Pronouncing zha, sha, lha

A pet peeve I have on native Tamizh speakers is their mispronunciation of 'zha' ழ. Along with 'sha' and 'lha', it is one of the things that riles me up when heard on a repeated basis (like in a movie, speech etc). My brain just ignores what the person is saying. I just keep their observing the speaker's (mis) pronunciation.

I remember my Tamizh teacher telling our class us how to pronounce 'zha'. "zha ucharippu-ku, naakai suzhata vendum. naakai madikaama vaai mozhi varuvadhu migha kadinam.". Point!

Today, I watched the trailer of Cheran's next movie Pokkisham. An interesting trailer. It looks to be another heartfelt love story from the Cheran factory. The trailer has Cheran reading out a letter sent to his lover. It's a beautiful narration, has good Thamizh, perfect selection of words & comparisons to convey the exact feeling/emotion...the only sour point being Cheran's pronunciation of the word azhagu as alagu. He goes,

"alagu ennum solluku ottu motra artham needhan Nadira!"

"mothathil nee thamilin alagu" (this was too much)

"sandhosamaai irukiradhu"


Other e.g. :

tamil valga
stiram valapalam saptaan.
summa palagunga, palagi paarunga
Amma kolambu vechirkaanga
kolandhaiku bajji romba pidikikum
magesum bathmaavum plight-la kamalagaasan pichhar paathanga

olunga ucharikira palakam ennaku illa

I am sure you can think of many.

I can understand when non-Tamil speakers like wrecker-in-chief Udit Narayan, Yesudas, Adnan Sami mispronounce (read kill) some or all Tamil words. When our own people can't get it right, it is sad.

This post can be best summarised by the famous Thillu mullu interview scene (of Subramania Bharathy) shown below. Thalaivar and Thengai at their best!

Yellaan eye wassss! :D