The sound that's missing from Hindi and Bengali

There is a sound called the retroflex approximant that is missing from Hindi and Bengali but is present in many other Indian languages. What is the story of this sound and how is it used in different states of India? Let's take a deep dive into this very interesting story of linguistics.

[LabourLawAdvisor]

Award for best thumbnail must be given

[sarveshchitodkar]

In Marathi, we can't live without it. Another thing, not a single word starts with ळ

[MontyBoosh]

It's so fascinating that despite having no knowledge of any indian language I am still perfectly capable of understanding this video in its entirety. It's so well presented that the examples and visuals easily let me fill the gaps. What a pleasure it is to hear so many beautiful languages and to be able to appreciate the subtleties in pronounciation. Phonology has always been one of the first roadblocks to learning a new language for me; it's like I have to re-train my mouth for each new inventory of sounds.

[atharvakodape]

How about a new video based on "ण" 😂 (Punekar intensifies)

[aakash]

Me, a Bengali: Trying to pronounce all these sounds while watching the video
Mom: Thinking I've gone mad

[shree]

Being an Odia, i have hard time convincing people that both La are different 😂

[xninja]

As a Gujarati i can clearly say that's true
In my higher secondary school 🏫 there is my friend who is not from Gujarat he knows only Hindi and English so i can relate it

[pavankumarhk]

"Zh" pronunciation existed in Kannada until 10th century. In literature, it is classified as old Kannada (हळेगन्नडा)..

[Debleena]

As a student of English linguistics I found this video very interesting and informative. I knew that there is a L variant in English which we call the dark L sound and also similar L sound is there in Korean language, but it sounds like R sound sometimes. But I didn't know that several Indian languages have this variety too. Thankyou. I learned something new and useful today.

[manuachary]

I'm so happy that he pronounced Malayalam correctly 😭

[iagreewithyou]

About ळ/ಳ in modern sanskrit, it is still correct to use it in places where necessary overriding Panini shiva sutrani. Words such as tulasi, murali, kalasha, pingala can be spelled and pronounced as तुळसि, मुरळि, कळश, पिङ्गळ. This is still correct and accepted plus its more ancient, so there's that.

As for "zh" (ऴ) actually even old sanskrit had this. It is frequently used in "Jaminiya Shakha of Sama Veda". Intrestingly this Shakha is present only in Tamil Nadu.

[anvi]

about the infinity kinda letter in marathi which sounds as "la"
everytime a non-Maharashtrian comes in Pune, people ask him/her to pronounce that. every time. literally. every freakin time.

[vasudev]

He speaks all languages so perfectly i am confused what his mother tongue might be

[bewakoofsparsh]

My tounge after watching this: humse na ho paega 😂😂😂😂😂

[muokor]

Malayalam and Tamil has the following ad well:
1. two sets of 'R' (ര / ர) and ( റ/ ற);
2. Double (ற/റ) creates a new sound like the English "T" (റ്റ)
3. three sets of 'N' in which Tamil has an alphabet for each of them, while Malayalam retains it only in speech. (ഩ, ന, ണ / ன, ந, ண / मन्, नदी, ण)
4. Malayalam also has the Vedic Sanskrit "vowels" (ഌ, ൡ and ൠ /ऌ, ॡ and ॠ) though not used in common parlance. ‌

[anilpol]

Once in a Marathi movie, Kishore Kumar was given the opportunity to sing a song, but when he could not speak the word "ळ", then whole song was written for him without using a "ळ". Thise movie name is "Gammat Jammat" and the song is "Ashwini ye na" and thise song very popular in that era and still it's popular.
My name is Anil Poळ,
Iam Maharashtrian.
||जय महाराष्ट्र||

[rutvikrs]

As a Kannadiga, I come across this situation a lot. This is how I help others learn.

Pretend to have a Haryanvi or a Rajasthani accent and read this " Hum JaaN-te nahi hai"
The whipping toungue movement you make for N is the same used for L.

Voiಳಾ. XD

[maloo]

I'm an Urdu speaking Pakistani so I have very minimal understanding of Hindi and Bengali, but this was a very fascinating and informative video. I'm glad there are channels like yours teaching people about Indian language and culture.

[pradeepkumarjeelugula]

As Telugu speaking person really appreciate your reasearch and explanation of letter pronounciation . Which is really important distinguish meaning . 👍

[dishitaajayshanthi]

Listening a non-tamilian speaking the zh sound correctly brings tears of joy