Kee Kee. Keeya Keeya.

Each language has different variants of it that are spoken in different places. Malayalam is
also no exception and depending on which place in Kerala you are from, your Malayalam
will be modelled accordingly.

Those from Thrissur are known to sing (not speak) Malayalam. It is infact quite interesting
to hear their version of Malayalam. Those from Central Travancore are supposed to speak
the correct version. OK, being from that region, I can pride on speaking correct Malayalam.

Those from Trivandrum speak some gibberish which they like to call as Malayalam, but
which essentially is quite amusing to others. Using plurals for things like water (Vellangal),
wrong pronunciation (jwali for Joli meaning work) etc.

Till last week, I was under the impression that no other region in Kerala speaks worser Malayalam. But that was only till I met a few guys (friends of my friend) from Kannur.
Man, these quys could talk to you in what they call Malayalam, but you would not be
able to make out most of it.

A few samples :

On odthu ?
" Avan endhiye ?" is the Malayalam equivalent, whose English is "Where is he?".

Idhu angittu chadikku.
"Idhu angottu kalayu" in Malayalam. The english version being "Throw this there".

The funniest part is the "Kee Kee. Keeya Keeya" incident that he mentioned and which
inspired this blog-post.

Two women from Kannur reach Trivandrum by bus. When they get to the stop where
they need to get off, one of them gets down from the bus. Due to the crowd blocking her
way, the other women is finding it difficult to get out.

The woman outside gets worried and says "Kee. Kee." The conductor and others in the
bus are perplexed. Then they hear a voice from inside the bus "Keeya Keeya" leading
the conductor to wonder aloud whether this is some kind of bird language.

For those who do not know bird language, "Kee" in Kannur Malayalam means "Irangu"
ie. "get down". And "Keeya" is "Keeyuwa" ie iranguva in Malayalam proper and "I am
getting down" in English.

There are instances where particular words in a language transform into something else,
like say the Tamil word "Kazhuthai". In the version of Tamil spoken in Madras, this is
said as "Kaidhe". Still, there can be seen some connection with the original. But where
is the connection between "Kee" and "Irangu", for God's sake ?

BTW, I have heard people from Kannur say that they are the most straight-forward of
all Malayalis and Malayalis elsewhere are cunning and crooked. I would agree with that,
but then also wonder why Kannur is also the hotbed of violence in Kerala - such a lot of
political killings happen there (mostly between RSS and Communist party cadres).