounciation of my name right…
When we were looking for baby names, I thought of Ankur and my mom immediately rejected it saying all my in-laws would be calling him “Angoor” !!
You could have called him “grape” when you felt bored of Ankur!
can i knw meaning of koche