Rajesh, I'm married to a non-Kannadiga who can't always master the L, so he just refrains from using the word entirely :D
There are plenty of puns within Indian languages too, I'm sure. Na Kasturi, who `translated' Alice in Wonderland into Kannada, used all sorts of local references and limericks to substitute the English word play. I can't remember any from the book off the top of my head, but here's one from my childhood. An old woman was selling lemons to a customer, who had just asked her how much each one cost. At the same time, a man ran up to her and asked her if she had seen his horse. The clever woman replied to both with just one word. Na kaane Naak aane = 4 annas Naa kaane = I haven't seen On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 9:21 AM, Rajesh Mehar <[email protected]> wrote: > In Kannada (and many South Indian languages), there are two possible > pronunciations of the sound corresponding to the English letter L. > Wikipedia says these are called Retroflex Lateral Approximant and Retroflex > Lateral Flap. Usually, while transliterating Kannada, they're written as l > (as in shaale or school) and L (as in baaLe or banana). Many people who are > unfamiliar with these sounds cannot pronounce the two differently. > When you add to this the fact that heLu in Kannada means tell and helu > means shit, there is scope for an abundance of beautiful toilet-humor-ey > puns. Imagine the wrong pronounciations of "tell me now" or "tell me in my > ear" or "tell me right here". >
