A learner asks for bananas at a fruit stall in Thrissur and gets a blank look. Her friend says the same words and gets the bananas. The difference was one sound. This lesson gives your mouth a new map before you learn a single sentence: the dental and retroflex rows, dry unaspirated stops, the three R's, the two L's, and vowel length that changes meaning. It ends with the rule that makes you sound like Kerala rather than a dictionary: a short i or u drops to e or o before an open a, so വില is said vela. Words and phrases in this class: പഴം വേണം (pazham venam) – I want bananas ദിനം (dinam) – day ഡ്രൈവർ (draivar) – driver പാൽ (paal) – milk മരം (maram) – tree കറി (kaRi) – curry പുര (pura) – house പുഴ (puzha) – river വല (vala) – net വള (vaLa) – bangle പുളി (puLi) – tamarind കലം (kalam) – pot കാലം (kaalam) – time, an era മുട്ട (mutta) – egg In this class: • The mouth map: dental vs retroflex, and dry unaspirated stops • Three R's: the ara, aRa, azha ladder • Two L's: the net and the bangle, the tiger and the tamarind • Vowel length, and the i-to-e, u-to-o rule of real Kerala speech Quizzes below. Dr. Reshmi R Nair — SpeakMalayalam.