Who brought the 'wine' in genuine? Time to 'whine'.

All these years, I used to get miffed at those who pronounced genuine with a 'whine' at the end. I even prefer the 'won' that Punjabis use in this word to the affected 'wine'. But yesterday I heard Hina Rabbani Khar pronounce it as jen-uh-wine. I decided to check the dictionary again, as I always do, because English is a flowing language (unlike Hindi which has got trapped in the hands of some bigots) and flows faster than I think. Lo and behold! The dictionary says another acceptable alternative of the word genuine is - 'jen-uh-wine'.

I am devastated. That means from now on I cannot contemptuously dismiss those who add the wine at the end. 

Well there you have it then - the more common pronunciation is jen-uh-win. And I request you to please stick to that. But for the record, you would not be wrong if you said 'jen-uh-wine'

Commonly Mispronounced Words 17 - Yeddyurappa

By the time you read this, this gentleman might have resigned. Most people pronounce his name as यदियुरप्पा, however the correct pronunciation is यडियूरप्पअ

His full name - for those who are interested - is Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa, pronounced in KannaDa as ಬೊಕನಕೆರೆ ಸಿದ್ಧಲಿಂಗಪ್ಪ ಯಡಿಯೂರಪ್ಪ. If you can read Hindi, this would be

बूकनकेरे (the 'eh' sounds are short) सिद्दलिंगप्पअ यडियूरप्पअ 

In English (now this will be tough) it is

boo-cun-uh-keh-reh sither-ling-upper yuddy-your-upper

Hina Rabbani Khar - Pronunciation advice

The youngest and the first woman foreign minister of Pakistan. Even India has never had a woman Foreign Minister (except Indira Gandhi, which doesn't count as she was Prime Minister). Her name is Hinaa Rabbaanii Khar. Indians who love adding a nuqta where none exists, love calling her 'Khar (ख़र)' or 'Khaar (ख़ार)'. The former means 'ass' and the latter means 'thorn'. Her actual name is khar (खर) without the nuqta and with a short vowel sound. That comes from her village name, which became her family name. So if you can read Hindi, this is how it is written

हिना रब्बानी खर

In English, you could read it as 

hin-ah rub-barney cur

And if you can read Urdu, it reads as

حنا ربانی کھر

Commonly Mispronounced Words 16 - Eoin Morgan

Eoin Morgan is a Ireland-born batsman in the current English Team. His name is routinely mispronounced as Ian or Ee-oh-in. Although the name is quite simple to pronounce. It is pronounced exactly like Owen Morgan. That is 'oh-in' Morgan. 

In Hindi, that would read as ओइन मॉर्गन. 

My common bloopers 6

This could feature under Common Pronunciation errors too. There are two words - one is jabran (जबरन) and the other is zabardastii (ज़बरदस्ती). Both mean the same thing i.e., forcibly. Now the issue lies in the fact that the word zabardastii is used more often than the other one. And that has created the mirage that jabran is also a form of the same word (since they anyway mean the same thing) and hence I ended up pronouncing it as zabran (ज़बरन). However the correct forms are

jabran which comes from the Arabic root jabr (remember the Sahir song zindagi zulm sahii, jabr sahii gham hee sahee from the film Shagun). jabr means oppression and its derivative jabran means forcibly. 

zabardastii comes from the Persian root zabar (which is also a diacritic mark). zabar means above (hence the diacritic mark is also placed above) and dast means hands hence zabardast literally means having the upper hand. It's derivative zabardastii means forcibly or violently. 

In summary, it is ज़बरदस्ती and जबरन (zabardastii and jabran). And both mean the same thing. 

I don't make this mistake anymore. Hopefully after this post, neither will you. 

Commonly Mispronounced Words 15 - mischief

Another word that is commonly mispronounced in India is the word mischief. People pronounce it as a combination of miss and chief. Or as मिसचीफ़. However the correct pronunciation of this word is मिसचिफ़ or मिसचफ़. The sound between 'ch' and 'f'', is that of a schwa. 

My common bloopers - 5

This is a word I am a bit embarrassed to admit to, but then, sometimes one needs to take a good hard look at oneself. 

The word in question is 'laugh'. I knew you would laugh! But yes many moons ago, for some strange reason I was convinced that this word was pronounced as loff, with the vowel sound being elongated like in 'court' or 'ball'. And mind you, I was very good at English even as a 5 year old. So where this came in from, I do not know. I always maintain that Indians those days used to learn the written form and hence their spellings were far better than their pronunciations. Today, the trend (due to media, mobile phones etc) has changed and the kids today have better pronunciations than spellings. I was part of the earlier generation. 

Then one fine day, a colleague (by the way this is another majorly mispronounced word पर वो क़िस्सा फिर कभी), loffed at my loff. I asked him what was so funny. He asked me to say loff. I said it. He loffed. This went on for quite a while. I was so confident that I felt this could go on all evening. Finally he took pity on me and said it is not loff, it is laaf. Now it was my turn to loff. And I asked him to repeat it. He repeated it. I loffed again. By the time all this silliness ended, both of us were loffing or laafing, depending on our preference. Finally we did check the dictionary (there was no internet at that time), and to my consternation I realised that I shouldn't have loffed at all. I thanked my colleague, and since then I have worked very hard to avoid loffing. I have been successful in totally exorcising the loff. These days when I look back at this phase, I do laaf out loud. Or as the chat generation says - LOL. Imagine saying LOL in a conversation. But there are many who do. 

So in summary, for those who found my sentence structuring very convoluted and complex, the correct pronunciation of the word 'laugh' is laaf or लाफ़. And I used to make the mistake of pronouncing it as loff or लॉफ़ 

Commonly Mispronounced Words 14 - विकलांग

I was travelling by the Delhi Metro and was surprised they got it wrong. They normally get everything right!

The word is 'vikalaang'. The word means someone who is bereft of a limb, or crippled or maimed. This word is a mixture of two words - vikal (which means restless (when referring to the mind), and devoid of or imperfect (when referring to the body)) and ang (which means body). So when the two words join together the in-between vowel sound lengthens, and the word becomes 'vikalaang'. In Hindi this would read as विकलांग.

Now, why is this being featured on this blog then. Simply because, over the years this word has gotten corrupted into viklaang or विक्लांग (which is probably because of the Punjabi influence). But now I find a lot of non-Punjabis too, who think this is the pure form. So much so, that Delhi Metro, which gets everything right, also reserves two seats for the 'old and handicapped' (वृद्ध और विक्लांग). DTC on the contrary, gets it right. 

Commonly Mispronounced Words 13 - suicide

Now this is one error that goes entirely to the credit or discredit of Dharmendra and Sholay. Of course the Hindi (and some English) news channels are perpetuating that error, which certainly does not help. I am sure you have guessed the word by now.

Yes the word is 'suicide'

The correct pronunciation is sue (soo)-i-side. In Hindi that would read as सूइसाइड. The Americans would say it as soo-uh-side i.e. सूअसाइड. But the common way of pronouncing this word in India is 

su-side or सुसाइड. 

And there are so many suicides ranging from common folk to Chief Medical Officers to models and actors - that the word keeps coming back to haunt me. So if you are a Hindi news anchor and are reading this, please either use soo-i-side or ख़ुदकुशी or आत्महत्या and spare us the torture. And if you are an English news anchor who mispronounces this, I have nothing to say to you. 

By the way, I just love what those two gaaonwaalaas say in Sholay about suicide. When Dharmendra is shouting su-side from the 'paanii kii Tankii', one of them asks the other

'yeh su-side kyaa hotaa hai bhaai'

the other sage gaonvaalaa responds

'jab angrez log marte hai.n to use su-side kahte hai.n'

and the original querist comes back with a classic

'yeh angrez log marte kyo.n hai.n'

Well I sometimes get my blogs mixed up :)

Commonly Mispronounced Words 12 - Opera

One of the worst hit Mumbai blasts site yesterday was Opera House. I suddenly felt very scared, as I have spent quite some time in that vicinity. Anyway, that is the subject of political blogs, I will stick to pronunciation. I am reminded of the first time I went to that area (some ten years ago). Well the story is quite long, so I will give you the truncated version. 

The word Opera is pronounced as op-ruh (like the talk show hostess), sometimes there is a schwa (a very short unaccented syllable) between the 'p' and the 'r'. So the alternative pronunciation is op-uh-ruh. 

So I told a taxi driver to take me to the cinema theatre near op-ruh house. I could not remember the name of the street it was on (Lamington road), so I gave him the name of a landmark, feelling sure that would be enough. But he said there is no such place. I was shocked. It was like being told the Taj was no longer available in Agra. I said I am sure it was there and there was a famous theatre nearby. I also told him that the Anil Kapoor starrer Pukaar was showing there. He said, he was not much of a film buff. Now this op-ruh house discussion went on for some 2-3 minutes. Mumbai taxi drivers are very time conscious. They do not believe in wasting time in discussion. So this exasperated taxi driver said, 

'saab kidhar jaane kaa hai vo bataao. nahee.n to doosraa gaaDi dekho'

{sir, please make up your mind where you want to go. Or else take some other cab}

I was furious. And probably the increased activity in my heart helped the brain and in a flash I remembered the road was called Lamington Road. Immediately he said - did you mean Minerva Theatre. I said 'bingo' and off we went to Minerva. 

On the way, he paused and said, 

"saab woh jagah kaa naam opayraah house bolte hai.n. aap apra apra kar rahe the to mere ko chamkaa nahee.n. kisee se bhee bolnay kaa ho, to opayraah  house bolo, pahunchaa degaa naa."

{sir, that place is called oh-pay-rah house. you were saying it as 'up-ruh', so I didn't get it. In future, if you have to say that name, please say oh-pay-rah house, anyone will take you there.}

I have never felt more stupid in life. So the summary of this story is, different pronunciations have to be used in India at different places. So if you are in the company of educated and refined people, then you should say op-ruh house ( ऑपरअ), and if you are talking to a Mumbai taxi driver, make sure you say oh-pay-rah (ओपेरा) house. 

The funny thing is if you use the wrong pronunciation at the right place (or vice versa), people will ridicule you. By the way, if you were wondering what was the brouhaha about Minerva and why didn't I ask him to take me to the nearest theatre. Well, I am quite a cheese paring man and the only tax-free movie playing in Mumbai  at that time, was Pukaar. And a tax-free film meant a 40% saving. Life is complicated :).

Manmohan Singh's new Cabinet - Pronunciation advice

Yesterday's reshuffle brought in some new faces to the Union Cabinet. Here is a guide to pronounce their names (this is based on how the ministers themselves pronounced their names while taking oath). You can see the oath taking ceremony video here.

NEW MINISTERS

Cabinet ministers

V. Kishore Chandra Deo: Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj  वी किशोर चन्द्र देव 
Beni Prasad Verma: Steel बेनी प्रसाद वर्मा
Dinesh Trivedi: Railways दिनेश त्रिवेदी
Jairam Ramesh: Rural Development (earlier Environment and Forests) जयराम रमेश

Ministers of State (Independent charge)
Srikant Jena: Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers स्रीकांत जेना
Jayanthi Natarajan: Environment and Forests जयंती नटअराजन
Paban Singh Ghatowar: Development of North Eastern Region पवन सिंह घाटोवर
Gurudas Kamat: Drinking Water and Sanitation गुरुदास कामत (he resigned soon after) 

Ministers of State
Sudip Bandopadhyaya: Health and Family Welfare शुदीप बन्दोपाध्याय (the correct pronunciation of the surname should be बॉन्दोपाध्याय, but he himself said it as 'बन्दो')
Charan Das Mahant: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries चरन  दास बिसाहू दास  महंत
Jitendra Singh: Home Affairs जितेन्द्र सिंह
Milind Deora: Communications and Information Technology मिलिन्द देवरा
Rajiv Shukla: Parliamentary Affairs राजीव शुक्ल (note he does not pronounce the last elongated vowel sound)

CHANGE IN PORTFOLIOS

Cabinet Ministers
Vilasrao Deshmukh: Science and Technology and Earth Sciences विलास राव देशमुख
M. Veerappa Moily: Corporate Affairs (earlier Law and Justice) एम वीरप्पअ मोय्ली
His full name (used while taking the oath) is MooDabidari Veerappa Moily मूडअबिदरि वीरप्पअ मोय्ली
Anand Sharma: Commerce and Industry; and additional charge of Textiles आनन्द शर्मा
Pawan Kumar Bansal: Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of Water Resources पवन कुमार बंसल
Salman Khursheed: Law and Justice and additional charge of Minority Affairs सलमान ख़ुर्शीद 

Ministers of State
E. Ahamed: External Affairs and Human Resource Development ई अहमद
V. Narayanasamy: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; and Prime Minister's Office वी नारायणअस्वामी
Harish Rawat: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries; and Parliamentary Affairs हरीश रावत
Mukul Roy: Shipping मुकुल रॉय
Ashwani Kumar: Planning; Science and Technology and Earth Sciences अश्विनी कुमार

The other ministers can be seen taking oath here

Malwan Railway Station - Pronunciation advice

The terrible rail accident that happened yesterday, happened near the Malwan railway station. The correct pronunciation of the place is

mal (rhymes with mull)-waa.n (rhymes with blanc (of Mont Blanc))

If you can read Hindi, this is how it reads

मलवाँ

Commonly Mispronounced Words 11 - consumer

Consumer

The Oxford English Dictionary defines this noun, as "

noun

a person who purchases goods and services for personal use:

a person or thing that eats or uses something.

The British pronunciation for this word is /kənˈsjuːmə/ con (rhymes with gun) sue (rhymes with you) mer (rhymes with murmur)

The American pronunciation for this word is /kənˈsuːmə/ Everything else remains like the British version, except the second syllable is pronounced without the 'you' and with an 'oo'

So depending on which country's accent you follow the pronunciation would be कनसूमर or कनस्यूमर 

The most common Indian pronunciation of this word is कनज़्यूमर i.e. with a 'z' sound. That is incorrect and hence finds its way into this blog. The department of the government of India that advertises the most is the Dept of Consumer Affairs. Yet I find that in most ads the word is mispronounced.

Kalki Koechlin Pronunciation advice

One of the most mis pronounced names among Bollywood stars. So much so that even awards ceremony hosts get it dreadfully wrong. The correct pronunciation is

keck (rhymes with check)-larn (rhymes with barn) (although the last sound is slightly nasalised, but if you cannot nasalise it is ok to pronounce it like this or as lah (rhyming with blah))

If you can read Hindi, 

कॆकलाँ 

She herself had in an interaction said that it is fine if you make it rhyme with Dhoklaa (ढोकला), though I would recommend that you should add the nasal sound at the end if you can.

If you are comfortable using the pronunciation key - keklaa.n

Yingluck Shinawatra - Pronunciation advice

Well, another Asian country has a woman prime minister for the first time. In Thailand, Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra becomes the first woman prime minister of that country. Her name is pronounced as

yeeng-luck shin-nah-WAHT

यींगलक शिनावात 

Well the first vowel is long and the last syllable is silent. Otherwise pretty much straightforward.

Novak Djokovic - Pronunciation advice

Well, another first time winner of Wimbledon singles. Though he has been around for a while, many channels are getting the pronunciation wrong. So here is a pronunciation guide for the 2011 Wimbledon men's singles champion - Novak Djokovic

know-vuck JOE-kuh-witch (stress on the first syllable of the surname)

If you can read Hindi, this is how it would be

नोवक जोकोविच

The second 'ओ' sound in the surname is shorter, and hence the pronunciation is closer to जोकअविच.

Petra Kvitova - Pronunciation advice

With the erstwhile Iron Curtain countries increasingly dominating world tennis, the challenge for broadcasters is increasing. What with the maiden winner of this year's women's singles at Wimbledon being Petra Kvitova. When the pronunciation of the name of her erstwhile country is featured as a major challenge in the Max New York Life advertisement, the name of a subject of that country is not going to be easy. But in case you are interested in getting it right here is the advisory 

Petra Kvitova = पेत्रा क्वितोवा = pet-rah kvit-oh-vuh
petraa kvitoovaa (Using pronunciation key)

All the 't' sounds are the soft sounds. Most channels are going with peTraah quit-oh-wah or पेट्रा क्विटोवा. Well now that she has won the Wimbledon twice, it would be unfair to associate the word 'quit' with her name.

My common bloopers - 4

The H- Bomb or the eich Bomb as I call it, threatens to blow up in my face many a time. But first the basics. The eighth letter of the alphabet is supposed to be pronounced as eitch and not etch as 99% of English speaking Indians pronounce it. All my English teachers were gloriously oblivious of this fact and hence it took me years to get this right. But even after I got it right, the H-bomb does blow up from time to time. 

Like everyone I also detest HIV. It has more to do with the fact that I often end up pronouncing this as etch ai v. Immediately after I bite my lip, but it is too late.