Strange, distressing and saddening – Twitter calls Tamil Nadu government's latest decision of changing the English names of 1,018 places throughout the state to match their Tamil pronunciation. The most trending of them all is the change made to Coimbatore, which will be hereafter spelled as Koyampuththoor!
The Tamil Nadu government has issued an order to this effect on April 1 although the decision was made public only on Wednesday. According to the reports, in 2018, the state government had told the Assembly that anglicised names of the areas will be changed to bring them closer to their original names in Tamil.
Interestingly, most of the places in the state are now provided with new English spellings to match with the Tamil pronunciation. In a 37-page notification, the state government has appended the entire list of 1,018 names of the places.
As per the new decision, Coimbatore becomes Koyampuththoor, Ambattur gets christened as Ambaththoor, Vellore as Veeloor, and Mylapore, an area in Chennai as Mayilaappoor. Interestingly, Chennai's 'Egmore' station is now also a history as the place will be hereafter written as Ezhumboor station!
Read the full list of new names here.
Twitter is all in tears
Following the changes in the place names, a wide majority of the public took to the social media platform to protest against the state's decision.
While some pointed out at its fun elements, the other spoke out critiquing the 'lame' decision.
"Whether it's spelled Coimbatore or Koyamuththur in English, a Tamil person is going to pronounce it the same way. So who is this name change for, and why was a name change notified on April 1, released now? Making fun of the Tamil Nadu govt is not making fun of Tamils," wrote one comment.
"This panel needs an English teacher badly. Totally shit Coimbatore name change is pathetic most the ppl wnt even get to pronounce or write it correctly," commented one user, while another penned an emotional note, "Respected sir, appreciate name change for tuticorin & poonamalle. But, koyampuththoor etc sounds like a spelling change. Coimbatore sounds good, it still replicates the tamil name. Kindly don't change the names to which we are emotionally connected."
