What’s in a name? Quite a lot, say experts

Chennai

With memes on ‘Koyampuththur’ and exaggerated vowel and consonant usage in tweets trending, local historians comment on the renaming, and the impact this change would have.

Phonetics and syllables
According to historian Thiruppurasundari Sevvel, any change to the nomenclature of a place usually takes into account the original name, the pronunciation of the name or the root name of the place. “Change is welcome, but the question in my mind is why so sudden. Syllables and phonetics play an important role in a word’s pronunciation. The old name for Coimbatore well conveys the phonetics of the word, and it was not necessary to elaborate it exactly. English is not like Tamil, wherein the latter you can exactly frame a word as you want it due to the permutations between the consonants and vowels,” she said.

This dissonance is due to the English and Tamil languages having different origins, said Dr Archana N Sardana, Head of Department, English Department, Anna Adarsh College for Women. “Tamil, a Dravidian language, doesn’t relate to the Indo-European language system at all. If two languages had a similar origin, we could have spoken of some common sounds. So the question is to find a phonetic equivalent between these two languages. One example can be the usage of ‘zh’ in English for a Tamil ‘r’ sound,” she said.

These being kept in mind, a transliteration of a Tamil word into English will not be accurate or successful, she said.

Dr Sardana said the rules of translation continue to apply here, where the meaning or the sentiment of the word is carried forward.

“A name carries multiple narratives and history of a place, be it economic, cultural, social, or religious,” said Seyyel.

Usage and accuracy
The anglicised versions of Tamil cities were created when colonisers arrived on the Queen of the Coromandel. “Foreigners with little knowledge on the local tongue would pronounce city names incorrectly,” said historian Jayakumar Baradwaj, “and thus created different names for cities”.

“They’ve not taken into consideration the cultural connect and local dialect. For example, if we go to France, we will not be able to pronounce their city names properly. People tend to get it wrong unless you are familiar with the local dialect. We are now trying to Tamilise anglicised Tamil words, that too badly,” he said.

In their attempt to fix the pronunciations, historian Nivedita Louis said certain meanings of places also suffered a change in English. Retaining the traditional names rather than changing its English spelling would have gone a long way, she added.

“Poonthamalee, called Poonamallee by the British, has been changed to Poovirundhavalli. Many think it has an association to the thaya at the Varadharaja Perumal temple in the area. However, that was not the case, as her name is Pushpavalli. This is based on 10th Century Chola inscription in the temple which calls the place Poonthanmalee for its luscious trees and flowers. So the new name does not capture that essence,” she said.

Local attachment
Louis feels the changed spellings will create a dissonance between the locals and the place.

“For example, St Thomas Mount was called Parangimalai but was changed due to the presence of the church. It is how people associate and decide the name, and so it is for the public to decide and name,” she said.

According to historian R Gopu, this change will take a long time to be accepted by locals. “It is like how many still call Chennai as Madras, as it ties to the history of the city. This change will take around two generations to stick, if it does at all. Even then, some will still use the old names,” he said.