The station always used to fascinate , Being from a hindi speaking region it was always a surprise to read the station board of this station "Chennai Egmore " i always wondered why egmore is written (Ezhumbur) in hindi. I found out this interesting to share from quora (All credits to respective authors)

The sound of Letter "L" is considered as an approximant.
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Approximant: Speech sounds that involve the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow.

In Hindi we have one approximant
ल् -- Dental lateral approximant

In Marathi Script we have another approximant in addition
ळ् -- Retroflex lateral approximant

In Tamizh in addition of above we have one more approximant
"ழ்" -- Retroflex central approximant

This particular approximant is quite frequent in tamizh words. Since Hindi does not has equivalent letter for "ळ् " and "ழ்" while representing the words of tamizh language it has to be replaced with available letters. "ल्" seems better replacement at first place but frequent pronunciation of it for "ழ்" becomes unacceptable after one point.

Hence to represent this differentiation we use letters in a language which is less frequently used in that specific language like "zh" in English and by using "ष़" in Hindi (notice the dot below the letter).
This is not a standardized practice and some people represent it by "झ़"(from english zh).
The dot seems to be lost while copying the text and writing some where else.
The practice continued in English but seems to be loosing "the dot" in Hindi. Therefore English words( for Tamizh) are being used as reference words.

Hence though it seems to misspelled in Hindi it is intentional, so that people who understand the difference pronounce it as it is supposed to be.
Some of the other examples are
1. Kanimozhi - incorrect - कनिमोझी ; correct - कनिमोझ़ी (dot) or कनिमोष़ी.
2. Tamil - incorrect - तमिल; correct - तमिष़ ;
Since this is most frequent and now has become a norm it is rather ignored.
3. Ezhil - incorrect - एझिल ; correct - एझ़िल or एष़िल.


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Being at pondicherry , MS was the station i had to go frequently to take pallavan or vaigai sf exp to villupuram. Every time i see the SB i felt to ask but always i could found people who are fluent in Tamil and hindi both. So i request Others who users here are fluent in Tamil and Hindi can try to explain further.


It can be added to #FAQ