Apropos of this column by Rajeev Srinivasan where he basically says that all Hindi speakers pronounce their Sanskrit-derived words wrongly, I have three random thoughts.

Mostly I am a language descriptivist, i.e. I believe that to learn the meaning or pronounciation of a word, you have to hear native speakers use it and not derive it through arcane rules of grammer or by looking at how the word originated.
But then I have this nagging feeling that Sanskrit words should follow different rules. Besides, I’ve lived in Lucknow and seen “It’s your language too. You too should learn to speak it” (when a North Indian is confronted with a South Indian who doesn’t know the language) change to “It’s my language. The way I pronounce it is Hindi.” when faced with a Tambram co?recting his Sanskrit derived word.

When a North Indian wants to simplify Hindi, he wants heavy Sanskrit-laden words to be taken out and “simpler” Urdu words to be used instead (This is not to say that all Urdu words are simpler, but many are) But a South Indian is more likely to understand Sanskrit derived words.

One thing that always irritates me is the “mispronounciation” of Jnya by North Indians (i.e. everyone north of Karnataka) They always pronounce it gya (as in gyaan) and they won’t listen when I correct them.

Finally, here’s a quiz for Examined Life readers. Give the Ancient Greek equivalent of Jnya which means the same thing. It is a common part of many words – pretty workoutable.