Somebody was commenting about sri lankan Tamil slang 'ava...iva' in the last thread. Wanna clarify few things here.
Ava, iva is a term to address a female respectfully in lankan Tamil. They emphasize the L in AVAL to address a woman or girl disrespectfully or casually. And Avanga, ivanga...they use it for plural regardless of their gender. For male, avar is the respectful term while avan is casual or disrespectful depending on the tone of the speech.
If you guys watch Tharshan parents' interviews, there his mother addresses Fathima Babu as 'Ava'....
Somebody said about addressing children, they address them as vaanga, ponga, neenga NOT out of respect but out of affection. They never call kids in singular (like vaa, po, iru)
They also use a semi-formal term 'neer' which is to address someone known but not so a close person. Like neenga is formal, neer is semi-formal and nee is casual or disrespectful