Aiyo, the phrase most commonly used in South India is the latest entrant in the Oxford Dictionary.
However, is it a Tamil or Malayalam expression?
Quora, a popular question-and-answer site has posts by some users furnishing evidence to support their claims of being exclusively used in their mother tongue.
Aiyo’s foray into the prestigious dictionary might trigger a fresh debate between the two communities.
“Aiyo is an exclamatory term used in spoken Tamil quite frequently. It is used when something terrible happens to someone; it is also used when someone feels sorry for something happened,” a Quora user replied.
However, a separate question on the meaning of Aiyo had a user explaining what did the ‘Malayalam’ word actually mean.
“The word Ayyo is a quintessential Malayalam word which can mean a plethora of emotions, all the way from surprise to regret to exclamation, you name it,” Aishwarya Nair, a user posted.
Confusing, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, the Oxford Dictionary also mentions that the phrase is used in Sri Lanka as well.
So, one expression has several claimants.
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