[alpha1]

There is only one reason for all these discrepancies in pronunciations:

Primary school teachers of English. (Parent are also important, but learning wise - its the teacher that makes most impact because of total time spent)
Most are totally unqualified, and even less able - and impart wrong knowledge.
This is ingrained into ppl's mind and they pass it on everywhere.

A part of it has to do with the local dialect / mother tongue which has certain vowels or consonants missing. And ppl try to replace them with the closest they can think of.

But all this can be worked on.
Take the case of pleasure.

The bold and underlined sound is not present in any of Indian languages, but still most urban ppl pronounce it properly = effects of primary school teacher.

[prajwalkashyap]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

I have heard some people pronounce Schwarznegger as Shivajinagar !

Rohan

Man! That name is not even English. Its a weird German name and tongue-twists the entire world! There are quite a few other Scandinavian/Russian names that are equally impossible for most people to pronounce!

And Schwarzenegger happens to be the most mis-spelt name in the world. No surprises.....

Prajwal

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by prajwalkashyap

Man! That name is not even English. Its a weird German name and tongue-twists the entire world! There are quite a few other Scandinavian/Russian names that are equally impossible for most people to pronounce!

And Schwarzenegger happens to be the most mis-spelt name in the world. No surprises.....

Prajwal

lol its funny to hear his name pronounced like that. One question though, why is that Indians always make fun of Indians who come from abroad and who have American/and or British accents?

[prajwalkashyap]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

lol its funny to hear his name pronounced like that. One question though, why is that Indians always make fun of Indians who come from abroad and who have American/and or British accents?

One reason I see is that although they look so totally Indian, they don't seem to talk the same way. So its a case of "you look like me, but you don't talk like me". These American/British talking Indians standout from the crowd. An Indian in India would say schedule as "sheddule" but 1 month of foreign trip will turn it into "skejule". When he comes back, the question arises as to which is right, "sheddule" or "skejule"? "Sheddule" may be the right way of pronouncing it, but the rest of the world has moved to calling it as "Skejule" even if it isn't completely English-correct. Same is the case of units of measurements. Only in India, the lakhs and crores are still used. Elsewhere, including Britain has moved to 100 thousand, million, etc.

Try and imagine a Caucasian American talking like a typical Indian with all the accentual quirks of a mallu or a tamilian or a bong. I'd die of laughter.....

Indians always make fun of other Indians anyway. Whether from India, or from abroad. Just being different in speech is a good excuse to make fun of.

But if any foreigner makes fun of us, then its racism! Lol!

Prajwal

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

I have heard some people pronounce Schwarznegger as Shivajinagar !

Rohan

You made my day man!! I fell of my chair at that one. Arnold Shivajinagar

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by e1t1bet

Thanks a lot for the "t to th" explanation. What I have noticed though, is that writing th for t is not peculiar to Tamil Nadu. People do this in Karnataka as well. So does Kannada have the same funda? (one letter representing different phonetics)

Not exactly. Kannada has different letters representing different phonetics. It's just that if we read English spellings with a Kannada angle, you tend to mess up pronunciation.

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, it is very difficult to explain pronunciations of any particular language.

All the 4 South Indian languages do have similar pronunciations for certain words. Even the scripts look somewhat similar. I read & write Kannada. Since both Kannada & Telugu scripts look similar, I can read a bit of Telugu too (of course it helps when you can understand the language a bit)

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by prajwalkashyap

One reason I see is that although they look so totally Indian, they don't seem to talk the same way. So its a case of "you look like me, but you don't talk like me". These American/British talking Indians standout from the crowd. An Indian in India would say schedule as "sheddule" but 1 month of foreign trip will turn it into "skejule". When he comes back, the question arises as to which is right, "sheddule" or "skejule"? "Sheddule" may be the right way of pronouncing it, but the rest of the world has moved to calling it as "Skejule" even if it isn't completely English-correct. Same is the case of units of measurements. Only in India, the lakhs and crores are still used. Elsewhere, including Britain has moved to 100 thousand, million, etc.

Try and imagine a Caucasian American talking like a typical Indian with all the accentual quirks of a mallu or a tamilian or a bong. I'd die of laughter.....

Indians always make fun of other Indians anyway. Whether from India, or from abroad. Just being different in speech is a good excuse to make fun of.

But if any foreigner makes fun of us, then its racism! Lol!

Prajwal

Im an Indian-American, so my "American Accent" gets made fun of all the time, lol . Even my Kannada is accented apparently. Also, ive noticed that people in india get confused when i talk in slang, American English grammer, or say the letter "O" for "Zero" . Like for example, for "college", i say "school", and so on.

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Not exactly. Kannada has different letters representing different phonetics. It's just that if we read English spellings with a Kannada angle, you tend to mess up pronunciation.

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, it is very difficult to explain pronunciations of any particular language.

All the 4 South Indian languages do have similar pronunciations for certain words. Even the scripts look somewhat similar. I read & write Kannada. Since both Kannada & Telugu scripts look similar, I can read a bit of Telugu too (of course it helps when you can understand the language a bit)

Kannada and Tamil script look totally different (rounded letters verses straight). Malayalam and Tamil looks very similar. Interestingly, Sinhalese looks a lot like Telugu/Kannada, why is that, i dont know.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

Kannada and Tamil script look totally different (rounded letters verses straight). Malayalam and Tamil looks very similar. Interestingly, Sinhalese looks a lot like Telugu/Kannada, why is that, i dont know.

Yep, I failed to mention that. Tamil & Malayalam scripts do look similar. But, I'm not sure where the similarities end. Perhaps our Tamil & Mallu friends can throw some light here.

Sinhalese looks a lot like Kannada/Telugu??? Man, this is news to me. Never seen a Sinhalese script before.

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Yep, I failed to mention that. Tamil & Malayalam scripts do look similar. But, I'm not sure where the similarities end. Perhaps our Tamil & Mallu friends can throw some light here.

Sinhalese looks a lot like Kannada/Telugu??? Man, this is news to me. Never seen a Sinhalese script before.

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pate...nhalese404.jpg

looks related to Kannada/Telugu...

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by clevermax

The funniest I've ever heard was



You don't want me to mention the origin of this accent!



Yes, Malayalam and Tamil scripts looks similar. It's relatively easy for a Mallu to learn to speak Tamil and probably vice versa. Same goes with the Kannada - Telugu combination. The scripts are similar. BTW, Malayalam is one of the toughest Indian languages to learn but Tamil is far more easier AFAIK. As a matter of fact, I can read/write Tamil as well, being a Mallu.

ടീം-ബീ എച്ച് പി (team-bhp) Hey I can write Malayalam here. EDIT: டீம் - பீ எச் பீ Tamil as well!

Spoken Tamil and Malayalam can mostly be understood by a Mallu/Tamil respectively, but the script can't be read unless tutored. But a AFAIK a Telugu/Kannadiga can read each other's script, though the meaning may not be completely intelligible to them.

@addyhemmige
Sinhala script also belongs to the Brahmic family. Have a look at this:
http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&sou...XKPZzbnAPpDD6g

[tacho]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pate...nhalese404.jpg

looks related to Kannada/Telugu...

First time looking at the Sinhalese script for me. Yes, on first glance, it looks related to Telugu/Kannada because of the round shapes, but I can't say it is a lot like Telugu/Kannada. I only learnt to read Telugu, but I can probably manage to read 80% of Kannada (at least the consonant part and without understanding what it means). I am completely lost while reading Sinhalese though.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

Im an Indian-American, so my "American Accent" gets made fun of all the time, lol . Even my Kannada is accented apparently. Also, ive noticed that people in india get confused when i talk in slang, American English grammer, or say the letter "O" for "Zero" . Like for example, for "college", i say "school", and so on.

@Caliatenza, here is something I wrote about american accent. Would like to see your point of view.

Vivek's weblog: american accent: a step backwards in linguistics?

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

@Caliatenza, here is something I wrote about american accent. Would like to see your point of view.

Vivek's weblog: american accent: a step backwards in linguistics?

I dont neccessarily agree with you because there are actually different American accents. For example...the NY accent is different from the Boston accent. People in the South and Midwest have a different accent,...people from the West Coast, like me, have a different accent, and so on. I dont think its a step backwards in linguistics at all. Also, i dont think pronounciations during early childhood have much bearing on late childhood and adulthood. Language and accents are really only set during schooling. God knows how i used to pronounce stuff when i was a small child, but its totally different now. BTW, your son sounds like he's got the NY/Boston accent coming in,

Me and my fellow Americans just pronounce things different thats all. I know the rest of the world says our English sucks, but hey, we just like doing things different .

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

I dont neccessarily agree with you because there are actually different American accents. For example...the NY accent is different from the Boston accent. People in the South and Midwest have a different accent,...people from the West Coast, like me, have a different accent, and so on. I dont think its a step backwards in linguistics at all. Also, i dont think pronounciations during early childhood have much bearing on late childhood and adulthood.

You didn't get my point. I know there are various accents. what I said is americans don't make an effort to pronounce tough syllables as much as asians or europeans. They create a simplified version and that becomes the standard throughout the adulthood. Ask an american adult to pronounce a hard 'R' and you will see how difficult it is.

I am able to see it because I am at the boundary where the change is occurring. For the second generation it will become the standard, my son will not even notice it when his children do that.

Do you know young kids in India can not pronounce a hard 'R', and replace with an 'L'. The more delay in perfecting the 'R', the more teasing they get for the "lisp". American kids just glide over it. that's the effort I was mentioning above.


but this is seriously .