Well, I am Latha Sambamurti, the Redmond Arts Commissioner and Indian singer referred to in this blog! On the whole, I enjoyed reading this blog entry. From my (Indian) point of view, it is certainly interesting to read on the web about how an (English-speaking) American is drawn to Indian films and film music to the point of active involvement in stage rendition of Indian film songs!

A few little clarifications:

> She demonstrated the three supposedly different “n” sounds. “Na. Na. Na.” .

Here’s a link to an article on Tamil (the language) in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language#Consonants

Read “Consonants” under “Sounds”. Look at the table under “Nasals”– the three “n” sounds referred to by the blogger are: the alveolar, the dental and the retroflex. The phonetic inventory in this table captures the empirical reality in Tamil quite accurately.

The “make” vs “pig” distinction referred to by the blogger, in Tamil, is “paNNi” (retroflex n) vs “panni” (alveolar n). Tamil, like all other Indian languages, has numerous such pairs of consonants. The distinctions are often a source of puns and humour— unintended humour when the speaker/singer is in denial about the distinctions! BTW my dinner guests tonight are (native-)Tamil speaking, and are having a hearty laugh already!

To drive home the point from an English vowel perspective: Imagine hearing “your son is very autistic” when what you should rather hear is “your son is very artistic”! From the perspective of consonants, look at “I’d like to putt” vs “I’d like to butt”

I am also reminded of the “retard” vs “retired” joke in Borat!

> They are absolutely indistinguishable,

Read my comments above. How can one produce the distinctions in speech or song, if one cannot hear, or one is steadfast about not recognizing them, in the first place !!!

> but she insists they are completely distinct.

I don’t insist upon the distinction any more than I “insist” on the law of gravity, or on the distinction in English between “autistic” and “artistic” !!

> I’m looking for a song to sing myself - and thought I’d found one.

Pray tell us how you found it.

> I suspect her of wanting to hog the Tamil songs for herself.

I guess this is the “Mischief” part in “Music, musings and mischief” :-)

Cheers,

Latha

Can’t wait to see the new band in action.

See you Saturday.