KANNADA AND TELUGU

KANNADA AND TELUGU

Kannada and Telugu are two of the most important Dravidian languages. Kannada belongs to the subgroup of South Dravidian languages, whereas Telugu is classified under South Central Dravidian languages. However these two are bound together by historical and geographical in many regions of Andhrapradesh and Karnataka. Many districts in these states such as Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bellary, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Kolar, Anantapur, Cudappah and Kurnool have changed hands between Kannada and Telugu monarchies. Occasionally they were ruled by Muslim monarchs who did not belong to either of these linguistic communities. Chalukys, Rashtrakuta, Hoysalas and Vijayanagara Empires which controlled vast tracts of Kannada speaking and Telugu speaking areas at different points of time, have given rise to widespread bilingual communities. Even now, there are many regions containing a number of bilinguals. For many people living in these regions, Telugu happens to be the mother tongue and they have usually preferred Kannada for pedagogic purposes particularly after the integration of Karnataka. In some regions diglossia is observed as a linguistic phenomenon between Kannada and Telugu. Gradually Kannada is gaining the upper hand in these situations, even though native speakers of Telugu do not consider it as inferior to Kannada.

Bh. Krishnamurti puts the relations between Kannada and Telugu in a historical perspective in his book on Dravidian languages. “Although it (Telugu) is genetically closer to its northern neighbours, as a literary language, Telugu has a great measure of give and take with Kannada; Telugu and Kannada have a common stage of evolution in their script called Telugu-Kannada script (seventh to thirteenth century). There were several Saivite poets who wrote both in Telugu and Kannada. The Vijayanagara king Krishnadevaraya patronized both Kannada and Telugu poetry. Consequently there are extensive lexical borrowings between Telugu and Kannada both ways.” (‘The Dravidian Languages’, 2003, Cambridge University Press, Page 23-24) pAlkurike sOmanAtha, srInAtha, kanTIrava narasarAja and kaLale vIrarAja are some of Telugu poets who have flourished in Karnataka. rAGavAnka the well known Kannada poet visited the Royal court of Prataparudradeva a kAkatIya king.

Karnataka and Andhrapradesh have a common border running to 1230 kilometers without any major geographical barrier that makes transportation difficult. This has facilitated a smooth exchange of linguistic, cultural and literary phenomenon. Both of them have received ample sustenance from Sanskrit in terms of vocabulary. Scholars have opined that in both these languages ‘tatsamas’ (original Sanskrit words) were used by the poets and scholars in their works, where as ‘tadbhavas’ were used by common unlettered people. These influences have extended to the areas of prosody and grammar also. Sanskrit vruttas and kandapadyas are borrowed by both these languages. AmshagaNa Candassu in both these languages have many similar proto forms as can be learnt by a meticulous study of the texts on prosody. Palatalization which is present in Telugu is conspicuous by its absence in literary Kannada. (k>>>>g, c>>>>>j) Mutation of the vowels ‘i’ and ‘e’ to ‘u’ and ‘o’ is common to Telugu and Kannada. There are many common/similar words in the early epics of Kannada by Pampa and Nagachandra and the Telugu epic BArata by Nannaiah. Nannaiah’s work is heavily influenced by ‘Pampa Bharata’, a literary classic by Pampa.

Dr B.Ramachandra Rao (1984) has made a detailed study of the regions which constitute the border between Andhrapradesh and Karnataka. He has delineated the impact of Telugu morphology and vocabulary on Kannada and given a number of instances where new words and usages are created by meging the usage patterns of these two languages.

Thus Kannada has a long history of association and mutual assimilation with Telugu.