The difference a diphthong makes

Is it “dosai” or “dosa”?

The answer is, it is neither on the one hand, and on the other, both.

There are two vowels in both, “ai” in Tamil, and “a” in the other so-called Dravidian languages. This difference is what people focus on, to create a divide between linguistic cousins. We need a one-handed linguist who can reconcile the difference.

I offer myself.

A person whose mother tongue is Tamil, when ordering a “dosai” in a restaurant or a road-side stall, or shouts to his or house spouse in the kitchen, does not stress the second vowel (set of vowels, in this case). Never.

The same goes for a bangle – “Valai”. Only, “Valai”. The examples are numerous.

There is, at best, only a hint of the diphthong “ai” (here I borrow from English; I offer the example of “tail”, where the sound is a combination of “a” and “i”, but so tightly are they fused that even your tongue fails to utter these as two distinct vowels!).

Dravidian languages other than Tamil have done away with this “diphthong” business, and that is good for all those who speak these languages! Tamil appears kind of having frozen itself in the olden times – after all, it was the first among Dravidian languages to be given the title of Classical Language (I am beginning to wonder why German does not do away with its “umlauts” – I never learnt how to correctly pronounce the vowels with the double-dots!).

So, the next time, you, a non-Tamil goes out with your Tamil friends, watch out how they pronounce “Dosai”, with or without the diphthong, however diluted the sound could be. That is the time you can show off your linguistic proficiency in languages beyond your mother tongue. A universalist?

Good luck!

Raghuram Ekambaram