Well, this was an interesting discussion. I think Rubyjackass has the right take on it. Go ahead Pak(i)s, it's YOUR forum. Use Bharati if you like, we don't want to spoil your fun. ...
You
think rja's explanation is correct? Are you always given to whimsically
think, and not
decide based on facts?
OK now let me clear this up from a linguistic point of view.
Sanskrit, Prakrit and their modern derivatives like Hindi are closely related to Romance languages. So they have the same, sort of grinding, sound at the trailing end of a word.
Think
cologne,
montagne,
bologne,
champagne,
macabre and
gentille. Look how native French and Italians pronounce them.
Its the same story with
MaharashTre (<-palatal t as in English),
samundre,
Anande...
Bhaaratie.
When the British came to Hindustaan, their language being Germanic and not Romance, they couldn't say these words, and proceeded to append an
a to them:
MaharashTra, (doesn't exist),
Ananda, (doesn't exist).
Similarly, our (we who you like to call by a derogatory term as in the post quoted above) languages link up to Iran and the Caucasus. We too can't say Hindi words without mispronouncing them.
We usually omit the trailing
e. And since that sometimes leaves two consonents together at the end, in that case we insert one
a between them. E.g.
MahaarashTar,
samundar,
Anand and
Bhaarati for the 4 words above.
<-Notice the last 2 words don't have 2 consonants together and thus don't suffer from a-addition. Also notice the disambiguation between long and short vowels unlike in Hindi.
Our problem with saying these words incorrectly has at least as much to do with lack of instruction as our inability. If I hadn't come across this thread I'd never have known the word was bhaaratie and not bhaarati. The same would've been true for the other words a while ago. The people who we first hear these words from (media personnel e.g. news anchors) say them wrong, and we all learn the wrong pronunciation. Judging from how they massacre Urdu words, they'll probably never learn to say foreign (e.g. Hindi) words right.
Even Hindustani media projects the word
Bharati, which we therefore take to mean Indian. And AFAIK there is no single Indian language, which you could call Bharati.
So my Indian colleagues, my explanation must've given your inferiority-complex-afflicted minds (ooh the Paks must be making fun of us!) some solace. We are indeed not making fun of you when we call you Bharati.
And TruthSeeker, I'd be ashamed if I had your nick.