Originally Posted By: Birrell Walsh
So the word Tamil has a retroflex T? Still hard for me to hear with certainty even after two years of Sanskrit...


In Hindi the word for Tamil is spelled with an unaspirated dental "t" त not a retroflex either aspirated ठ or not ट. I dont know about what the tamilians use but Kalki was expressing a view ive often heard from southie friends, an awareness of difficulty with some Hindi sounds. its really more about the superiority complex hindi has about its primacy in indian languages. after all hindi has no sound like the "l" in Tamil which should be really more 'zh' and sounds like this