Kannada History

8/4/2019 Kannada History

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I. HISTORY AND LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION

Kannada is one of the four major literary languages of the Dravidian family, the other threebeing Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. It is spoken in the state of Karnataka comprising of an area of74,122 Sq,miles. It is the official language of Karnataka and is the mother tongue of 32590177 people(1991 census of India pp-11). Adjoining areas are of Tamilnadu (tamiLuna:Du), Kerala (ke:raLa),

Andhrapradhesha (a:draprade:a) and Maharashtra (maha:ra:stra). It is one of the 18 languageslisted in the VIII schedule in the constitution of India. It has a fine literary tradition which goes back to the9th century and exhibits a complex pattern of sociolinguistic and stylistic variation marked by a thoroughassimilation of Indo-Aryan (mainly Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Urdu etc) and more recently English elementstoo.

The earliest written document in Kannada is the Halmidi (halmiDi) inscription which is datedabout 450 A.D. A few Kannada words are also noticed in Greek Drama of 2nd century A.D. The nameKaruna:Dar is said to occur in cilappatika:ram of the 2nd century A.D of Tamil literature (epic). Govindapai, the indefatigable research scholar of Kannada has recognized some of the place names mentionedin the travelogue of the Greek traveller Ptolemy as Banavasi, Mudgal and Malpe.

In ga:tasaptaati (prakrit literature) by Halaraja of the 2nd century A.D, some Kannada wordssuch as poTTe belly tuppa ghee peTTu beat etc have been identified by scholars and the nameskarna:Ta/kannaDa in vara:hamiharas Brihatsamhita of the 6th century A.D of Sanskrit literature.

Kavira:jama:rga (9th century A.D) is very important from the point of view of history, linguistics,literature and culture, because it is the first kannada literary work discovered so far. It throwsconsiderable light on the so called dark period of kannada language and literature and it is the first workdealing with certain problems of kannada grammar also.

A few note worthy statements are given by the author of Kavira:jama:rga (Srivijaya) such as:

1) The geographical boundary of the then Karnataka-

Ka:ve:riyindama: go:da:varivaram irda na:Dada:

KannaDa doL .

[The tract between the rivers Ka:ve:ri and Go:da:vari is the area where Kannada is spoken (Kavirajamarga 1.36)

The region in which kannada was spoken extended from the Ka:ve:ri as far as the go:da:vari.]

adaroLagam kisuvoLala:

viditamaha:kopaNa nagarada: puligereya:

sadabistutamappokun

dada naDuvaNa na:De na:De kannaDada tiruL

2) A standard form of kannada was spoken in the urban area between the city of koppana nagar (the present ko

okunda and kisuvoLalu (the present PaTTadakallu) (Kavira:jama:rga 1.37).......................................

a n n a d a H i s t o r y h t t p : / / w w w . l i . . .

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kannaDagaLoLendum

va:sugiyumaruyala:rade

be:sarugum de:si be:re ve:rappudarum

3) There were a number of mutually unintelligible dialects (Kavira:jama:rga 1.46)and

4) The people were intelligent, upright and heroic (Kavira:jama:rga 1.46)

** Dravidian Encyclopedia source 1997 vol. 3

The evidence of kannada language has got a history of about 1500 years of writing system. It iswritten from left to right. The early form of the kannada scripts are found in the inscription of kadambasof Banavasi (banava:si) and ca:lukyas of Badami (ba:da:mi). In the west scholars traced the origin ofkannada script to the Brahmi (bra:hmi) script.

Kannada has a very complex range of regional, social and stylistic variation. Four major regional varieties may be

(a) Mysore/Bangalore dialect (kannada)(b) Mangalore dialect (kannada)/coastal dialect.(c) Dharwar dialect (kannada)(d) Kalaburgi dialect (kannada)

[see for more details A comparative study of kannada dialects (bellary, gulbarga, kumta and nanjanguddialects) - Upadhyaya U.P (1976)Prasaranga, Mysore and Accoustic characteristics of kannada - Rajpurohit B. (1982)]

The difference among the regional varieties was accentuated by long periods of political (andhence cultural, administrative and commercial) isolation from one another, as well as by contact with a

number of different neighbouring languages,Ex. Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Konkani, Kodagu etc.,. The prestige variety of thewritten language is based on the Mysore-Bangalore variety.Source: ( S.N.Sridhar 1990 Kannada).

In addition to regional varieties, Kannada also has a number of social varieties (like so:ligakannaDa, baDaga kannaDa, havyaka kannaDa, ha:lakki kannaDa, koraga kannaDa etc.)Characterized by class/caste (see the works of Brights Social Dialect and language history (1960),Sangameshas KannaDa Ba:sa Sampada (1998) among others). The spoken variety regarded as thestandard/prestigious is what used to be that of the middle class, educated Brahmin dialect of theMysore/Bangalore area. It is characterized primarily by a number of phonological, morphological andlexical features (eg: distinction between /S/ is and // as well as by the unassimilated retention of

foreign language sounds in borrowed words. Sanskrit aspirated consonants, such as /b/ and /d/. Theenglish /f/ and /z/ used without simplification with the spread of education, this variety has ceased to bethe presence of the brahmins and has become a class rather than a caste dialect.

Kannada is a diglossic language. The formal/literary variety differs in several respects from thespoken (or colloquial) variety in pholology, morphology, lexicon and syntax [see for more detailsNayak.H.M. Kannada: literary and colloquial- A study of two styles (1967)]. The use of the literaryvariety is not confined to literature. It is used in personal and official correspondence, journalism, textbooks and most types of writing, class room and public lectures, news broadcast and so on. One learnsthis variety at school and the ability to control it is a test of ones elite status. It is therefore, perhapsmore appropriate to call this the formal variety and the colloquial variety is the informal variety.

LINGUISTIC HISTORY OF KANNADA LANGUAGE

Mainly, on the basis of the proper historical stages and literary forms of kannada it is classified into fourimportant groups, such as:


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(i) pre-old kannada/early old kannada/pu:rvada haLagannaDa(ii) old kannada / haLagannaDa(iii) medieval kannada / naDugannaDa(iv) modern kannada/hosagannaDa

( i ) Pre old kannada:- Pre old kannada is available in the inscriptions of the 6th and 7th century A.D. The earlieknown inscription of kannada is that of Halmidi, belonging to A.D. 450.

Ex: The lengthening of the vowel in the conjugational suffixes of the third person.

The use of uL for the locative suffix

The lengthening of the vowel in the suffixes of the negative mood.

The use of n- for bindu

The lengthening of a: the genitive and adjectival suffix

(ii) Old Kannada: (From 750 A.D. to 1150 A.D )

Old kannada is available in a number of mature literary works, the earliest of them being a workon poetics, namely kavira:jama:rga by Sreevijaya dated to 850 A.D.

The proper distinction between the letters ( l ) (retroflex flap voiced sound) call it as in kannadaraLa (flap alveolar voiced sound) call it as sakaTare:pha/banDiya ra, ( /L ) (voiced retroflexlateral) called as kuLa, ( l ) (voiced dental lateral) and ( r ) (voiced dental trill) alliteration carefullybased also on this distinction.

ba:e banana ba:le/ba:Le a kind of fish

ae half are rock

Change of initial p becomes h in old kannada

pa:lu > ha:lu milkpa:vu > ha:vu snake

In pre-old kannada locative marker uL changes to oL in old kannada

na:DuL > na:DoL In the countryd araNiyuL > d araNiyoL In the earth

(iii) Medieval Kannada: (From 1150 A.D. to 1700-1750)

Medieval Kannada is more or less a transition period and could probably be seen as aconnecting link between the old and modern kannada stages. It is represented mainly by the poetic


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works of ve:raaiva authors, is written mostly in saTpadi (Six feet of metro)

The flap retroflex l ( ) had become r ( ) before a consonant and l/L ( ) elsewhere.

O.K M.Ka du > ardu > addu to dip

kalte > karte > katte donkeymale > male rainba:Le > ba:Le plantain

When followed by a stop, r was deleted after a long vowel and assimilated to the consonatnt after a short vowel.

ba:rcu > ba:cu comb(v)pardu > haddu eagle

Words ending in consonants add -u

kaN > kaNNu eyenil > nillu stand(v)

iv) Modern Kannada: (From 1850 A.D. onwards.)

Modern kannada, comprising the present kannada of prose writings and common conversationsis less particular in the choice of words, arbitrary about the use of suffixes and not sparing in the use ofvulgarisms especially in ordinary talk.

1) r and l phonemes are not used in this period.2) Omission of bindu (change which old kannada words become modern kannada)

O.K M.Kto:NTa > to:Ta gardenda:NTu > da:Tu to jump

3) The nominative is unmarked --

maguvu > magu child

** See for more details - Narasimhachary.R History of the kannada language

B. LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF KANNADA LANGUAGE:

Genetically, kannada is one of the major languages of Dravidian family to be more precise ofthe South Dravidian group and typologically it is an agglutinative language.

In the agglutinative group like the Dravidian Languages, two roots coalesce to form a word, theone retaining its radical independence, the other sinking down to a mere termination. This languageshow grammatical relations by prefixing, suffixing, infixing sounds and syllables which are no longerindependent words, and are clearly distinguishable from the full words they modify and not inextricablyblended with them.

Ex: NounBase + case suffixra:ma + (n) + inda > ramninda by rama


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Base + gender - number markersda:s + a > da :sa serventda:s + i > da:si female servantda:si + (y) aru > da:siyaru female servants

[see for detail information noun and verb morphology part]

t o p

Copyright CIIL-India Mysore


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Kannada History