Her Majesty's tongue

In Tamil, my mother's tongue, we spell to pronounce. Probably that is how it is in most of the languages. So when I started learning English, I would do the same, only to come across a word like Guindy. If you would pronounce as it is spelled, it would be a yucky one, at least for Tamilians. (It is entirely a different matter that we are proud of mastering this language). Tamilians are eternally grateful to Her Majesty for deciding that ‘u’ followed by ‘i’, should be pronounced as ‘e’ and not u-i.

Pixelated at: Guindy station, Chennai