Kannada Language
Kannada is a Dravidian language primarily spoken in southern India, with around thirty-eight million speakers, predominantly in Karnataka. Recognized as a classical language by the Indian government, Kannada boasts an extensive literary history that extends over a millennium, encompassing works from notable authors like Pampa, Ranna, and Ponna. The earliest known Kannada writings date back to the fifth century CE, with significant contributions in poetry and scholarly texts, such as the ninth-century Kavirajamarga.
The language evolved from ancient forms through distinct historical phases, influenced by Jainism, Hinduism, and later languages such as Sanskrit and English. Kannada is characterized by an alphasyllabary writing system, written horizontally from left to right, and comprises about twenty dialects. It serves as the official language of Karnataka and is increasingly recognized in contemporary literature and cinema. With its rich cultural heritage and modern relevance, Kannada continues to be a vital component of India's linguistic landscape, bolstered by efforts to promote its use in technology and education.
Kannada Language
The Kannada language is a Dravidian language spoken by about thirty-eight million people in southern India. The Indian government has granted Kannada classical language status in the nation. One of the region’s oldest languages, Kannada has an unbroken literary history spanning more than a millennium. It is the language used in many classical works, including those of tenth-century authors Pampa, Ranna, and Ponna, considered the "three jewels" of Kannada literature.
The earliest known example of Kannada writing dates from about the fifth century CE, but some scholars argue a form of written Kannada existed as early as the first or second centuries CE. The oldest complete work in Kannada is the Kavirajamarga, a text of rhetoric and poems written in the ninth century CE.
The Kannada alphabet evolved between the fifth and seventh centuries CE from the Kadamba and Cālukya scripts— descendants of the Brahmi script, the ancestor of many modern Indian writing systems. By the sixteenth century CE, Old Kannada developed into the Kannada alphabet. Christian missionaries standardized these systems by the nineteenth century. Kannada is written horizontally from left to right, and uses an alphasyllabary writing system, a system where all consonants are combined with vowels to form an individual symbol. In the spoken form, Kannada uses fifty-two basic sounds, known as phonemes, although only forty-nine characters are used in its written form.
History and Classification
A Dravidian language, Kannada is unrelated to the Indo-Aryan languages common in other parts of India. While Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages developed separately, researchers have discovered similarities suggesting the language families influenced each other as far back as the second millennium BCE. Kannada was also heavily influenced by the Indian languages of Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Pali, and in later centuries by Portuguese and English.
The spoken form of Kannada is believed to have developed more than 2,500 years ago—far earlier than its written form—and is thought to be one of India’s oldest living languages. One of the earliest known forms of the language, called Pre-old Kannada, has roots in ancient Brahmi and first appeared about the third century CE.
By the fifth century CE., the language evolved into Old Kannada, which was heavily influenced by Jainism, one of India’s three major religions. This phase of Kannada was used in the Ganga Dynasty of the sixth century and the Rashtrakuta Dynasty in the ninth century. One of India’s greatest authors, the tenth-century poet Pampa, created a literary style that would be used in Kannada literature for generations. His most renowned works are the epic poems Vikramarjuna Vijaya and Adipurana. Pampa, along with contemporaries Ranna and Ponna, are known as the "three jewels" of Kannada literature.
The Middle Kannada phase developed about the thirteenth century and bore heavy Jain and Hindu influences. Hinduism flourished in India during the period and influenced the creation of several new literary genres. The Vijayanagara Empire and Kingdom of Mysore, both of which flourished in the fourteenth century, produced writers such as Kumara Vyasa, Prasanna Venkatadasa, and Vijaya Dasa. These writers penned poetic and religious works as well as social commentary in the Kannada language.
Modern Kannada developed about the eighteenth century and continues to be spoken into the twenty-first century. After the British colonial occupation ended in the mid-nineteenth century, India developed a strong national identity and began an effort to preserve its culture and languages. This sparked a renewed interest in Kannada and other Indian languages. In 2008, Kannada was named as a classical language by the Indian government.
Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage
Kannada is comprised of about twenty dialects, including Aine Kuruba, Bellary, Bijapur, Havyaka, Sanketi, Gulbarga, Jeinu Kuruba, Kumta, and Nanjangud. The language is spoken by an estimated thirty-eight million people in the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Maharashtra. It is the official language of the state of Karnataka. Kannada is among the thirty-five most spoken languages in the world, and is used in contemporary film and literature in India.
With a literary tradition dating back to the tenth century CE, Kannada is a valuable source of historical information for scholars and linguists. Pampa’s Adipurana is an account of Rishabha, a prominent historical figure in Jainism, while his Vikramarjuna Vijaya is considered a poetic masterpiece.
Although spoken Kannada varies regionally, the written form is remarkably consistent. The tenth-century author Ranna compiled the first Kannada dictionary. In the subsequent centuries, other authors also compiled dictionaries as the language continued to evolve, leaving a consistent historical record for future study.
The growth of the computer industry in the late twentieth century transformed the state of Karnataka into a major technology hub, giving the region the nickname India’s Silicon Valley, a reference to the region in California by the same name. Local government officials pushed for the use of Kannada in the mobile phones and computers produced in the region as a way to popularize the language. In July 2011, the Central Institute of Indian Languages in the city of Mysore created a center for the study of classical Kannada.
Bibliography
Dalby, Andrew. "Kannada." Dictionary of Languages. New York: Columbia UP, 2004. Print.
Green, R., Cushman, S., and C. Cavanagh. "Kannada Poetry." The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2012. Print.
"Kannada." Ethnologue. SIL International, 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <http://www.ethnologue.com/language/KAN>.
"Kannada." Omniglot. Simon Ager, 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <http://www.omniglot.com/writing/kannada.htm>.
"Kannada: The Language of India’s Silicon Valley." Bhashaindia. Microsoft, 2015. Web. 5 Oct. 2015. <http://bhashaindia.com/Patrons/LanguageTech/Pages/Kannada.aspx>.
Mackenzie, J. "Kannada or Kanarese." Peoples, Nations and Cultures. London: Cassell. 2012. Print.
Mukherjee, Shruba. "Preserving Voices from the Past." Deccan Herald. The Printers (Mysore) Private, ,21 Aug. 2005. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <http://web.archive.org/web/20061022233151/http://deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug212005/sundayherald101012005820.asp>.
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