Tamil is the topic of Wikipedia’s feature article today. The graphic associated with the article is the diphthong “zh” which, oddly enough, has no ‘z’ sound in it and is very difficult to write in any language other than Tamil and Malayalam. The tongue twister has to be heard and, yes, we do twist our tongues while saying it. In fact, Tamil is really Tamizh, but I will excuse those of you who are well-read enough to know such a language exists.
… a Dravidian language related to Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam, among others. As one of the few living classical languages, it has an unbroken literary tradition of over two millennia, with the earliest writings having been dated to circa 500 B.C. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, is agglutinative and the writing is largely phonetic. It is spoken by a majority of people in Tamil Nadu and northern and north-eastern Sri Lanka, while a significant emigrant population lives in Singapore, Malaysia and other parts of the world. It is officially recognised in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and South Africa.
ahhh… horrible memories of forced tamil classes and the three “L” sounds
.mp3 or wav file for us non tamil speakers??? :(
/wants to learn tamil after reading wikipedia article last week ;)
You sent email to my maitri@vexed.org address and it bounced back? Impossible. If so, I have words for that Bob P.
Absolutely, meet pannalam! Just tell me where and when. I’ll be here. Try emailing me again at maitri@vexed.org and I will give you my cell phone #, etc.
I get to meet a fellow Tamizh blogger – can’t wait!
Tilo,
Yes, I am going to be around for both weekends of Jazzfest and plan on attending at least 3 or 4 days. I will not be within a 20-mile radius for the zoo I predict on the day Dave Matthews band performs. Enna, inga varengala?
Hamsa-bop,
Jazzfest is really the New Orleans Jazz and Blues Festival, although jazz is only a small portion of it. Blues, funk, soul and rock dominate. Or I should say the food dominates; as a New Orleanian once said, “The music is just something you experience between courses.”
http://www.nojazzfest.com/ for more info.
According to Wikipedia (it’s on the internet, so it must be true), a diphthong is “quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme.”
Given that I consider “zh” a vowel set, it would explain my referring to it as a diphthong. I could be wrong, but I think that in this case, it’s a matter of perspective.
I’m no linguistic expert by any account, but isn’t a diphtong characterized by the seamless transitionary articulation between subsequent vowal forms? (i.e: in English “tied”, “mouse”…etc).
The “zh” with the diacritic overdot (though it isn’t) is just a unique alphabet to Tamil and Malayalam and not a diphtong. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Puth-aandu-vazhthukkal to you too.
stupid q. are you going around for the nojazzfest?
I saw that as well and nearly fell out of my seat. The recognition of the character hit me before I realized it was on the front page of Wikipedia. It took a few seconds to digest the juxtaposition.
Do you notice that India is getting more and more popular?
India is gaining in popularity because it is now a fashionable country to do business with. Several sources of information probably recognize that it would be best for the western world to educate and familiarize itself with their new partner.
It would be funny if America got all desi matrimonial and said, “We are looking for an alliance with your country.” Down, crazy imagination, down, I say.