Name is the game

What is common between Don Quixote, Euler and Fermat.

Apart from the fact that they are quite an unique set of names, another intriguing aspect would be their pronunciation. Till now i'vent heard 2 similar ways of pronouncing Mr. Quixote. Wonder what made Miguel de Cervantes choose that name. I used to read it as "quick zot". When i came across the story again in my college i was told it is "Kee oh tay".  I dont remember the story much except for his charge at the windmills. But the name i would never forget in a hurry. Same goes for Euler. Is it "you ler" or "Oi ler" is something i'vent figured out yet. Ditto for Fermat. All through the college i kept hearing it as "fer maa's theorem" and used to search for that spelling.

This name thing is not limited to people alone. When Keladi Kanmani was released they had the posters all over the town and the name was printed in tamil's equivalent font for comic san serif. I read it as "Kaudi Kanmani" and for long thought it was some kannada movie. When Bale Paandiya (not the sivaji one..the one starring pia bajpai and vishnu) got released had a really tough time to make out the name amidst the weird arrangement of letters. Padam pera padikavay ivlo kashtama irukkay..padam semma mokkai polanay neria per would've given it a skip.

Another movie name that stumped me was Aegan. With an almost Greek sounding spelling luckily they had the good sense to publish it in tamil as well. Aana anga thaan vambaadichi. The poster had picture of Ajith with a thiruvalluvar like thaadi pointing a gun. Underneath it was written "Aegan" in tamil, which actually had a space between the "Ae" part and the "gan" since the font was huge. Looking at the pose and the title i thought the movie name was "a gun" and immediately mind started guessing what could be the story behind the name "a gun". Needless to say majorly disappointed when the movie was released and  when i got to know the real name. Curiously the USP of the movie was not Ajith's Thaadi but Nayanthaara's body.

Naama thaan ipdi bulbu vaangara case paatha...my kannadiga friend, who very much likes to show off his tamil language skills, read "alai paayuthay" -as  "ezhai paayuthay" and wondered out aloud why they've kept the movie name as "poor people falling". Usually people pronounce anything with "zha" as "la". Nammaal konjam over enthula did the ulta. It was fun though :)



Comments

Asha said…
oh is that how Quixote is pronounced?

konjam french, spanish, tamizh ellam anglicize aagara podhu vara kozhuppam....

Reminds me of an incident. In my college we had students from all over the country. one girl was from rural tamilnadu...she spelt her name as Packiam...my english teacher used to call in the attendance as PACK...e...am.......avloda peru enna theriyuma?
gils said…
lol :)) pack i am :)) soooberu
Aarti said…
Last saturday when heading to the bloggers meet something funny yapppened... I was walking towards Zha cafe, when an auto passed by and a guy from within waved his hands asking me to stop.. he then asked me where this is za[sa] cafe.. I stared at him and then asked if he meant zha [pazham kinda zha] cafe, and he stared blank.. appuram idatha kamichapuuram thaan payyan smiled.. kadavule!
gils said…
lol :)) za cafeku badila la cafe nu ketrybtha u cud;ve shwn hm sme french ones :))
Ramesh said…
Easy to pronounce Gils :):)

Who , or what, is pia Bajpai ?? :) Ditto, Nayantara ??

By the way, is there actually a Zha café ??? Whatever motivated the owner to call it that ??

I vote that we call Quixote kwiksottu :)
gils said…
@thala:

nayanthaara teriaathaa!!! omg :D:D its a cafe based on tamil culture as theme...athaan name kooda "zha" nu vachirukanga

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