THE MALLU PRONUNCIATION - A SMALL INSIGHT

THE MALLU PRONUNCIATION - A SMALL INSIGHT

     “Mallus often pronounce Ball as ‘Boolu’, Cricket as ‘Kriketu’ and Bat as Baatu”, said a Tamilian to me and started laughing. Another day a very well versed Kannadiga guy (a person from Karnataka) came to me and said, “Malayalam Pronunciation is very funny, you know." One of my close friends, a South Indian- turned North Indian, confirming to the status strata she seemed to follow after her requisite adaptation to a so called 'different world' from South India, i.e North India, said, while I was discussing about a vegetable – Onion - in a shopping mall, that it was ‘Aniyan’ and not ‘Onion’, in terms of pronunciation, and said she had to bear a lot of insult for an uneducated pronunciation (i.e ‘Onion’), once in her starting days of her college life, in the new 'North-Indian' World. I accept the pronunciation issues involved with Mallus, and I daresay she is right. But shouldn't there something in place to de-congest this pricking and pinpointing complaints which, as a matter of fact,arise out of the deficiency in self realization?     

         Are the people, who make a fuss on the way other state people pronounce, fully Oxford-ised? A lot of Kannadigas pronounce temporary as ‘temparavary’. Tamilians say ‘Aail’ instead of ‘Oil’ and ‘jero’ for ‘zero’. For most of the North Indians the word ‘L’ comes as replacement for ‘zha’ as in ‘Tamizhians’ (in terms of Original Tamil).   

       We get a Bengali zephyr, when even our revered President, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, addresses in English. 

Please understand that it’s not a riposte that I am looking forward to, as I happen to be a Malayalee, or rather a ‘Mallu’ as everyone put it, myself. I am just talking about the way people satirize other people for the way they pronounce English, like they are coming right out of a Charles Dicken’s book.

       In India each language is unique in its own way. There exists for each Indian, a mother tongue, and our tongue often gets trained with the way we pronounce our mother tongue. So, it’s up to the person to pull himself up by his bootstraps, accordingly, to find harmony with the new languages; be it English or any other. In that case, when there is a paucity of time, or probably vintage involved, the perfection to which the acclimatization occurs is a matter of incertitude. Students and toddlers who are trained in schools from nursery, with English communication skills, in the right way it appeals to the teachers (who in fact follow the Text books) will be able to do well, and excel in communicative English. But for the others, it’s a matter on the rocks. Whenever they try to say something in other language, in which they might be grammatically perfect and strong, their tongue more often than not, falls for the the twists and turns involved in the mother tongue. Their speech will carry the wind of mother tongue whenever it comes out, ending up as something alien.  So, it’s not fair to laugh at or stereotype a Mallu, Kannadiga, Bengali, or even a Chinese guy. The people who often do the valuation, should introspect and find out what English code they follow. UK or US? And at the end of the search, if they find out are following either UK or US English, pristine, then they may fasten their seat-belts, and tram all those in their way with their dominating language quality. But till then; till our Nation becomes fully Oxford-ised; kindly see English as any other language, commonly used as means of communication, AND DEFINITELY NOT AS SOMETHING WHICH CAN DETERMINE A PERSON'S STANDARDS. IT’S THE HUMAN VALUES THAT STAND, FOR THAT CASE. Do not degrade a person based on the way he pronounces. Do not put him in a place where he fears, he will end up a hostage to fortune trying the Angresi beats with his tongue. Do not make anyone afraid that he might become a joker. Know that, though we are using it, we are not the actual owners of it. Attempts for improvisation is appreciated, but attempts to defame sans a look at the mirror before vying for the facial advertisement might not help. We all have problems here or there. NO ONE IS PERFECT IN THIS.

HEMANTH SREEKUMAR

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