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Grammar & Orthography
nudikannada: ಕನ್ನಡ ಬರಹಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ‘ಕರಣ’ದ ಹಾವಳಿ A nudikannada blog post examining the overuse of Sanskrit-derived instrumental case constructions (karaṇa) in modern written Kannada — arguing that writers unconsciously impose Sanskrit grammatical patterns on a language with its own distinct case system. This is a recurring critique in Dravidian linguistic purism: Sanskrit syntax bleeding into Kannada through high-register literary conventions. https://nudikannada.wordpress.com/
nudikannada: ಕನ್ನಡ ಬರಹದ ಸೊಲ್ಲರಿಮೆ-೬ — ಹೊತ್ತಗೆಯ ಕಿರುನೋಟ — ಮಲ್ಲೇಶ್ ಬೆಳವಾಡಿ Part 6 of Mallesh Belavadi’s Kannada grammar series on the nudikannada blog, offering a brief overview of Kannada Baraha Sollariame — the argument that Kannada has its own independent grammatical tradition (ಕನ್ನಡಕ್ಕೆ ಕನ್ನಡದ್ದೇ ಆದ ವ್ಯಾಕರಣವಿದೆ), distinct from and not derivable from Sanskrit grammar. The series is an important contribution to the case for teaching Kannada through its own grammatical framework rather than Sanskritic categories. https://nudikannada.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/...
nudikannada: ನುಡಿಯ ಈ ವಿಶಯಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸಂದರ್ಭವೇ ತೀರ್ಪುಗಾರ A nudikannada post arguing that in matters of language, context is the ultimate judge — a pragmatist position on prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar debates in Kannada. The post resists rigid standardization and argues for accepting contextually appropriate forms of the language rather than imposing artificial purity rules. https://nudikannada.wordpress.com/
Dr. D.N. Shankar Bhat: ಕನ್ನಡ ನುಡಿಯ ಸೊಗಡು / ಯಾವುದು ಕನ್ನಡ ವ್ಯಾಕರಣ / ಯಾವುದು ಕನ್ನಡದ ಸೊಗಡು Three essays by D.N. Shankara Bhat — the foremost scholar of Kannada and Dravidian linguistics — on the distinctive character (soḷaḍu) of Kannada, what constitutes Kannada grammar on its own terms, and what gives Kannada its native flavor. Bhat’s position consistently argues that Kannada should be analyzed through Dravidian morphological and syntactic categories rather than Sanskrit-derived frameworks.
ವಿಭಕ್ತಿ ಪ್ರತ್ಯಯಗಳು: Kannada vs Sanskrit Case Suffixes (nudikannada.wordpress.com) A comparative analysis of case suffixes in Kannada and Sanskrit — showing that while Kannada has nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, and vocative cases like Sanskrit, the actual suffixes are distinct and the case semantics (particularly the distinction between animate/inanimate in dative) follow Dravidian rather than Indo-Aryan patterns.
‘ಮಾಡುತ್ತೇನೆ’ Grammatical Analysis Blog (ybhava.blogspot.com) A blog post analyzing the morphological structure of the common Kannada verb form māḍuttēne (“I am doing/I will do”) — decomposing it into root (māḍu-), aspect marker (-tt-), tense marker (-ē-), and person-number-gender agreement suffix (-ne). This kind of morphological transparency analysis is central to understanding how Kannada agglutinative verb forms work.
Misconceptions About Kannada and Sanskrit (thenewsminute.com) An article debunking widespread misconceptions — particularly among Kannada speakers — that Kannada is derived from Sanskrit or is a “corrupted” form of it. The article explains that Kannada and Sanskrit belong to entirely different language families (Dravidian vs. Indo-Aryan), that Kannada has its own ancient independent literary tradition predating most Sanskrit borrowings, and that the Sanskrit loanwords in Kannada are relatively recent layers. https://www.thenewsminute.com/
KANNADA: Brihat Karnataka Book (Google Books) A reference to the Brihat Karnataka — a comprehensive volume on Karnataka’s history, culture, and linguistics — available through Google Books. A foundational reference for the cultural and historical context of Kannada language use across the medieval and modern periods.
btbytes.com/kannada.html A web resource on Kannada computing and digital resources — covering Unicode character ranges, font support, input methods, and tools for working with Kannada text in software applications. A practical reference for developers working with Kannada script in digital contexts. https://btbytes.com/kannada.html
Pāṇini: Catching the Ocean in a Cow’s Hoofprint (blog.granthika.co) A blog post on Pāṇini’s Ashtadhyayi — the remarkably concise (~4,000 sūtras) complete formal grammar of Sanskrit — exploring how Pāṇini achieved near-complete grammatical coverage through layered rule application, metarules, and a phonological algebra that anticipates formal language theory. The title captures the ambition of describing an infinite language in a finite rule set. https://blog.granthika.co/
Language Log: Spoken Sanskrit A Language Log post on the current state of spoken Sanskrit — the communities in India (particularly in Karnataka’s Mattur village) that maintain Sanskrit as a household conversational language, and what this tells us about language revival, the role of ritual in language maintenance, and the difference between a spoken and liturgical language.
Script & Characters
ಱ-ೞ ನಿಘಂಟು Article — Mallesh Belavadi (nudikannada.wordpress.com) An article by Mallesh Belavadi documenting words containing the rare archaic Kannada characters ಱ (ṟa, a retroflex trill) and ೞ (ḷa, a lateral approximant) — both now obsolete in standard Kannada but still found in Old Kannada inscriptions and surviving in some conservative dialects. The article serves as a lexicographic record of sounds that Kannada has lost. https://nudikannada.wordpress.com/
Kannada Character Frequency Table from alar.ink Analysis (per 10,000 words) Personal analysis of character frequency in the alar.ink Kannada dictionary corpus — showing that the halant (್), short i (ಿ), short u (ು), and consonant r (ರ) are the most common characters, reflecting the predominance of light (anunasika) syllables and the high frequency of the ra consonant in Kannada morphology.
್ 59.93
ಿ 54.77
ು 45.92
ರ 45.82
ಾ 36.98
ೆ 32.30
ಕ 32.12
ಗ 31.62
ತ 31.45
Myths of Pallava Script — Understanding Its Kadamba Kannada Roots (YouTube) A YouTube video arguing that the so-called “Pallava script” — ancestor of Tamil, Grantha, and Vatteluttu — is actually derived from the Kadamba Kannada script, not independently developed. If correct, this would significantly reorder the script genealogy of South India, placing Kannada script as ancestral to rather than derived from Tamil script traditions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm3mux1DRV0
Tamil-Kannada Script Comparison Notes (Feb 7, 2024)
Personal comparative notes on Tamil and Kannada script correspondences — identifying cognate vowels, shared consonants with different scripts, and characters that exist in one language but not the other (ೞ/ழ, ಱ/ற). The comparison makes the shared Dravidian phonological system visible while also highlighting the divergences in phoneme inventories.
அஆஇஈஉஊஎஏஐஒஓ
ಅಆಇಈಉಊಎಏಐಒಓ
ಕ க ಙ ங
ಚ ச ಞ ஞ
ಟ ட ಣ ண
ತ த ನ ந (voiced na)
ಪ ப ಮ ம
ಯ ய ರ ர ಲ ல ವ வ
ೞ ழ (like but not quite ಳ್ರ)
ಳ ள
ಱ ற (like ರ but tongue flaps multiple times like herding goats)
ನ್ ன (unvoiced na)
Notes: Tamil has ஐ and ஔ (= ಐ and ಔ). Tamil consonant ற (ಱ) sounds like ರ but tongue flaps multiple times.