Quote:
And, by the way, how do you pronounce ताज महल? I've always said /taʤ məhəl/. Do you say it with a /z/ instead of a /ʤ/? (And, now that I think about it, my त is more alveolar than purely dental.)


my comment was not so much about the 'consonants' as the vowels. although hindi in devnagri is closer to that 1 sound per syllable thing than say english written in roman is, a stricter representation of the sound of the महल would be महेल or possibly महैल. Firangi tend to overcorrect and say it as if it were ताज माहाल. I was watching an old movie the other day and a native speaker used that pronunciation when speaking Hindi which REALLY surprised me because normally even when speaking English native speakers say it as described above.