Tamil or Tamizh!

One of most fascinating Indian politician, Kanimozhi has been arrested in the 2G scam. And that leads to the big question. How due you pronounce 'zh' in her name? No - it is unlikely that you will get it right on your own... (unless you happen to be Tamil)

I faced this problem originally few years ago while working in Mumbai. I had good friendship with a person from Coimbatore - whose name had this 'zh'. I could not get it right after several attempts. Finally - he told me to pronounce it as 'L'

I have seen people pronounce it as 'R', 'L', a deep 'Z', a quick 'YRA' or even 'S'. Here is what I got in a quick Google search!

I got to work in Chennai recently for few months - and I managed to do it finally!

So here is a quick guide to pronouncing 'zh' ... (It is the way I figured it out! Spare me if I have got this wrong)

1. Say 'LA'.
2. Notice the way your tongue moves.
3. Your tongue touches upper part of your mouth. Then you move the tongue forward while maintaining contact.
4. Here is the tough part - touch your tongue to the upper part of mouth and try to say 'LA'. However this time you have to move your tongue backwards instead of forward.
5. I bet you will not be able to do it first time. Try it few times. Try it fast.
6. You will not get the 'LA' sound. You will manage some weird utterance.
7. Congratulation. That sound happens to be 'zh'

Exercises
1. Tamil is actually 'TamiZH'
2. Repeat 'KanimoZHi' five times.
3. And now try saying Anaithinthiya ThamiZHaga Munnetra KaZHagam. And hey you have to do it fast!