Kannada’s Own Words for English Words
ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಶ್ ಪದಗಳಿಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡದ್ದೇ ಪದಗಳು
Author: D. N. Shankara Bhat (ಡಿ. ಎನ್. ಶಂಕರ ಬಟ್) Published: 2008 (1st ed.); 2011 (2nd ed.) Publisher: Bāshā Prakāshana, Billeshwara, Huncha, Tirthahalli Language: Kannada (reformed hosa baraha script) Pages: 487 Source quality: PDF (Nudi font → wx_decode.py conversion; English headwords partially garbled as (cid:...) artifacts; Kannada definitions mostly clean)
← Back to folder Kannada raw text: book/kn/raw.md
Book Overview
Inglish Padagalige Kannadaddē Padagalu (“Kannada’s Own Words for English Words”) is a lexicographical work that inverts the traditional English–Kannada dictionary. Rather than helping Kannada speakers understand English words, this book targets speakers who already know English fluently and want to know what native Dravidian Kannada words — not Sanskrit borrowings — can be used for common English vocabulary.
DNS Bhat argues that generations of Kannada writers and scholars have habitually reached for Sanskrit when coining new Kannada words, producing “triśaṅku” words (neither Kannada nor Sanskrit, but awkward hybrids). This dictionary demonstrates that for almost every common English concept, natural Kannada equivalents already exist in the Dravidian word-stock, waiting to be used.
The book is divided into two parts: a substantial foreword/introduction (roughly 120 pages) explaining Bhat’s methodology and word-formation principles, followed by an A-to-Z dictionary (approximately 370 pages) listing English words alongside their native Kannada equivalents with example sentences.
This is an earlier and more opinionated companion to Book 15 (Inglish Kannada Padanerake, 2015), which presents a comprehensive collaborative 730-page A-Z dictionary. Book 31 (2008) is a solo work selecting the most useful items, written in Bhat’s own reformed (hosa baraha) Kannada script with Dravidian-favoring vocabulary.
Table of Contents
- Foreword / Introduction
- The A–Z Dictionary
- Cross-References to Other DNS Bhat Works
Foreword and Introduction
ಮುನ್ನುಡಿ
1. What This Dictionary Is For
- Ordinary English–Kannada dictionaries serve people who don’t know English — they explain meaning, pronunciation, and usage of English words
- This dictionary serves the opposite audience: people who know English fluently and want to discover what native Kannada words exist for those English concepts
- The goal is to help readers write and speak Kannada using words rooted in the Dravidian heritage of the language — not Sanskrit translations of English words
- Bhat notes that many Kannada speakers no longer know which words are native Kannada and which are Sanskrit loans — the boundary has been blurred by a century of Sanskritic borrowing in written Kannada
2. The Triśaṅku Word Problem
- Kannada writers and pandits have had a long habit of coining new words using Sanskrit roots and suffixes (pratyaya) whenever Kannada needed new vocabulary
- This produces words that are neither proper Kannada nor proper Sanskrit — Bhat calls them triśaṅku words (after Triśaṅku in mythology: neither in heaven nor on earth)
- A typical technical glossary (pāribhāṣika padakosha) in Kannada may have as many as 80% triśaṅku words
- These hybrid words make Kannada science and technical writing incomprehensible even to educated Kannada speakers, because the words feel alien
- The alternative — using native Dravidian roots — produces words that fit naturally into Kannada sentences and are immediately comprehensible
3. Word-Formation Principles
Bhat explains that Kannada has rich native mechanisms for forming new words, and illustrates them with dozens of examples:
3.1 Agent Nouns
The suffix -gāra (and its variants -ga, -iga) attaches to nouns to form agent nouns:
- ಹಾಡು → ಹಾಡುಗಾರ (song → singer)
- ಮಾತು → ಮಾತುಗಾರ (speech → speaker)
- ಮಾಟ → ಮಾಟಗಾರ (magic → magician)
The suffix -āḷi attaches to verbs to indicate habitual or intensive agents:
- ಮಾತು → ಮಾತಾಳಿ (overly talkative)
- ತಿನ್ನು → ತಿನ್ನಾಳಿ (glutton)
- ಓದು → ಓದಾಳಿ (bookworm)
3.2 Action Nouns
Kannada has multiple suffixes for forming action/result nouns, each with slightly different meaning:
| Suffix | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -ke / -ike | verb → action name | ಏರು → ಏರಿಕೆ (rise); ನಂಬು → ನಂಬಿಕೆ (trust) |
| -ge / -ige | verb → object/result | ಆಟ → ಆಟಿಗೆ (toy); ಕೊಡು → ಕೊಡುಗೆ (gift) |
| -ta | verb → action | ಕುಣಿ → ಕುಣಿತ (dance); ಎಸೆ → ಎಸೆತ (throw) |
| -vu / -pu / -hu | verb → state/result | ತಿಳಿ → ತಿಳಿವು (knowledge); ಸಾಯ್ → ಸಾವು (death) |
| -me | verb → quality | ತಾಳ್ → ತಾಳ್ಮೆ (patience); ದುಡಿ → ದುಡಿಮೆ (labor) |
| -ha | verb → process | ನುಡಿ → ನುಡಿಹ; ಅರಿ → ಅರಿಹ |
Bhat shows how the same root (e.g., ಅರಿ “to know”) yields multiple forms — ಅರಿಕೆ, ಅರಿತ, ಅರಿಮೆ, ಅರಿವು, ಅರಿಹ — each with slightly different nuance that can distinguish “knowledge”, “perception”, “science”, “representation” etc.
3.3 Negation Without Sanskrit Prefix a-
Sanskrit uses the prefix a- for negation (asat, ajñāna, atṛpti). Kannada has its own strategies:
- Use the negating verbal form: ಸೊಲ್ಲಮೆ (ಅನುಕ್ತಿ), ಅರಿಯಮೆ (ಅಜ್ಞಾನ)
- Tables of affirmative/negative pairs using native suffixes:
- ತಾಳ್ಮೆ (patience) → ತಾಳಮೆ (impatience)
- ಸೋಲ್ಮೆ → ಸೋಲಮೆ
- ದುಡಿಮೆ → ದುಡಿಯಮೆ
3.4 Compound Words and Reduplication
- Kannada forms compound words differently from Sanskrit — it does not use the tatpurusha, bahuvrīhi etc. system
- Kannada uses reduplication for distributive meanings: ಒಬ್ಬೊಬ್ಬ (each one), ಒಮ್ಮೊಮ್ಮೆ (occasionally), ಕಡೆಕಡೆಗೆ (at last)
- Understanding these native patterns allows coining new words that fit naturally into Kannada syntax
4. What Makes This Different from Other Dictionaries
- Most Kannada technical dictionaries are actually Sanskrit-via-Kannada-script books
- This dictionary selects Dravidian-root equivalents — even for technical or abstract concepts
- Example paradigm: for English “knowledge”, “representation”, “perception”, “science” — instead of Sanskrit jñāna, prtinidhitva, pratyaksha, vijñāna, Bhat uses: ಅರಿವು, ಅರಿತ, ಅರಿಕೆ, ಅರಿಮೆ (all from Dravidian root ari “to know”)
- Written in Bhat’s reformed (hosa baraha) script which avoids the mahāprāṇa consonants, reflecting his broader linguistic argument (see Books 08, 30)
The A–Z Dictionary
The dictionary section runs from approximately page 120 to 487, covering English words from A (a little, abandon, abate…) through Z (zeal, zenith, zephyr, zero, zigzag, zipper, zone, zoo, zoology, zoom).
Dictionary Format
Each entry follows this pattern:
[English headword]
[PoS abbreviation] [Kannada native equivalent(s)] ([example sentence(s)])
Where:
- PoS: ಕ್ರಿ = ಕ್ರಿಯೆ (verb); ನಾ = ನಾಮಪದ (noun); ಗು = ಗುಣವಾಚಕ (adjective)
- Multiple Kannada equivalents given for different shades of meaning
- Generous example sentences show the word in natural Kannada usage
- Entries sometimes include related forms (verbal noun, agent noun, opposite, etc.)
Sample Entries (A section)
| English | Kannada Equivalent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| a little | ನಸು, ತುಸು, ಕೀಟು | ನಸುನಗೆ, ತುಸು ಹೊತ್ತು |
| abandon | ತೊರೆ, ಬಿಡು, ನಾಲಿ | ಗದ್ದುಗೆ ತೊರೆ |
| abate | ಕುಗ್ಗು, ಕುಂದು, ತಗ್ಗು | ನೆರೆ ಕುಗ್ಗಲು ಸುರುವಾಗಿದೆ |
| abdicate | ತೊರೆ | ಅರಸು ಗದ್ದುಗೆಯನ್ನು ತೊರೆದು ಕಾಡಿಗೆ ನಡೆದ |
| abdomen | ಹೊಟ್ಟೆ | ಹೊಟ್ಟೆನೋವು |
| abduct | ಹಾರಿಸು, ಎತ್ತಿ ಹಾಕು, ಎಗರಿಸು | |
| abhor | ಹೇಸು | ಯಾವುದಕ್ಕೂ ಹೇಸದವನು |
| ability | ಅಳವು, ಜಾಣ್ಮೆ, ಅರಿವು, ಬದ್ದು | ಈ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುವ ಅಳವು ಆತನಲ್ಲಿದೆ |
| abnormal | ಓಜೆತಪ್ಪಿದ | |
| abortion | ಮಯ್ಯಿಳಿತ, ಬಸಿರಿಳಿತ | |
| abound | ಆರು, ತೀವು, ಚಳೆ, ತುಂಬು | |
| above | ಮೇಗೆ, ಮೇಲು, ಮೇಲೆ | ಮೇಗುಸಿರು, ಮೇಲುಗಡೆ |
Sample Entries (Z section)
| English | Kannada Equivalent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| zenith | ತುತ್ತತುದಿ, ಮೇಲ್ಬಾನು | |
| zephyr | ಪಡುಗಾಳಿ, ಮೆಲ್ಲನೆ ಬೀಸುವ ಗಾಳಿ | |
| zero | ಮುಚ್ಚರು | |
| zigzag | ಅಂಕುಡೊಂಕು, ಅಡ್ಡಾದಿಡ್ಡಿ | ಅಂಕುಡೊಂಕು ಹಾದಿ |
| zipper | ಪತ್ತಿಗೆ | |
| zone | ಬಳಸುಪಟ್ಟಿ, ಪಸುಗೆ | |
| zoo | ಉಸುರಿಮನೆ, ಉಸುರಿಲು | |
| zoology | ಉಸಿರಿಯರಿಮೆ |
OCR Limitations
The PDF was typeset in Nudi legacy font. After wx_decode.py conversion:
- Kannada definitions and examples: mostly clean (~95%)
- English headwords: many are clean (especially short common words), but many entries have
(cid:...)artifacts in the English-word-side of entries — approximately 30–40% of entries are partially affected - Part-of-speech abbreviations: sometimes appear as garbled Nudi characters or Devanagari-like fragments (the PDF used multiple embedded fonts)
- The raw decoded file at
../kn/raw.mdpreserves all content as-is; a future OCR pass or manual correction could restore the garbled headwords
Cross-References to Other DNS Bhat Works
| Related Book | Connection |
|---|---|
| 15 — ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಶ್ ಕನ್ನಡ ಪದನೆರಕೆ | The later, comprehensive (730pp, 2015) collaborative version of the same dictionary project — A–Z coverage with wider team |
| 08 — ಕನ್ನಡಕ್ಕೆ ಮಹಾಪ್ರಾಣ ಯಾಕೆ ಬೇಡ | The linguistic argument underlying why Bhat avoids Sanskrit-borrowed mahāprāṇa consonants in new coinages |
| 30 — ಕನ್ನಡ ಬರಹವನ್ನು ಸರಿಪಡಿಸೋಣ | Script reform companion — explains the hosa baraha script Bhat uses throughout this dictionary |
| 14 — ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ಹಳೆಗನ್ನಡ ವ್ಯಾಕರಣ ಎಂತಹದು | Grammar framework — describes the native Kannada suffix system that underlies all the word formations in this dictionary |
| 02 — ಕನ್ನಡ ನುಡಿಯ ಒಳರಚನೆ | Structural analysis of Kannada — the theoretical basis for understanding what is “native” to Kannada vs. borrowed |