WHAT DOES CONTRAST IN ATTITUDE MEAN?
This kind of varied behavior between these linguistic groups needs further clarification. This contrast in attitudes shows that Tamils have ‘tolerance’ to the non-native accents, whereas the Malayalees expect a better performance from second language users of Malayalam. An ordinary speaker of Malayalam who does not have any linguistic training is aware that their language is rich in various sounds. When they come into contact with Tamil speakers they easily understand that the contrastive pairs of nasal sounds, dental, palatal and velar nasals, the contrastive pairs of trills. namely, hard and soft r sounds, and the contrastive pairs of alveolar, retroflex and grooved palatal laterals, the aspirated plosives and the fricative sounds are the difficult areas for any Tamil speakers. Since they are aware of the rich phonological system of their language, they expect the speakers, especially Tamils to commit mistakes. They assume a ‘superior position’ with regard to their ability to pronoun
