A Primer on Tamil Vowels

Tamil has ten vowels and two diphthongs.

The ten vowels are அ a, ஆ aa, இ i, ஈ ii, உ u, ஊ uu, எ e, ஏ ee, ஒ o, and ஓ oo. You can see (or hear) that they're five distinct sounds, each having a long and short version. Long vowels are "nedil" and short vowels are "kuril". Compare the vowels to "a e i o u" in English.

The two diphthongs are ஐ ai and ஔ au. However, spoken Tamil doesn't really use the diphthongs. Often ஐ ai becomes எ e and ஔ au becomes அவு avu.

So, char siew pau 叉燒包 will be spelled as char siyu pavu சர் சியு பவு instead of char siyu pau சர் சியு பௌ. You'll find au only in a few words like pauttam பௌத்தம் (Buddha) and saukkiyamaa (How are you?, literally "are you well / in good health?").

Shuo Ni Shuo Ni 说你说你 Bachata Song (Sung to the tune of "Shorty Shorty" by Xtreme)

Encountered this on a recent salsa outing and I quite like this song. I thought it was a Mandarin bachata but it's actually by Xtreme. The way they pronounced "Shorty Shorty" sounded like "Shuo Ni Shuo Ni". Hey, we could easily create a Mandarin version of this song!

Hence I'm presenting below a compilation of the original Spanish lyrics with English translation from lyricstranslate.com and a Mandarin version which is partly a translation of the original and partly a different version.

Acknowledgments to Tracy for contributing some lyrical ideas!

Music Video on Youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPxTdoaUlgc

English translation sourced from
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/Shorty-Shorty-Shorty-Shorty.html

Mandarin by me with the help of Google Translate and Wiktionary

Shorty Shorty a.k.a. Shuo Ni Shuo Ni 说你说你

[Verse 1]
What should I say? What should I do?
Dimelo pronto, que muero sin tu luz
Dime que ya, hoy regresas a mi
Si te entregas a mi, yo me entrego a ti

What should I say? What should I do?
Tell me soon, cause I’m dying without your light
tell me that your coming back to me, today
if you give yourself to me, I’ll give myself to you

wo yinggai shuome? yinggai zuome?
kuaidian gaosu wo, wo jiulai si le
gaosu wo ni jintian huilai gen wo
ruguo song niziji gei wo, wo song woziji gei ni

我应该说么？ 应该做么？
快点告诉我， 我就来死了
告诉我你今天回来跟我
如果送你自己给我， 我送我自己给你

[Bridge]
Yo se porque
De noche no duermo mas
Y se porque
Mi vida no es vida
Porque no te tengo y porque no te encuentro, amor
Por eso te dedico esta cancion

I know why
I can’t sleep anymore at night
And I know why
My life is no life
Because I don’t have you with me, and because I can’t find you, baby
That’s why I’m dedicating this song to you

wo dong weihe
zai wanshang bukeyi shuijiao
hai dong weihe
wo shenghuo dengyu meiyou
yinwei meiyou ni peiwo erqie wo zhao budao ni, baobei
suoyine wo zheshouge fengxian gei ni

我懂为何
在晚上不可以睡觉
还懂为何
我生活等於没有
因为没有你陪我而且我找不到你， 宝贝
所以呢我这首歌奉献给你

[Chorus]
Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you look so fine
Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you're blowin my mind
Shorty, shorty
No vez que me muero por ti
Shorty, shorty
Y sin ti no podria exsistir

(Steve Styles lookin' for you)
(Steve Styles, Danny D, X, X,Xtreme)

Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you look so fine
Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you're blowin my mind
Shorty, shorty
don’t you see I’m dying to have you
Shorty, shorty
I can’t live without you

(Steve Styles lookin' for you)
(Steve Styles, Danny D, X, X,Xtreme)

shuo ni shuo ni
bao bei ni zhen shi piao liang
shuo ni shuo ni
bao bei ni ling wo xinqing feng kuang
shuo ni shuo ni
ni kan bu kan dao wo ai ni
shuo ni shuo ni
meiyou ni wo bukeneng cunzai

说你说你
宝贝你真是漂亮
说你说你
宝贝你令我心情疯狂
说你说你
你看不看到我爱你
说你说你
没有你我不可能存在

(Steve Styles zhao zhe ni 找着你)
(Steve Styles, Danny D, X, X, Xtreme)

[Verse 2]
Where do I go? Where do I find you?
Quiero verte, me hace daño
Dime que ya, necesitas de mi
Que se que no eres feliz
Sin mi no puedes vivir

Where do I go? Where do I find you?
wanting to see you, hurts me
So tell me that you need me
Because I know you’re not happy
You can’t live without me

yao qu nali? zai nali zao ni?
dengdai ni, rang wo shang xin
gen wo shuohua, gaosu wo, ni yao wo
wo ye zhidao ni bukaixin
meiyou wo ni buneng shengcun

要去哪里？在哪里找你？
等待你， 让我伤心
跟我说话， 告诉我，你要我
我也知道你不开心
没有我你不能生存

[Bridge]
Yo se porque
De noche no duermo mas
Y se porque
Mi vida no es vida
Porque no te tengo y porque no te encuentro, amor
Por eso te dedico esta cancion

I know why
I can’t sleep anymore at night
And I know why
My life is no life
Because I don’t have you with me, and because I can’t find you, baby
That’s why I’m dedicating this song to you

wo dong weihe
zai wanshang bukeyi shuijiao
hai dong weihe
wo shenghuo dengyu meiyou
yinwei meiyou ni peiwo erqie wo zhao budao ni, baobei
suoyine wo zheshouge fengxian gei ni

我懂为何
在晚上不可以睡觉
还懂为何
我生活等於没有
因为没有你陪我而且我找不到你， 宝贝
所以呢我这首歌奉献给你

[Chorus]
Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you look so fine
Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you're blowin my mind
Shorty, shorty
don’t you see I’m dying to have you
Shorty, shorty
I can’t live without you
[x2]

(X, X, Xtreme)

Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you look so fine
Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you're blowin my mind
Shorty, shorty
don’t you see I’m dying to have you
Shorty, shorty
I can’t live without you
[x2]

(X, X, Xtreme)

shuo ni shuo ni
bao bei ni zhen shi piao liang
shuo ni shuo ni
bao bei ni ling wo xinqing feng kuang
shuo ni shuo ni
ni kan bu kan dao wo ai ni
shuo ni shuo ni
meiyou ni wo bukeneng cunzai

说你说你
宝贝你真是漂亮
说你说你
宝贝你令我心情疯狂
说你说你
你看不看到我爱你
说你说你
没有你我不可能存在
[x2]

(X, X, Xtreme)

[Chorus]
Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you look so fine
Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you're blowin my mind
Shorty, shorty
No vez que me muero por ti
Shorty, shorty
Y sin ti no podria exsistir
[x2]

Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you look so fine
Shorty, shorty
Baby girl you're blowin my mind
Shorty, shorty
don’t you see I’m dying to have you
Shorty, shorty
I can’t live without you
[x2]

shuo ni shuo ni
bao bei ni zhen shi piao liang
shuo ni shuo ni
bao bei ni ling wo xinqing feng kuang
shuo ni shuo ni
ni kan bu kan dao wo ai ni
shuo ni shuo ni
meiyou ni wo bukeneng cunzai

说你说你
宝贝你真是漂亮
说你说你
宝贝你令我心情疯狂
说你说你
你看不看到我爱你
说你说你
没有你我不可能存在
[x2]

Alternatives for the [Chorus] section:

shuo ni shuo ni
bao bei bu yao li kai wo
shuo ni shuo ni
yi sheng yi shi zhen xin ai ni
shuo ni shuo ni
wo mei yi tian dou xiang nian ni
shuo ni shuo ni
wo xi huan ni pei wo zai zhe li

说你说你
宝贝不要离开我
说你说你
一生一世真心爱你
说你说你
我每一天都想念你
说你说你
我喜欢你陪我在这里

shuo ni shuo ni
bao bei bie rang wo deng dai
shuo ni shuo ni
bao bei wo yao ni de re ai
shuo ni shuo ni
wo mei tian deng dai ni hui lai
shuo ni shuo ni
yi qi chuang zuo yi ge hao wei lai

说你说你
宝贝别让我等待
说你说你
宝贝我要你的热爱
说你说你
我每天等待你回来
说你说你
一起创作一个好未来

shuo ni shuo ni
bu yao zai bu li bu cai
shuo ni shuo ni
qing ni bie zai bu mei bu ai
shuo ni shuo ni
dao di shei shi ni de zhen ai
shuo ni shuo ni
wo yao ni gei wo yi dian xin xin

说你说你
不要再不理不睬
说你说你
请你别再不美不爱
说你说你
到底谁是你的真爱
说你说你
我要你给我一点信心

Pizzazz & Pisaasu

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, "pizzazz" means "the quality of being exciting or attractive". In Tamil, there's a similar-sounding word, "pisaasu" பிசாசு which means "evil spirit, demon or devil". None of the above are related to pizza or Pizza Hut in any way.

First Post

Ladies and Gentlemen,

So it's the last day of April, and this is my inaugural blog posting. Welcome to my blog. It's a place where family, friends and acquaintances can drop by to read up on stuff I've come across and feel that it's worth sharing.

My DJ-ing schedule will also be here for easy reference. To all of you who have been attending my Salsa Nights, many thanks for your continuous support! I appreciate it very much, plus all the feedback, advice and encouragement that I've received from you all this while. Remember to have fun. When you are happy, I'm happy too.

Prior to setting up this blog, I've been writing quite a fair bit in Facebook Notes, but I find it lacks both a user-friendly archiving system and a search function. So I searched around, evaluated several possibilities and decided on Blogspot as a blogging platform.

Those of you who have been following my Notes will know that I post up some opinion pieces and reminisces of experiences that may benefit people. The underlying motive is to be constructive in the long run. As time passes by, you'll find things that may be of interest to you on a variety of topics.

Thanks for reading. Catch up with you soon.

Best wishes and regards,

U Joe