Sunday; [ɲjæjəm] justice. It will be seen from these instances that the front nasal [ɲ] easily gives rise to [æ].
In the colloquial, [ɑ:] sometimes becomes [æ] by the "fronting" influence of certain consonants e.g.,: [sɑ:jəŋkɑˑləm] > [sæjəŋkɑˑləm] evening.
Back Vowels.
6. [u] and [u:]. (i) Here again, the Malayalam short sound is never so short as the English vowel in "put".
(ii) Euphonic convenience sometimes turns the short [u] into an [o], as in the following instances: [urʌkkʲuka]>[orəkkʲuka] to be stranded. [urʌkkʲuka]>[orəkkʲuka] to be stranded.[uṭʌjuka]>[oṭəjuka] to break. This change occurs under the same circumstances as those in which [i] changes into [e].
(iii) Conjunct consonants compounded with [v] or [ʋ] have a tendency, in the colloquial, to vocalise the [v] or [ʋ] into [u]: e.g., [ʌʃvʌm]>[ʌʃʃuʌm] horse. This change, however, affects only the colloquial of the illiterate masses.
7. [ɯ]: (i) a very common sound in Tamil which corresponds to Malayalam [ə] at the end of certain words. Even in Malayalam, [ɯ] is the sound used by the illiterate classes in the place of [ə] at the end of words; e.g. [kɑ:ṭɯ] forest; [pɑ:ṭṭɯ] song etc.
This sound is described as an [u] sound "with the lips spread out"; in Tamil and in dialectal Malayalam, however, the lips are not spread out to a great extent.
(ii) The Dravidian tendency of introducing some short vowel after every consonant is evident in the pronunciation of the English words "little", "broken" [litɫ], [broukn̩] etc., in which the Tamilian and the Malayali introduce a short [ᵚ] sound and utter the words as [liṭṭɯl] and [bro:kᵚn].
(iii) In pronouncing conjunct consonants where the first component is a plosive, most Tamilians and some Malayalis introduce a short [ᵚ] sound after the explosion of the plosive element: e.g. [kḷipᵚtəm] exact; [rətᵚnəm] gem.
Sanskrit-knowing scholars pronounce the conjunct consonants together without introducing any such short vowel.
8. [o] and [o:]. (i) The short and the long sounds have separate symbols in Malayalam. These sounds never develop an off-glide as in the
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