Grandpa and the Missing 'A'

"Amma, Grandpa is wrong”. My nine-year-old son came to me with a complaint. “I have written grandma’s name correctly in Malayalam- ഗീതാ. But he says there shouldn’t be an extra ‘a-ki matra*’. Don’t we write her name as गीता in Hindi and ‘Gita’ in English?”

“Every language has a history. For example, Malayalam uses Abugida script where a letter is a combination of a consonant and a vowel. This is not the case with Hindi or English”. I explained to him why languages that evolved in tropical regions have steady vowel sounds like ‘e’ and ‘a’ that could cut through the thick forests and how they happened to be sonorous. Before I could explain why the language followed the round script, he declared, “Now I understand why my Carnatic music teacher asks me to open my mouth while reciting the Keerthanams”.

I was happy about his inquisitive mind. Within days he was ready with his story on how terrain and climate influence a region's language, costume, and food habits. I took the opportunity to educate him on the importance of respect for diversity.

* Matra in Hindi refers to the vowel diacritic.