Chapters: Ch 1 · Ch 2 · Ch 3 · Ch 4 · Ch 5
Songs & Poems in Kannada
ಮೇರಿದೊಂದು ಕುರಿಮರಿ — Mary Had a Little Lamb in Kannada (multiple drafts) Personal drafts translating “Mary Had a Little Lamb” into Kannada — an exercise in adapting a simple English poem’s meter and rhyme scheme to Kannada phonology, word order, and vocabulary, including choices about whether to use native Kannada or Sanskrit-derived vocabulary for common concepts.
ಮಿನ ಮಿನ ಚುಕ್ಕೆ ಚುಕ್ಕೆ / ಮಿನುಗು ಮಿನುಗು ಚಿನ್ನ ಮೀನ — Twinkle Twinkle in Kannada (multiple drafts) Multiple draft versions of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in Kannada — exploring different native vocabulary choices (minuga minuga for “twinkle,” cukke for “star,” cinna mīna = little fish as an alternative metaphor) and how the rhyme scheme and syllable count of the original can be adapted to Kannada’s different prosodic system.
ybharath77: ಮಿನುಗೆಲೆ ಮಿನುಗೆಲೆ ಚಿಕ್ಕರಿಲೆ — Twinkle Twinkle in Kannada/Tamil A tweet offering a Kannada-Tamil hybrid version of Twinkle Twinkle — using minugele (twinkle) and cikkarile (little star) — demonstrating how the two Dravidian languages share enough phonological and lexical material that a cross-linguistic version is possible.
Poem (Personal, Jun 2024) A personal Kannada poem about Karnataka as homeland — juxtaposing the land of birth (parents’ and grandparents’ home) with the land of chosen life (where one stands on one’s own feet and raises a daughter). The poem navigates the experience of living between two homes: one in Karnataka, one on the Western coast (San Francisco Bay Area).
ಅದು
ಹುಟ್ಟಿ ಬೆಳೆದ ನಾಡು
ತಂದೆ ತಾಯಿಯರ ಬೀಡು
ತಾತ ಅಜ್ಜಿ ನೆತ್ತರನಾಡು
ಕರುನಾಡು
ಇದು
ಕಾಲ್ಗಳ ಮೇಲ್ನಿಂತು ತಲೆಯೆತ್ತಿ
ಬೆಂಬಲಿಸಿ ಆಸರೆಕೊಟ್ಟ ನಾಡು
ಬಾಳಿ ಬದುಕಿರುವ ಒಡತಿಯ ಬೀಡು
ಮಗಳ ತಾಯ್ನಾಡು
ಹೊನ್ನಬಾಗಿಲೋ ಕೊಲ್ಲಿಯೋ
ಪಡುವಣದ ಕರಾವಳಿಯೋ
ಬೆಟ್ಟದತಾಣವಿದು ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಿದು
English translation:
That
is the land of my birth
home of my mother and father
land of my blood from forefathers
The High Land (Karnataka)
This
is where I found my feet
Accepted and nourished
Live and Love
The motherland of my daughter
Is it the Golden Gate
A strip off the Bay
Or the Western shore that stems the Ocean
A refuge in the hills
This is my Home
Karnataka Rajyotsava Poem Notes Personal notes for a poem composed for Karnataka Rajyotsava (Karnataka Formation Day, November 1) — celebrating the linguistic unification of Kannada-speaking regions into the state of Karnataka in 1956.
Allama Prabhu Vachanagalu (kannadadeevige.in) A collection of Vachanas (free verse devotional poems) by Allama Prabhu — the 12th-century Kannada poet-mystic of the Lingayat Veerashaiva tradition whose cryptic, iconoclastic verses challenge religious orthodoxy, caste hierarchy, and idol worship. Allama’s Vachanas are among the most philosophically dense and stylistically distinctive works in Kannada literary history. https://kannadadeevige.in/
Sarvagna Vachana Collection (vishaya.in) A collection of Vachanas (tripadi verses) by Sarvajña (Sarvajna) — the 13th-century Kannada poet credited with over 20,000 tripadi aphorisms covering ethics, social observation, and practical wisdom. Sarvajña’s Vachanas are among the most widely quoted traditional Kannada literature and form part of every Kannada speaker’s cultural heritage. https://vishaya.in/
ಆಹಾರ ಅರಗಿಸುವ ಏರ್ಪಾಟಿನ ಭಾಗಗಳು — Digestive System in Kannada (YouTube) A YouTube educational video naming the parts of the human digestive system in Kannada — an exercise in science vocabulary expansion, covering terms for esophagus, stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, and other organs in either native Kannada or Tatsama/Tadbhava forms.
ಪಾಂಗುಗಳು — Shapes in Kannada: Triangle, Quadrilateral, Circle, and 13 More (16 Shapes) A vocabulary list of geometric shape names in Kannada — covering the common shapes (tribhuja = triangle, caturbhuja = quadrilateral, vr̥tta = circle) in both Sanskrit-derived and native Kannada forms, for educational and language-revival purposes.
Wordalla / Kannada Word Game
wordalla.pdf — Statistics on 5-Letter Words Used by Wordalla A personal analysis of the Wordalla Kannada word-guessing game (a Kannada Wordle) over three months of daily play — finding that 75%+ of the 5-letter answer words are Sanskrit-derived. The alar.ink dictionary has 20,000+ 5-letter words, of which roughly a quarter contain mahāprāṇa (aspirated) consonants that are definitively of Sanskrit origin. No automated rule yet exists to reliably identify purely native Kannada words.
Kannada Gottu GPT — Harish Garg Tweet (GPT to Learn Kannada) A tweet by Harish Garg about a GPT-based conversational tool for learning Kannada — an AI assistant that can answer grammar questions, provide vocabulary explanations, and practice conversational Kannada with learners. An early application of LLM technology to Kannada language education.