My Cambridge English Pronunciation Dictionary tells me that the Gan in Gandhi and rhymes with the Gan in Gander.And so the 'correct' pronunciation is Gan-dee! The same goes for Ganesh too, only worse:it is supposed to be Ganish. I wonder why we Indians don't correct the foreigners.If their tongues can manoeuvre tortures like Alzheimer's or even February, they shouldn't find Gandhi a challenge. But we have let them call Sachin Sash in and condoned the mistake for ages. I've always known that grave dangers lay in store. And my fears were confirmed when at the Oscars Danny Boyle thanked Weak Ass 'Sroop for penning Q and A!! I did not watch the movie but have heard that the man has done enough damage to the name of India.
And we mock the poor Mallu who calls the Pope 'Pop' - at least he makes some sense. Come to think of it, while an Englishman knows only English, a North Indian knows English and Hindi. A South Indian Tamilian knows English Hindi and Tamil and a Mallu knows English, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam (if not more languages). No wonder we roak.
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13 comments:
Yes, vee reely do roak!! Yevery wone shood appreshiate us....
I read your post but commenting was complicated with all the Arabic so I'm leaving my comment here: Nothing can match the slimy tadpole. Now that, as my 5th students would write, is 'O SSAM' :)
Tawtally!
This reminds me of the time I went to Bombay searching for McDonald's.
We told the auto dude to take us to McDonald's, to which the guy just stared blankly. He couldn't understand the location even though the big yellow M could be seen from where we were. So, after manually giving directions, we reached the place and told him.
Thats when he said, "Arre, yey McDonalds nehe hay, yay M. C. Donalds hey!!"
Atom
Hehheh... Jest for a funny :)
Johnson
Hahaha
But the point is, would Americans pronounce Udipi or Uthappam correctly? Considering how they made 'mulligatawny' and 'catamaran' so different from the original, M.C. Donalds is but weak revenge.
guess it's in the accent of one's country... pretty unfair of us to criticize westerners.. when we so badly try to opt them right from their style and clothes to their way of talking, so on n so forth....
Sarasyal
The post was about how we DON'T correct westerners (even a dictionary)when they mispronounce Indian words.It is worse when we find Indians mispronouncing Indian words (deliberately?). Such mangling of words is I suppose a bee in a language teacher's bonnet :)
Comment problem (hopefully) fixed now...
oh really? :)
speaking malayalam-ised versions of foreign languages doesn't count as "knowing" them :)
this blog has an uncanny resemblance to a white dwarf star - small posts packed with a lotta punch.
and ya, am pretty sure ppl around u r never stressed out... u certainly roak!
Yes, really.
You know what I meant, don't you? :) 'Know' as in be 'familiar with', able to comprehend and communicate using the language.
Dwarf star!-thanx :) :)
Blog posts can be deceptive you know :)
Another thing I hate is how Americans portray Indians in English movies with this lame accent. I dont know anybody who sounds like that.
P.S. I just started blogging.
Awesome..awesome..awesome..At times, I too have thought of this.
Point of interest: Recently a friend of mine commented that Mallus should have six packs on their tongues considering the number of sounds our language entails. :P
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