Commonly Mispronounced Words 32 - Turkey and Ankara

A lot of words are mispronounced in India thanks (or no thanks) to our Geography teachers. While one school of thought believes that one should go with the accepted anglicisation, another school of thought believes that one should be faithful to the original sound (as far as possible). The fact that I write this blog suggests that I belong to the latter. 

The name of the country is Turkey, and commonly pronounced or mispronounced as tur (rhymes with fur) - key

The correct pronunciation is closer to toor (the vowel sound like in book)-ki-yeh टुरकिये 

The name of its capital is Ankara, and it is commonly mispronounced as un-car-ah. The correct pronunciation is un-cur-uh  अंकअरअ 

Commonly Mispronounced Words 31 - Odisha and Odia

The Orissa assembly passed a resolution in 2008 to change the name of the state to Odisha and the name of the language to Odia. This finally received Presidential assent on November 4th 2011. But unfortunately the way it is written has created a serious disconnect between the way Hindi speakers say it now and the change that was desired. 

The change desired was replacing the 'r' sound in Orissa and Oriya with the 'd' sound. But because they used  श  while writing it in Hindi ओड़िशा  - the problem started. Now this is pronounced as 'sha' (palatal or तालव्य) in Hindi. But in Odia it is pronounced as 'sa'. Hence you heard all news anchors and newsreaders calling it ODisha. 

So the correct pronunciation of the state is oh-D-sah (ओड़िसा) and the language is oh-D-ah (ओड़िआ). 

Pronunciation advice - Place names in Hyderabad riots

The places mentioned in the Hyderabad riots are

Saidabad सईदाबाद sigh-the-bahd (soft d)
Madannapet मादन्नअपेट्टा ma-the-nuh-pay-tuh
Kurmaguda कूर्मगूडअ coor-muh-goo-duh
Chanchalguda चंचलगूडा  chun (rhymes with bun) chull (rhymes with hull) goo-duh
Pusalabasti पूसलअबस्ती poo-sull-uh-bus-tea (soft t)

My common bloopers 8 - my gussa about garm and gum etc.

With my entire fetish for orthoepy, it sometimes leads to a lot of confusion too. Read the following words

garm

gulab

gussa

gum

khula

khali

Now how many have a nuqta (which leads to a different pronunciation). So is the following list ok

ग़र्म 

ग़ुलाब 

ग़ुस्सा

ग़ुम 

ख़ुला

ख़ाली

or is it wrong. 

Well I get it muddled many times. I am working very hard at it. But I still get it wrong sometimes. So here is the final corrected list. 

गर्म या गरम

गुलाब

ग़ुस्सा

गुम

खुला

ख़ाली

In the famous song from Rampur ka Laxman - Gum hai kisii ke pyaar me.n. Kishore starts by pronouncing it as ग़ुम and corrects it later to गुम. Lata gets it right throughout. 

Watch the song here. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oRJkAjJ8Pg

Wrong pronunciation at 00 10 and corrected versions at 01 55 and 03 26