Chapters: Ch 1 · Ch 2 · Ch 3 · Ch 4 · Ch 5
Kannada Vocabulary Resources & alar.ink Analysis
alar.ink — Kannada Dictionary The alar.ink online Kannada dictionary — containing ~150,000+ entries compiled from V. Krishna’s monumental Alar Kannada Nighaṇṭu — is the most comprehensive digital resource for Kannada vocabulary. The dictionary distinguishes Tatsama (direct Sanskrit loan), Tadbhava (Sanskritized), and native Kannada (deśya) words, making it invaluable for lexicographic and etymological research. https://alar.ink/
Words With ಱ, ೞ From alar.ink Analysis A personal analysis of the alar.ink corpus to extract words containing the archaic characters ಱ and ೞ — characters that represent sounds extinct in modern standard Kannada but preserved in loanwords from Old Kannada, in conservative dialects, and in literary texts that maintain archaic spellings. The analysis documents the surviving lexical record of these lost phonemes.
Kannada Words 5+ Syllables From alar.ink — 21,416 Words (Nushell egrep Analysis) A data analysis of the alar.ink dictionary extracting the 21,416 words of five or more syllables — a corpus useful for understanding Kannada word formation patterns, compound constructions, and the density of Sanskrit loanwords at longer word lengths. The analysis was performed using Nushell egrep on the alar.txt corpus.
Kannada-Japanese Dictionary on Glosbe The Glosbe multilingual dictionary’s Kannada-Japanese section — a rare resource for anyone researching linguistic parallels between these typologically similar agglutinative SOV languages, both with rich morphological systems and postpositions rather than prepositions. https://glosbe.com/kn/ja
Native Kannada Word Building
nudikannada Tweet: ಪದಕಟ್ಟಣೆ — Prefix Equivalents in Kannada A tweet exploring native Kannada prefix-like elements (padakaṭṭaṇe) that function analogously to Sanskrit prefixes — native morphemes like ā- (to/toward), etti- (upward), tiri- (back) — arguing that Kannada has its own productive morphological resources for word formation that don’t require Sanskrit prefix borrowing.
PB (@holatombola): ನೆಲೆವೀಡು (ನೆಲೆ + ಬೀಡು) = Capital City A tweet by Kannada language enthusiast PB identifying nelevīḍu (literally “settled dwelling,” from nele = settled/stable + bīḍu = camp/dwelling) as a native Kannada term for capital city, documented in medieval inscriptions (kalbarehagaḷallī padada baḷake kāṇabahudu). An example of recovering administrative vocabulary from epigraphic sources. https://x.com/holatombola/status/1219957663519461376
PB Tweet: Native Kannada Names for Bow/Arrow Parts A tweet documenting native Kannada vocabulary for the parts of a bow and arrow — recovering military lexicon from Old Kannada inscriptions and literary sources where the terms survive even though the objects themselves have become culturally distant. Part of a broader project to recover specialized native vocabulary obscured by Sanskrit loanwords.
Kannada Continent Names — VirtuallyTangible Tweet (ಬೇರುಲ್, ತೊಡಲ್, ಮರಿನ್ಜು, etc.) A tweet proposing native Kannada continent names — bērul (America, from bēru = root/origin of humans?), toḍal (Europe), marinju (perhaps from maritime/ocean?) — as alternatives to the Sanskrit-derived or transliterated names in current use. An exercise in the Ellara Kannada philosophy of coining native words for modern concepts.
ಒಂದೆ ಗಾಲಿಯಿರುವ ಸಯ್ಕಲ್ಲು (Unicycle in Kannada) A personal coinage or documentation of the phrase for “unicycle” in Kannada — onde gāliyiruva saykallu (“bicycle that has only one wheel”) — an example of descriptive compound construction as an alternative to borrowing the English term. Relevant to the broader project of coining native Kannada vocabulary for modern concepts.
ಚದುರಕ = Entropy (Personal Note, Jun 2024) A personal coinage mapping the thermodynamic/information-theoretic concept of entropy to the Kannada word caduraka — from caduru (scatter/spread) — following the Ellara Kannada methodology of deriving technical terms from native Dravidian roots. Shannon’s law of entropy written on his gravestone makes this particularly resonant.
ಏಕಶಾಖೀಯ / ಆಶ್ರಯಸ್ಥಾನ (Vocabulary Notes) Personal notes on native Kannada terms: ēkaśākhīya (possibly for “unary/single-branch”) and āśrayasthāna (“refuge/support place”) — vocabulary explorations for technical computing or mathematical concepts, or for recovering archaic terms from inscriptions.
Vocabulary / Wordalla List A personal vocabulary list — eccariga (warning/alert), tale (head/topic), kocce (mud/slime), doḍḍabāvi (large well), kalliga (stone lamp/lantern), geḷeya (friend), nīrnaḍe (water flow/waterway), jīrige (cumin), barī (only/empty/bare), kālu (leg/quarter), nasukandumara (greenish-brown wood?). Native Dravidian words worth preserving and using.
ಕನ್ನಡ ಜನಪ್ರಿಯ ಗಾದೆಗಳು — Proverbs in Kannada (spardhavani.com) A collection of popular Kannada proverbs (gādegaḷu) — a genre that encodes folk wisdom, ethical principles, and cultural attitudes in compact, memorable form. Proverbs are particularly valuable for native vocabulary study since they tend to preserve archaic or regional words not found in formal written Kannada. https://spardhavani.com/proverbs-in-kannada/