Nata or Natai

[vsarathy]

Which is correct to say, Ragam Nata or Natai? I have seen this ragam listed both ways. Are both correct and acceptable?

Thanks.

[arasi]

The 'ai' sound and 'am' sound are from tamizh...
gauLa-s--mAyAmALavagowLa, rIti gowLa like nATai which you mention, get the 'ai' ending in tamizh.

rAgA, tALA, hindOLa, pancama, gAndhAra and so on get the 'am' ending in tamizh.

A song book in tamizh has 'ai' endings for these words.In other languages and in english, you will find the 'a' endings. Just like the 'n' endings we find in tamizh for RamA, KrishnA and so on.

[Rsachi]

Arasi,
I have worked out an algorithm, which may not be incorrect:
Rama, Krishna...masculine (names of men) ....become Raman, Krishnan, with the n ending
Naataka, Desha, Bhaarata.. non-living things , become Naatakam, Desham, Bharatam, with m ending.

Keerthanaa, Seethaa, Naata etc. - feminine (names of women or feminine ideas) become Keerthanai, Seethai, Naatai etc.

Of course this may not have been done technically but more colloquially, naturally.

I would think @Keerthi would have some very useful input on this.

[vasanthakokilam]

vandanam, Sachi and Arasi. Arumai. Good classification.

[rshankar]

And I guess in telugu, some words acquire the 'u' sound at the end - e.g., nATakamu

RSachi - kIrtana can also be kIrtanam is tamizh... and names like sItA depend of how they are used - for instance, sItA dEvi (sItA dEvi tan kAlukku nigarO peNgaL), but sItai when used alone (viTTuviDaDA sItaiyai...)....and like in hindi, some words can acquire a 'E' - e.g., rAdhE! unakku kObam AgAdaDi... Which gets to the point of validating the Bard (of Avon) - Afterall, what's in a name? Right? nATTa or nATTai both sound the same....

[kvchellappa]

Possibly Radhe is only in sambodhana, not in nominative case.

[Nick H]

Nata or Natai...

Ragam talam...

I'm off to eat a dosam. With some Sambai.

[Rsachi]

Nick,
in Korea they are perfectly OK spelling a place name in several different ways...
Busan in Wikipedia :

Busan's names include Pusan-gwangyŏksi (approved), Pusan, Fusan, Fuzan-fu, Husan, Husan Hu, Pusan-chikhalsi, Pusan-jikhalsi, Pusan-pu and Pusan-si

The city was originally called Busanpo.

[vasanthakokilam]

This thread is turning to be quite entertaining with all this creativity. Nice.

Possibly Radhe is only in sambodhana, not in nominative case.

We have a Radha in our acquaintance circle and it is not unusual to call her 'Radhe' just for some humorous effect. One day, one of our friends changed it slightly and called her 'Radhu'. Her husband jumped in immediately 'Hey, stop it. Even I do not call her that in public'. The whole room burst into laughter ( it may be hard to understand why that is so funny )

[harimau]

Nick,
in Korea they are perfectly OK spelling a place name in several different ways...

Busan's names include Pusan-gwangyŏksi (approved), Pusan, .... Husan.......

Pusan to Husan?

Looks like some Kannadiga got into the act!

[arasi]

பூ-ன்னும் சொல்வாக, புஸ்பம்-னும் சொல்வாக...

pUnnum solvAga, puspamnum solvAga...
They say pU and they also say puspam...

Yes Ravi, Shakespeare said it!

Nick,
That was a riot--or, should I say: that was a good one, actually!

[kvchellappa]

Radhe may be Palghat accent? Radhu is nickname, we have a relative whom we call that way. The laughter must be because the husband revealed (he meant to be humorous) what he addresses his wife affectionately in private.
Nice.. goes well with Nick!
Nice to see Harimau join the mirth.
Many go to a concert for gossip, canteen, etc. This thread on music has veered that way (interesting, of course) and how nicely we play out life somewhat predictably!

[Rsachi]

Harimau or should I say Padimou, Kannadigas have gone all over the place

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Ancient books/treatises on music are in Sanskirt and hence many aberrations occur when words are used in dravidian languages. Strictly speaking, feminine names in nominative case must be ending in deergha (eg. kalyanee) and hraswa for sambodhana (kalyani). For names ending in 'aa' (eg. Shanmukhapriyaa), the sambodhana case will be 'Shanmukhapriye' (other eg. Raadhaa-Raadhe, Maathaa-Maathe etc). While in Tamil sambodhana is same as nominative (as in priyaa) in Malayalam, sambodhana follows Sanskirt (eg. priye) but the nominative case never employs deergha! It's They call Priya only and not Priyaa. Quite interesting.

[arasi]

Not forgetting 'priyai' in tamizh! yasOdarai, UrmiLai, sumitrai and so on...