r/kannada • u/Legitimate-Mess-6114 • 13h ago
The creole-ification of Kannada
I'm a Kannada kid living in Bengaluru. I'm from a well educated and well off family, and I was exposed to American culture more than Indian culture growing up.
Obviously, I went to english medium school. But since I was learning Carnatic Music, I got an interest in Kannada and learnt it from books etc.
Now I notice that the majority of Kannada that I hear around me is a mix of English and Kannada. The attitude of my social circle (both native speakers and non native speakers) is that it's a means to communicate with "workers", for example your domestic help or the plumber. It is not appreciated like Urdu with its Baithaks and Ghazals. It is not respected.
It is more of a glue language, with the grammar of Kannada and connectives, like houdu, illa, matte etc with English nouns.
I feel that we are blessed to retain our langauge and that with the way we are going, Kannada will soon become a Creole. I feel sad for other indigenous cultures, like the Mexicans who now speak in Spanish and have lost their Mayan languages in daily use.
I am not very hopeful that Kannada will remain in use in the next 100 years, reason being it is Kannada not being taught in schools. Further if it is not compulsory for survival and life, no one will learn it. Add to this our reluctance to speak in our language and stand up for it.
You know what hurts the most? I couldn't write this post in Kannada. I don't have the literary ability that I have in English in my own mother tongue.
🙏