Monday, April 19, 2010

Bengaluru in other languages

I consider changing names and spellings of the colonized places is a very rational move. However, I believe we can give very scientific/linguistic nature to the whole process. We know that sound changes give rise to multiple branches of a proto-language. We already know the sound changes between the languages of the same family. Therefore, I would propose we should make sure the languages belonging to the same linguistic family must have the spellings/pronunciations that follow those sound changes.

Consider the case of Bengaluru (beGgaLUru)

In Malayalam: veGGallUr
In Telugu: veGgulUru
In Tamil: veGgaLUr

I suppose non-Dravidian language speakers, as far as possible, must pronounce it close to Kannada pronunciation out of courtesy.

5 comments:

  1. ಕೃಷ್ಣಪ್ರಕಾಶ ಬೊಳುಂಬು, ಕಾಸರಗೋಡುAugust 2, 2010 at 11:10 AM

    In Malayalam: veGGallUr ವೆಙ್ಙಲ್ಲೂರ್
    In Telugu: veGgulUru ವೆಙ್ಗುಲೂರು
    In Tamil: veGgaLUr ವೆಙ್ಗಳೂರ್

    is this wht you mean...can you please explain a little more on this. i sometimes do something similar to this.

    ಎರಣಾಕುಳಂ >> ಎಣ್ಣೆಕೊಳ
    how is that?

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  2. You can use 'translipi' on the right to change the script.

    Kannada -ng, -nj forms turn -GG -JJ in Malayalam.
    ganji - kaJJi
    ha(n)gene - aGGane
    koda(n)ga - koraGGa

    Also consider b->v change in the standard dialect of Malayalam. I suppose llur instead of -Lur I added because I thought that goes well with sound preceding it(-GG-).

    I suppose Telugu and Tamil are straightforward.

    >>how is that?
    If that comes to you naturally I suppose I can't question that (though you shouldn't try to find the meaning to the original name and in that case it's a learnt change and not a natural one).

    ReplyDelete
  3. ಕೃಷ್ಣಪ್ರಕಾಶ ಬೊಳುಂಬು, ಕಾಸರಗೋಡುAugust 2, 2010 at 6:57 PM

    manju,
    i think translipi can be used effectively for kannada, but there is something wrong in the way malayalam r chillu represented in translipi.
    what you wrote originally is
    In Malayalam: വെങ്ങല്ലൂര് > വെങ്ങല്ലൂര്‍
    In Telugu: വെങ്ഗുലൂരു
    In Tamil: വെങ്ഗളൂര് > വെങ്ഗളര്‍

    in baraha, it is possible to represent r chillu and n chillu effectively with the use of "^" [shift+6]. the ones at the end have been typed using barahapad and converted using baraha direct.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for your feedback on Translipi. I have conveyed it to the developer (Srikanth S.).

    ReplyDelete
  5. ಕೃಷ್ಣಪ್ರಕಾಶ ಬೊಳುಂಬು, ಕಾಸರಗೋಡುAugust 10, 2010 at 10:21 AM

    to be frank - it always hurt me whenever a malayali wrote and pronounced bengaluru(ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ) as bangaluru(ബംഗലുരു), even while retaining a bit of mallu essence within me.

    ReplyDelete