[Fsf-friends] Tamil translation for "free software"

[V. Sasi Kumar]

On Tue, 2004-01-06 at 09:34, Dileep M. Kumar wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 05, 2004 at 08:00:48PM +0530, Mahesh T. Pai wrote:
> >>>Dileep M. Kumar said on Mon, Jan 05, 2004 at 10:16:19AM +0530,:
> >>>
> >>> > In  Malayalam   we  can  call  Free  Software   as  "Swatantra  Ganana
> >>> > Soothram". What do other Malayalees in this list say ?
> >>>
> >>>While this  is literally accurate, in modern  Malayalam, `soothram' is
> >>>understood as a `trick'.
> 
> Not for all, I suppose. :-)

In common usage, the word 'soothram' has acquired such a meaning. For
most ordinary folk, 'soothram' would continue to mean 'trick'. On the
other hand, is 'soothram' (in the other sense) a 'pure' Malayalam word?
It has come from Sanskrit. For that matter, what is 'pure' Malayalam? We
have borrowed so many words from other languages (jannal, mesa, stool,
shirt, and even computer) that it is now difficult to say which word is
'pure' Malayalam. This is not the case in very ancient languages like
Sanskrit and Tamil. That is why it is possible in these languages to
build new words starting from roots. I guess these are two different
ways of doing things, and one of them is, perhaps, more suitable in a
given language or situation. Malayalam has a long history of borrowing
from other languages and that is its strength. That is the strength of
other world languages like English too. So we need not feel ashamed to
borrow words from other languages. People have already started using the
word 'software' and it has got into many documents and books including
textbooks. In the situation, my opinion is that we can stick with the
word.

-- 
V. Sasi Kumar <vsasi@vsnl.com>
CESS