The search for a standard Kannada dialect

Rajendra Chenni traces the evolution of the various dialectal forms of Kannada in the state.

A mention has been made in Kavirajamarga, the ninth century Kannada work of poetics about the many ‘tongues’ of Kannada, which were ‘numerous enough to put the many headed Vasuki to despair’. One of the unstated objectives of the work was to formulate the features of a standard literary-poetic dialect, which would eschew the excesses and improprieties of language use. Though in listing up the poetic errors, Kavirajamarga stays close to the Sanskrit models, in the examples it cites it refers to a number of non-standard dialectal uses which testify to the presence of the many dialects of Kannada, so graphically described in the metaphor. 

It is also evident that the writer of the work was aware of the hierarchisation among the many dialects of Kannada and the recognition of one as the prestige dialect. He identifies this as the ‘learned Kannada’ spoken around the geographical area surrounding Koppana (today’s Koppal) and Okunda and Kisuvolalu (near today’s Badami-Pattadakallu). Interestingly, these areas are part of today’s north Karnataka and were historically associated with the so-called Kannada royal dynasties of the past. 

‘Chaste’ Kannada

Pampa, the 10th-century poet known as Adikavi (the first poet, arch poet), also refers to the same geographical area as the home of chaste Kannada. It is clear that the dialectical boundaries of the prestige dialect, which was also the literary dialect of mainstream Kannada literature, were well-marked by the time the first great literary works were written by the turn of the first millennium. 

A study of the stone inscriptions of the time also supports the view that the prestige dialect had been accorded the place of standard dialect too. There are substantial similarities between the literary works and the inscriptions in terms of the standard dialect used. Scholars have also established the fact that many of the well-known poets also doubled as scribes of the inscriptions, which also accounts for the standard use of language. However, it would be extremely difficult to establish evidence for the use of the standard dialect in official administration throughout various historical periods. 

The major difficulty is the shifting of the boundaries and the constant change of the ruling dynasties which came from different linguistic backgrounds. The situation later became very complicated with the arrival of the Muslim dynasties and the conquest of many areas by the Marathi-speaking rulers. This meant that the language of administration was at least partly Persian and Marathi and most importantly created an ‘officialese,’ which had an overdose of official jargon with words of Persian and Marathi origin. 

This was true of the ‘legalese’ too. These features have survived even today despite the heavy bureaucratic efforts made by the Karnataka government to create glossaries of official Kannada. The official and legal registers of Kannada continue to display a very heavy legacy of Persian and Marathi administrative pasts.

Dialectal diversity

These facts support the surmise that while a prestige-standard literary dialect emerged in Kannada as early as 9th century AD, it is doubtful whether a standard dialect for official communication evolved at all. Records of the colonial period show extreme dialectal diversity across the various regions. 

Even during the halcyon days of Unification and the Renaissance of Kannada literature, the official register used in the Bombay Presidency area continued to be an extraordinary mixture of dialectal Kannada and Marathi jargon. The matter was also complicated by the non-standardisation of spelling and printing fonts for a long time. 

In fact, a number of missionary scholars and colonial administrator-scholars participated in a lively debate on reforming the Kannada alphabet itself, which is not phonemic. Interestingly this debate continues even till today.

Cultural politics

With the onset of the Navodaya, the educated dialect of the Mysore region became the standard Kannada dialect and this had much to do with the cultural politics associated with the Unification Movement. However, it was in the coastal region around Mangalore that the Christian missionaries established the first Kannada press and published the first Kannada journal (though there is some dispute about the latter). The spoken language of everyday communication in the coastal region is Tulu and the region has always been a classic case of ‘diaglossia’. 

Despite a rich folk tradition, until recently, Tulu did not have a literary tradition and a script of its own. Kannada seems to have been the language of the literati - even the spoken Kannada dialect of the region is closer to the written form of the standard Kannada dialect; perhaps because in this region it was predominantly used for formal and literary communication. It is also possible that the missionaries had to depend heavily on the written form of Kannada for their work of translation of the biblical and religious texts. 

All these factors seemed to have contributed to the fact that the dialect and the register used in the journals and magazines published from Mangalore were in the literary Kannada dialect in contrast to the journals published from the Bombay presidency area. It was only when the centre of gravity shifted to the Mysore region and when the native middle-class elite was able to establish its cultural hegemony that the dialect spoken in the Mysore region firmly and authoritatively took its position as the standard modern Kannada dialect.

(Excerpts taken from ‘State Matters: Kannada Sub-Nationalism and State Formation’ by Rajendra Chenni, published by Manipal Universal Press)

A Halmidi inscription the oldest-known Kannada inscription in the Kadamba script.