Kannada language

Spoken in

• Dravidian languages Süddravidische languages Kannada

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Kan

Kan

Kannada ( ಕನ್ನಡ Kannada ), and Kannada, is a language from the Dravidian language family. It is spoken in southern India, mainly in the state of Karnataka, about 40 million native speakers.

• 9.1 General Descriptions
• 9.2 grammars
• 9.3 Textbooks

Linguistic relationship

Kannada belongs to the family of the mainly popular in South India Dravidian languages. Besides Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam Kannada is one of the four major Dravidian languages. Within this family of languages ​​Kannada belongs to süddravidischen branch. The next of kin of Kannada is Badaga. This spoken among the tribal population of the Nilgiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu language is partially understood as an Kannada dialect.

With the Indo-Aryan languages ​​spoken in northern India Kannada is not related. However, it is quite strong by Sanskrit, the classical language of Hinduism, has been influenced and has taken in addition to a large number of loanwords and structural characteristics of these Indo-Aryan language.

Geographical Distribution

Kannada has 40 million native speakers. The speakers of Kannada is called Kannadiga. The distribution area of ​​language largely coincides with the boundaries of the Indian state of Karnataka. There are also kannadasprachige minorities in the neighboring areas of the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Since recently, Kannada is also spoken among overseas Indians in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

From the population of Karnataka speak Kannada as their mother tongue 70 %. Most non- kannadasprachigen citizen of the State, such as the speaker of Tulu and Kodava, Kannada dominate as a second language. In the state of Karnataka Kannada is the sole official language. On a regional level, it is recognized as one of 22 national languages ​​of India.

Language forms

Kannada is divided into four dialect groups, which consist of further sub- dialects. The southern dialect is spoken in and around the two largest cities of Karnataka, Bangalore and Mysore. In the space of Mangalore western dialect is common. The northern dialect is spoken in the area of Dharwad, the northeastern dialect in and around Bijapur. The northern and north-eastern dialect has been influenced by Marathi, the Indo-Aryan language of the neighboring state of Maharashtra.

Parallel to the geographical dialects exist Box dialects or sociolects. The main distinction is made ​​here between the dialects of the Brahmins, non-Brahmins and Dalit dialects. More recently, however, also occur in the sociolects reinforced class differences in the place of caste.

Written and spoken language differ in Kannada quite strongly from each other, although the diglossia is less pronounced than about the related Tamil. As a national standard spoken language, the spoken language of the educated population of Bangalore city and Mysurus has naturalized.

Language and literature

Kannada language is divided into three stages: Altkannada (up to 1200 ), Mittelkannada ( 1200-1700 ) and modern Kannada (since 1700). The oldest surviving language certificate of Kannada is an inscription found in the district of Hassan, which is dated to the period around 450.

Kannada is the second oldest Dravidian language literature to Tamil. The oldest known works of Kannada literature, the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha I. ascribed Kavirajamarga, one written in verse treatise on the art of poetry, is dated to the first quarter of the 9th century. In the 10th - 12th Century emerged poems, epic poems and fables mainly from the pen of the Jain authors Pampa, Ponna and Ranna. The first prose work in Kannada is the Lokopakara of Chavundaraya from the mid-12th century. Important writers of the late 12th century, the Hindu poet Harihara and Raghavanka. During the time of the Vijayanagar kingdom in the 14th - 16th Century witnessed the Kannada literature by the patronage of the court an upswing. The best-known writers of this period are Chamarasa and Kumara Vyasa.

After India became a British colony, dried up the Kannada literature. Only at the end of the 19th century a renaissance of Kannada literature, which now also drew from Western influences and introduced new genres such as the novel and the short story. A total of seven times was a kannadasprachiger author of the Jnanpith Award, India's most important literary award winning, last Girish Karnad (1998) and UR Ananthamurthy (1994).

Early on, a native Kannada grammar tradition had developed. Their most important works are the Shabdamanidarpana of Keshiraja from the second half of the 13th century and the Shabdanushasana of Bhattakalanka ( 1604). The first Western Kannada grammar appeared in 1820. During the 19th century, mainly Christian missionaries engaged with the Kannada. Above all, the German missionary Ferdinand Kittel earned with his Kannada - English dictionary ( 1894) and his grammar (1903 ) great service.

Font

How many Indian languages ​​Kannada has its own script, Kannada script. This is similar to the Telugu script highly, and belongs to the family of Indian scriptures. With the other scriptures of India, Tibet and South East Asia it shares the common origin of the Brahmi script dating from the 3rd century BC and a common principle: It is with them to an intermediate form of alphabet and syllabary, called Abugidas in each character consonant has an inherent vowel a, which can be modified by diacritics. Typical of a South Indian Kannada font, the font is characterized by its round shapes.

Phonology

Kannada has 34 consonantal phonemes. Typical of the Indian languages ​​is the distinction between five types of articulation: velar, palatal, retroflex, dental and labial. The plosives (shutter sounds ) contrasting unvoiced and voiced sounds. Due to the numerous loanwords from Sanskrit aspirated plosives ( both voiceless than voiced ) in Kannada Phonemstatus have obtained, so that the plosives occur as in the Indo-Aryan languages ​​in rows of four (eg, k, kh, g, gh ). In inherited Dravidian words no aspirated consonants occur. In careless pronunciation and in certain dialects they can be replaced by the corresponding unaspirated sounds. The consonants f and z are only used in younger loanwords, such as from English, before, so give them a Phonemstatus is not always granted. The two nasals n and n are allophones of n, which occur only in the corresponding plosives. In the Kannada script nasals before plosives are consistently reproduced with the Anusvara m, depending on the following consonant, for m, n, n, n or n can stand.

In Kannada ten vowel phonemes occur. The vowels a, i, u, e and o are each present in pairs of long and short vowel. Then there are the phonemic diphthongs ai and au. There is also the vowel / ǣ /, which is limited to English loan words (eg ಬ್ಯಾಂಕು / bǣnku / from engl. Banking ), and therefore usually not counted as a full phoneme is. However, in certain dialects it occurs in real - Kannada words.

Almost all Kannada words end in a vowel. In loan words that end in a consonant, a so-called enunziatorischer vowel is often u or i appended (eg ಬಸ್ಸು bassu of Engl. Bus). In word-initial consonants can occur except retroflexem L and n. Consonant clusters ( succession of two or more consonants ) are word-initially only in loanwords before (eg ಪ್ರೀತಿ Priti "love", from Sanskrit ). Above all uneducated speakers often insert a scion of vocal and speak eg / piriti /. The emphasis in Kannada always on the first syllable of a word. It is therefore not meaningful distinctive and not too strong.

Upon impact of morphemes within a word or words to each other Sandhi processes can occur. Thus v is inserted between the root word ಹೂ Hu "flower" and the Instrumentalsuffix IMDA a glide: ಹೂವಿಂದ hūviṃda. If two words joined together, the voiceless initial consonant of the second word can be voiced. This phenomenon occurs but in Scripture usually not expressed: ಕೆಳತುಟಿ keḷatuṭi spoken / keḷaduṭi / " lower lip ". A phonological process, which occurs only in the colloquial language of failure ( syncope) of a vowel in the second syllable of three - or polysyllabic words (eg, written language ಹೆಸರು hesaru, colloquially ಹೆಸ್ರು hesru "Name").

Grammar

Kannada is an agglutinative language and expresses the relations of words to each other by suffixes ( suffixes ) from.

Nouns

Genera

Kannada has three genera: masculine (male), feminine (female) and neuter ( neuter). The genus classification is based on the natural gender: for males or gods to use the masculine for females or goddesses and the feminine for animals or things usually neuter. When the tribes in-a and the persons designating tribes in-u the genus can be recognized by the suffix of the nominative singular: see ಸೇವಕನು Sevaka -nu ( mask ) "servant", ಸೇವಕಳು Sevaka -lu (fem. ) " servant " and ಮರವು mara - vu ( neuter ) "tree."

Plural formation

The nouns in the Kannada Numbers come in two steps: singular and plural. The plural is formed by agglutinative one of four possible suffixes:

• - aru in male and female tribes in-a (eg ಹುಡುಗ huḍuga " boy " - ಹುಡುಗರ huḍugaru " boy ").
• - aṃdiru in male and female rare kinship terms (eg ಅಣ್ಣ Anna " older brother " - ಅಣ್ಣಂದಿರು aṇṇaṃdiru " older brothers ").
• - avaru for the so-called form of respect. Formally, the word in the plural, the meaning remains singular. (eg ತಾಯಿ Tayi "mother" - ತಾಯಿಯವರು tāyiyavaru about " wife's mother ").
• - Galu at all Neutra and partially in males names (eg ಮರ mara "tree" - ಮರಗಳು maragaḷu " trees ", ಶತ್ರು śatru "enemy" - ಶತ್ರುಗಳು śatrugaḷu "enemies ").

Declination

Nouns are declined in Kannada in seven case: nominative, genitive, accusative, dative, instrumental, locative, and vocative.

Adjectives

Adjectives can be either simple (eg ಒಳ್ಳೆ Olle "good") or derived from nouns (eg ಬಲವಾದ balavāda "strong" by ಬಲ bala "strength" ). As an attribute, the adjective is only in its unmodified stem form before his reference word, that is, it will not mitdekliniert: ಸಣ್ಣ ಮನೆ sanna mane " a little house " - ಸಣ್ಣ ಮನೆಗಳು Sanna manegaḷu " small houses ". Sometimes merges the attribute with its reference to a compound word: ಎಳೆಮಗು ELE magu " small child ". At a predicative adjective used or substantivized the personal pronoun of the third person singular is appended (eg ಈ ಕುದುರೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆದು ī kudure Olle - you " this horse is good").

Number words

The numerals 1 to 10 are:

The numerals 11-19 are formed by the numerals for one to be han - hadi - or appended (11 ಹನ್ನೊಂದು hannoṃdu, 12 ಹನ್ನೆರಡು hanneraḍu, 13 ಹದಿಮೂರು hadimūru etc.). 20 has the special form ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು ippattu The numerals 30-90 are formed by composition of the numerals 3-9 and hattu for 10 (30 ಮೂವತ್ತು mūvattu, 40 ನಾಲ್ವತ್ತು nālvattu etc.). The words for 100 and 1000 are denominated ನೂರು Nuru and ಸಾವಿರ Savira. As is common in South Asia, there are special words for number 100,000 ( ಲಕ್ಷವು lakṣavu, cf lakh ) and 10,000,000 ( ಕೋಟಿ Koti, cf crore ).

Verbs

Similar to the German is the verb from stem tense sign personal ending.

The verb know in Kannada three tenses:

• The present tense is by adding the morpheme - (u ) tt- formed on the trunk ( ಮಾಡುತ್ತೇನೆ māḍuttēne " I do" ).
• The future tense is by adding the morpheme - (u ) v - formed on the stem. ( ಮಾಡುವೆನು māḍuvenu " I will do "). In addition to the future Futurformen can also express regularly occurring in the presence of actions ( " I care to do" ). In everyday language, the present tense instead of the future tense is often used as in English.
• The past tense is by adding the morpheme - (i ) d- formed on the trunk ( ಮಾಡಿದೆನು māḍidenu " I did "). However, there are quite a few irregular verbs whose past tense you have to learn, for example ಕೊಂದೆನು kondenu of ಕೊಳ್ಳು " set" KOLLU, ಬಂದೆನು bandenu "come" from ಬರು baru, ಇದ್ದೆನು iddenu of ಇರು iru "be there ", etc.

With the present participle of "to be" on - utta iru can be arranged in forms: ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾ ಇರುತ್ತೇನೆ māḍuttā iruttēne " I 'm doing right now ," ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದೆನು māḍuttā iddenu " I just did ".

Also perfect forms arise from the past participle iru. The past participle is formed: 1) "made" in the regular verbs with -i ( ಮಾಡಿ Madi ) 2) in the irregular verbs occurs - u Bandu " come " ) to the perfect stem ( ಬಂದು.

Together with iru arises as a perfect ( ಬಂದಿರುತ್ತೇನೆ band ' iruttēne " I came ") and a pluperfect ( ಬಂದಿದ್ದೆನು band' iddenu " I came ").

Imperatives, there are:

• The rude you Imperative, namely the basic form: ಮಾಡು! Madu! " Do it! "
• The polite you Imperative, the Irish - appends: ಮಾಡಿರಿ! māḍiri " You do! "
• The invitation to the group ( Hortativ ), the Ona - appends: ಮಾಡೋಣ Madona! " We do! "
• Finally, there is a call to itself with - ali: ಮಾಡಲಿ Madali " I will make time ."

The modal verbs "may", "should" and " must " be expressed by Verberweiterungen: ಮಾಡಬಲ್ಲೆನು māḍaballenu " I can do ", ಮಾಡಲಾರೆನು māḍalārenu " I can not do ," ಮಾಡಬೇಕು māḍabēku " I have to do ," ಮಾಡಬಹುದು māḍabahudu " I should do " etc.

Syntax

The fixed rate position in Kannada is subject-object - verb ( SOV ). Accordingly, the subject comes first in the sentence ( it can at most circumstance provisions of the time and place go ahead ) and the predicate always at end of block. As is characteristic of SOV languages ​​, attributes are in Kannada always before their reference word, subordinate sentences before main clauses, verbs before auxiliary verbs and prepositions are postpositions instead used.

Complex sentences consist of one main and one or more subordinate clauses. In general, a set containing only a finite verb. The Kannada knows no conjunctions, subordinate clauses are as Para taxis formed by infinite verb forms. These include the infinitive, the gerund ( Verbalpartizip ) and the past participle.

Therefore are similar ( but not identical! ) As in Turkish instead of words like " that ", " if " or " to " this infinite verb forms. For example, say "I'm going out to have a coffee ": ಒಂದು ಕಾಫಿ ಕುಡಿಯುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊರಗೆ ಹೋಗುತ್ತೇನೆ Ondu Kaphi kudiyuvudakke horage hōguttēne, literally: " For a coffee - drinking, I 'll go ." "If " is the verb ending -are: ನೀನು ಅವನನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದರೆ ನನಗೆ ಹೇಳು Ninu avanannu NODID -are, nanage Helu, literally: "You 'll see him - if, tell me (it) ", thus: " Tell me when you see him see ". Etc..

Even in relative clauses are not relative, but participles. For example: ನಿನ್ನೆ ಬಂದ ಹುಡುಗ ನನ್ನ ತಮ್ಮ ಆಗಿದ್ದ Ninne banda huḍuga nanna tamma agidda, literally " The Come boy yesterday was my brother ", thus: " The boy who came yesterday was my brother. "

Vocabulary

The local grammar shares the Kannada words into four categories. Main criterion is, in how they relate to the vocabulary of Sanskrit. This concept originated in the daughter languages ​​of Sanskrit, but was transferred to the unrelated Kannada.

• As Desya ( ದೇಶ್ಯ "local" ) is called real Kannada words without equivalent in Sanskrit. This category includes Dravidian native words as ತಾಯಿ Tayi "mother" ( cf. Tamil தாய் Tay ), ಕಾಲು Kalu "foot" ( cf. Tamil கால் KAL ) or ನಡೆ Nade " go " (cf. Tamil நட NATA ).
• As tatsama ( ತತ್ಸಮ " the same as [ that is, a Sanskrit word ]") referred to Sanskrit words that are present in unchanged form in Kannada. A large part of them as ಚಂದ್ರ caṃdra "moon " (from चन्द्र candra ), ಮುಖ mukha "face" (of मुख mukha ) or ಗೃಹ gr̥ha "house" (of गृह gr̥ha ) has been borrowed from Sanskrit into Kannada. However, it can also be hereditary words that exist in Sanskrit as Dravidian loanwords, eg ಬಲ bala 'strength' (Sanskrit वल bala ), ಮಣಿ mani "jewel" (Sanskrit मणि Mani ) and ಮಾಲೆ Male ( Sanskrit माला Mala ).
• As tadbhava ( ತದ್ಭವ " it emerged [ that is, from a Sanskrit word ] " ) refers to words that were originally derived from Sanskrit, but phonetic changes have been unsuccessful, eg ಅಕ್ಕರ Akkara "letter" (of aksara ) ಅಗಸ agasa ( Akasa ) "heaven" or ಕತಿ kati "story" (of kathā ).
• As anyadēśya ( ಅನ್ಯದೇಶ್ಯ " outlandish " ) is called loan words from other languages. These may have their origin in the following languages ​​: Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu ), eg ತಯಾರು tayāru "finished" (from तैयार taiyār ) ಸರ್ಕಾರ sarkāra "government" (of सरकार Sarkar ), ಮಾಲೀಕ Malika "owner" (of मालिक Maalik ). This Hindustani words can turn originate from other languages. They are also part passes through the mediation of the Telugu or Marathi to Kannada.
• English, for example ನಂಬರು naṃbaru " number" ( by number), ಟಿಕೀಟು ṭikīṭu " ticket " (from ticket), ಡಾಕ್ಟರು ḍākṭaru " physician " (from doctor ).
• Portuguese, for example ಮೇಜು meju "table" ( mesa ).
• French, for example ಕುಸೀನಿ KUSINI "kitchen" (of cuisine ).