Improving lives has always been our guiding principle
Neighbouring states share common words.
In both France and Germany, for instance, ‘bonbon’ means a sweet and ‘champignon’ means mushroom. If you share a common border, some words will travel back and forth with ease. It’s understandable.
Closer home, an elephant is ‘aana’ in Malayalam and pretty much the same thing in Tamil – ‘aanai’ or ‘yaanai’. An egg is ‘mutta’ in Malayalam, ‘muttai’ in Tamil.
Rice is ‘ari’ in Malayalam and ‘arisi’ in Tamil. Pain is ‘vedana’ in Malayalam, ‘vedanai’ in Tamil. All pretty close in sound to be the same word.
There are many such common words. Like I said, this sort of equivalence is only to be expected between neighbours. It’s natural.
Yet.
The surprising bit
There are some words that sound exactly the same in the two languages but mean different things. Sometimes slightly different, sometimes drastically different.‘Vellam’ in Malayalam means water. The familiar liquid you ingest every day.
In Tamil, ‘vellam’ means a flood. What is pedestrian in one language is disastrous in another. To Tamil ears, someone across the border asking for ‘vellam’ brings forth images of acres of agri land destroyed and farmers’ homes submerged under nature’s fury.
The same meaning
You can rightly argue the word still means water in both the states. True, the difference is of degree, not kind. It is an everyday drink in one state and breaking news in another.
Yet.
The difference can be noteworthy with other words. The word ‘kondattam’ in Tamil, for instance, means celebration of a boisterous kind. Dancing may be involved.
Whereas, across the border, an elderly gent of 70-plus years is likely to ask his long-suffering wife to bring on some ‘kondattam’ in the house to go with the evening tea.