Purr-Nun'-See-AY-Shun...
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Pronounciation for speakers of Tamil
Pronounciation for speakers of any other South Asian language
For anyone with background in one of the Dravidian (South Indian) languages, Malayalam pronounciation is relatively easy. Malayalam is, after all, one of the Dravidian languages!
Speakers of any Dravidian language other than Tamil (e.g. Telugu, Konkani, Kannada, Tulu) need to learn how to pronounce only one letter:
/zha/
But if you want to learn how to pronounce this letter, we have to look back at some of the other letters that are found in all Dravidian languages:
/Ta/ /Tha/ /Da/ /Dha/ /Na/ /La/
The first five consonants are what make up the third row of consonants in any Indian language. The other one is that "La" sound that you find only in South Indian languages. You know, the sounds anyone from South India makes when saying, "The toilet is down under!"
Notice how these sounds all have one thing in common: they're all produced by moving the tongue back and flicking it forward. So these sounds are all called retroflex consonants!
So, to pronounce /zha/, first you have to know how to reproduce the American/British English sound "rah," then pronounce it like a retroflex sound.
Hooray! Already, if you can pronounce that one sound, you can pronounce all of the sounds in Malayalam just like a Malayalee!