Re: [indic] Re: Written Tamil and Srivas' Theory

Shriramana Sharma said on Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 11:27:33PM +0530,:

> Mahesh, who said Tamil doesn't have a character for /zha/? This is
> quite crazy. Did you look at the Tamil codechart for the
> corresponding character of 0D34 viz 0BB4? Apparently not. Look at
> the chart. You will find that ழ and ഴ are quite similar. They
> are both descended from the Vatteluttu /zha/.

Thanks for pointing out.

As I confessed in the mail, I do not have much knowledge of Tamil; and
was believing that Tamil does not have a glyph for /zha/. This belief
was compounded by the fact that almost all Tamil words (when
transliterated) use /lla/ /la/ instead of /zha/; and additionally,
most people I knew could not pronounce /zha/ even while speaking
Tamil.

<no offence meant>

It was a standing joke among my friends, in my teen years that when
asked to go down a path way ("vazhi" in Malayalam), the Tamilian will
break wind. :-D

</ >

In stark contract, being a fan of MS Subbulakshmi, I have noticed the
/zha/ as sung by her. (esp "varuga varuga ve ... " - a Tamil
bhajan rendered in Carnatic classical style)

Since I have clarified this with some native speakers of Tamil (no
literary qualifications), and they both confirmed that this difference
(in pronounciation) is becasue Tamil does not have a character for
/zha/, I was thinking that speakers of Tamil resorted to contextual
rules (like "phone" in English, or the silent "r" appearing in middle
of some English words).

Is this a class / <errr... > caste thing?

And a reason why I took so much interest in Tamilians and their /zha/
- my own rendition of the /zha/ is pretty nasty == it always comes out
sounding very similar to the "sh" in English "she". My friends warn me
not to ask for "puzhungiya vazha pazham" (boiled bananas) or go to
Alapuzha. :-( But of course, I do!!!

-- 
Mahesh T. Pai   ||
L'homme est libre au moment qu'il veut l'etre.
    * Man is free at the instant he wants to be.