KANNADA AND URDU

KANNADA AND URDU

Kannada and Urdu are not genetically related. Urdu originated in the south-central region of the country and was known also as ‘Dakhani’. ‘Dakhani’ literally means ‘southern’. Urdu has spread all over the country and abroad and it has imbibed many elements from Persian and Arabic. The relationship between Kannada and Perso Arabic is treated in a separate entry. Karnataka has a sizable number of people belonging to the Urdu speaking Muslim communities. They are distributed all over the state including the coastal regions. All most all of them are bi-lingual with a working knowledge of spoken Kannada. Educated people are also familiar with the written variety of the language. Muslims residing in old Mysore state and North Karnataka speak Urdu at home and use Kannada for other purposes. Many Muslims in coastal Karnataka are familiar with Malayalam and Tulu depending on their exigencies. Urdu medium schools and ‘Madrasaa’s run by the government all over the state have facilitated the cause of learning Urdu. A majority of students in these institutions are girls and boys opt for either English medium or Kannada medium. Muslim writers have contributed handsomely to the annals of Kannada literature.

Historically, parts of Karnataka were ruled by quite a few Muslim dynasties and that has caused a healthy intermingling of cultures. Arts and architecture in Karnataka have benefited hugely from Islamic influx. There is a qualitative difference between Islamic invaders and Islamic rulers. Bahmani kingdom, Adilshahi dynasty, Asafjahi dynasty and Baridshahi dynasty in the North and the rule by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan in the princely state constitute some of the notable instances of Muslim rule in Karnataka. In addition to these major kingdoms many minor chieftains and feudatories had their own circles of influence.

There is some degree of interaction between these two languages at different levels. Many lexical items in the official and administrative vocabulary of the state missionary were adopted from Urdu. It is not as if documents were maintained in Urdu. However, many Urdu speaking officials who were quite familiar with the administrative patterns of North India had no hesitation in borrowing these terms. Many Urdu words dealing with medicine, war-craft, and functional arts and crafts have found their way found in to Kannada in an unobtrusive manner. More importantly many of these words are used by the common man unlike their Sanskrit counterparts. Cultural vocabulary of any language is enriched by these processes. Urdu has exerted a strong influence because it was the court language. Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur and Bijapur districts of Karnataka have lent themselves to such influences to a greater degree. The first three districts which belonged to the Nizam of Hyderabad before the integration of Karnataka were exposed to as a medium of instruction also. Kannada had to play a second fiddle for a considerable period.

Kannada spoken by Muslims has almost acquired the status of a social dialect. It is subjected to the processes of filtration and has undergone perceptible changes in phonology, morphology and vocabulary. Even extra syntactic elements such as tone and intonation have undergone many changes in this variety of Kannada. But it has not hampered communication in any way.

Many Urdu literary works were composed in Karnataka by Sufi saints as well as court poets.