Many Indians giggle at this Beckham tattoo, thinking it's the wrong spelling.
It's actually the right spelling, just from a different era. Literally, the Victorian era.
And its validity is rooted in a dude named Tarkhadkar who wrote earliest English textbooks. Fun story.
It's actually the right spelling, just from a different era. Literally, the Victorian era.
And its validity is rooted in a dude named Tarkhadkar who wrote earliest English textbooks. Fun story.
Most Indian languages don't have different sounds for V & W. The letter व covers both sounds.
When Brits started teaching desis English, they found it mostly easy, except for this V/W confusion. Especially embarrassing when the monarch was Victoria. Our fellows said Wictoria.
When Brits started teaching desis English, they found it mostly easy, except for this V/W confusion. Especially embarrassing when the monarch was Victoria. Our fellows said Wictoria.
So this professor called Tarkhadkar came up with a solution. To differentiate the 2 sounds, when there's a V, add half an H sound. The train station in Bombay, until the name change was written as व्हिक्टोरिया टर्मिनस in many places for decades.
Btw the V/W confusion persists to this day. When I started teaching in the US, that's the only part of my "accent" I needed to work on. Saying V differently from W. And I have to teach the same to many Desi PhD students.
So yeah, व्हिक्टोरिया is not meant to be pronounced Vhictoria, but rather Victoria, and just विक्टोरिया could be Wictoria.
Tarkhadkar fundae.
Tarkhadkar fundae.
Also why many restaurants in Maharashtra write व्हेज cos वेज can mean wage.
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