Re: alu, tca, tja

Hari K Tadepalli (hari_k_tadepalli@ccm.co.intel.com)
Wed, 08 Oct 1997 10:02:22 -0700 

            > gitctcaku-don't "hurt";         giccAvA? - did you "hurt"
            > metctcani-un-appreciated;       meccina-appreciated


Regurgitating from high school "Telugi" classes:

 1. The #[ca|tsa], [ja|za]# distinctions apply only to Telugu words (& not to
     Sanskrit words). {Long time ago,  a cine-zine complained that some
     famous actresses couldn't pronounce  the #dantya chakAram# even after
     a long career in Telugu films. I find a similar phonetic challenge among many
     convent educated folks).

2.  The following #guNimtAlu# of #tsa# are pronounced in the #dantya# form:

                    ca  - eg. campu, cavaka, cakkani, paccani, accaTa,
                            nachchalEdu, pancha
                    cA - cAlu, cAkali, cAvu, cAcu,
                    cu  - cukkAni, cuncu, cukka, accu, viccu, piccuka
                    cU - cUDu, cUru,
                    co  - coccu,, cokkA, corava, accottimchaDam
                    cO - chOTu
                    cau - couka

    The rest viz., #ci, cI, ce, cE# are pronounced in the regular form. Eg.

                    ci   - cikkani, pacci, maccika, viccina (note the transformation from
                            #viccukOvaDam#), cinna, cimaTa
                    cI   - cIkaTi, cIpuru, kamicI, cIdara, pUcI
                    ce  -  cetta, cekku, centa, ceruvu, cedalu, kance, mance,
                             muccemaTalu, pancE
                    cE -  cEdu, cEruva, cEnu, cEda, cencu
                   cai  -  ??

2a. Addition of #sunnalu, arasunnalu, visargalu :-)#  does not alter the above rules eg.,
      #cincu, mancamu, pancipeTTaDam, pancukOvaDam#.

2b. Some of above examples (eg., #chouka, chokkA#) may not be pure Telugi words
     (correct me) !. But  the above phonetic rules must have dictated their persent
     pronunciation.

3. Some exceptions to the above rule seem to arise from some modern pronunciation
    practices e.g., #vaccADu, caccADu, iccADu# - this half #a#, half #e# letter seems
    a big incompleteness (in additon to the english #F#) in the telugu #varNamAla#. Eg., the
    word "bank" finds three different transcriptions on signboards as "bAnku, byAnku or
    bEnku, byEnku" (though I should admit that the 1st & 4th forms are rarely seen). If we
    resolve this ambiguity of pronunciation, the transcription is obvious (? isn't that vacuous).

   The other exceptions are words like: #panche# (the loin cloth), #manche# (??).
   These words, though scripted occassionally as #mancha, kancha#, are pronounced
    only with an #e# in the end. A similar ambiguity appears in proper names like #pOcamma,
    accamma, buccamma# (needless to say  #gurazADa# would have had a tough time
    transcribing his famous drama into RIT).

4. I have dealt with only the #[ca|za]# distinction. Extensions to the #[ja|za]# case are
    left as exercises.

5. #kunTi (*)  praSna#: Are there any uses of #cR# and #cL#  (#R# and #L# being the
    vowel promoted consonants of the Sanskrit #varNamAla#), if yes, are they pronounced
    as #cR# or #tsR#, when used in Telugu ?

T. Hari Krishna

PS. I couldnt help being tempted to show off my epsilon improvisation, esp.
      when PRK did not elaborate much.

(*) No diminution intended to the challenged.