the recently concluded world tamil conference evoked varying and extreme positions from different groups.
from the comments on inconvenience caused to the public to the non-inclusion of the former president of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam among the invitees / dignitaries, there were enough controversies.
in one of my recent visits to chennai, i noticed that there were many 'tamilized' name boards all over.
among the interesting ones was:
'alai pesi' - wave speakers - for mobile phones, a variation of 'tholai pesi' distant speakers [for normal phones].
but, on the TV commercials, i notice that still many english words were used in their native form.
one of the mobile TV ads spoke of 'kaal rates' [call rates] - where 'kaal' in tamil means a leg!
i am not sure if the renaming of streets is to keep the language current. my feeling is that many of the old names represent significant aspects of the local history that would be lost forever.
languages need to evolve, by absorption of newer terms to keep with the evolving technological and social trends.
why can we not just accept the words from other languages - where these would have originated - and localize it in terms of pronunciation.
how would facebook sound, when it is referred as 'mugha puttakam' or blog as 'inaya thala aettu kurippu'..
1 comment:
Hilarous one. When translated fron one language to another, there is always an element of fun/humour.
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