Every now and then while I am contemplating life, I ponder upon things and ideas that seem problematic or unusual to me. After researching the topic, I usually find an answer that satisfies me (sometimes I find the answer years later). Yet, there are some mysteries that seem to have no answer. I dedicate this page to those mysteries hoping to find some answers. If you have an answer or a theory for a particular mystery, then please email me at: mansoorbabar@yahoo.com.
Since I come from a Desi (person from the Indian Subcontinent) background, I have spent a lot of time with Desi FOBs (Fresh Off the Boat), a.k.a. Desi immigrants. If a person spends just a few minutes with a Desi immigrant, then one of the first things they will notice is that Desi immigrants pronounce the letter w as the letter v. Not only do they do this with English words, but also Arabic words, even though they have the letter waow in their alphabet and the wa sound. For example:
Taraweeh --> Taraveeh
Waleema --> Valeema
Witr --> Vitr
water --> vater
what --> vhat
wagon --> vagon
Okay, so you are asking yourself, "Desi immigrants just have trouble pronouncing that letter, so what? People from many backgrounds have difficulty pronouncing letters and sounds from other languages. What's the big deal?"
Yes, if that was only the difficulty, then there is no mystery. Yet, that is not that case. The next part is the thing that baffles me the most. So after realizing that Desi people pronounce the letter w as the letter v, you would think they would pronounce all words with the letter v correctly?
Wrong. Desi people do the exact opposite! They pronounce all v's as w's! For example:
vest --> west
van --> wan
environment --> enwironment
I have thought about this problem a lot and I cannot come up with a logical explanation. It just does not make any sense. What's worse is that I catch myself doing the same thing sometimes when speaking English! Is this some sort of genetic disease that Desi people are born with?
Naoman Malik:
its not only arabic and english words though, sometimes they confuse urdu words too!! e.g. sometimes they say 'darwaza', sometimes 'darvaza' (door)... which one is it? my theory is that since there is no letter for the 'v' sound in urdu, they just choose whichever one ('w' or 'v') sounds better - or comes naturally - because its like the same letter to them, they are interchangable in urdu... in fact, if you listen closely, sometimes you hear urdu speakers use a sound that is neither fully a 'w' sound nor a 'v' sound, but somewhere in the middle!!!
...but that is just one Vest Wirginian's take on it
How does Salam Foods stay in business? It's a small grocery shop that also sells subs, but aside from Jum'ah, nobody is ever there.
Mystery Solved! Salam Foods did not stay in business and now it has been replaced by Aladdin's 5th Runway Cafe.