Introduction:

The Kannada language is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in the southwestern region of India. The language is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, and Goa; and also by Kannadigas abroad. The language had roughly 43 million native speakers by 2011. Kannada is also spoken as a second and third language by over 12.9 million non-native speakers in Karnataka, which adds up to 56.9 million speakers. It is one of the scheduled languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka. Kannada was the court language of some of the most powerful empires of South and Central India, such as the Chalukya dynasty, the Rashtrakuta dynasty, the Vijayanagara Empire, and the Hoysala Empire.

The Kannada language is written using the Kannada script, which evolved from the 5th-century Kadamba script. Kannada is attested epigraphically for about one and a half millennia and literary Old Kannada flourished in the 6th-century Ganga dynasty and during the 9th-century Rashtrakuta Dynasty. Kannada has an unbroken literary history of over a thousand years. Kannada literature has been presented with 8 Jnanpith awards, the most for any Dravidian language and the second-highest for any Indian language.

Learning Kannada is a good choice if you are interested in learning a new language or you have some other reason like you decide to move Karnataka. You decide to live long in Karnataka, it’s always good to learn a local language. Learning at least a few rudimentary basics can take you a long way and help you connect with the local culture.

So in this blog, we will discuss some of the easiest ways to learn Kannada.

If you want to learn Kannada in the easiest way here are three methods which you have to follow:

• Mastering pronunciation 

• Having Basic Conversations
• Immersing Yourself in the Language

Now we will discuss all the methods one by one in detail:

• Mastering pronunciation 

Become familiar with the Kannada alphabet. If you start with the alphabet, you will know how words are pronounced and be able to sound out unfamiliar words, even if you aren’t sure what they mean. This can be a big help as you’re trying to learn the language, especially if you want to ask a native speaker what a word means.

The online learning app Multibhashi has an online language learning course that you can join to get the proper knowledge about the language from basics to advanced. Go check the link to join the sessions.

• Start with consonants that are pronounced the same as they are in English. 

Most of the consonant sounds in Kannada are pronounced roughly the same way as their counterparts in English, although the script is tremendously different. However, if you’re just working on speaking the language, you can start with a transliterated version of words and phrases that uses an alphabet similar to the English alphabet.

1. The “c” in Kannada, చ, is only pronounced like the hard English “c” in the word “cat.” There is no soft version of this letter as there is in English.

• Practice double consonants.

 In addition to the individual consonants, Kannada has 6 double consonants. For the most part, these aren’t pronounced the way you’d expect the same combination of letters to be pronounced in English. However, there are near-equivalents that you can use to practice.

1. The “kh” sound, ఖ, sounds similar to the “ch” in the Scottish word “loch” or the “ch” sound in German.
2. The “gh” sound, ఘ, sounds similar to the “gh” in the name of the country “Ghana.”

• Work on pronouncing the correct vowel sounds. 

There are 16 vowels in Kannada. With the exception of two blended vowels, each of these vowels has a short and long version. For the longer version, you simply hold the sound out longer than you would to pronounce the short version.

1. The “a” sound, ಅ, sounds like the “a” in the English word “father.”

• Having Basic Conversations

Greet people by saying “Namaskara.” “Namaskara” is the basic Kannada version of the English “hello,” and is suitable to greet people in any setting. You can also use “namaste” (nah-mah-stay), a greeting that is universally understood throughout India.

Vary your greeting depending on the time of day. As in other languages, when speaking Kannada, you aren’t limited to “hello.” If you want to vary your greeting, use a greeting that emphasizes whether it is morning, afternoon, or evening using the following phrases:

    Shubhodaya (good morning)

    Shubha madhyahna (good afternoon)

    Shubha saayankaala (good evening)

Introduce yourself by saying “Nanna hesaru” followed by your name. 

Before you start a conversation with somebody, it’s a good idea to tell them who you are. “Nanna hesaru” means “my name is” in Kannada.

• You can follow with “nimma hesaru yenu,” which means “what is your name?”
• After the person tells you their name, you might say “nimannu beti madi santoshavatithu,” which means “pleased to meet you” or “happy to meet you.”

Pick up basic question words. 

Even if you don’t understand everything someone is asking you in Kannada, you may be able to get a general idea if you recognize the basic question words. Then you’ll at least understand what type of question they’re asking, and you might be able to infer the rest from context. The basic question words in Kannada are:

Yaaru (who)

Yaake (why)

Yaavaga (when)

Elli (where)

Enu (which)

Hege (how)

• Immersing Yourself in the Language

Watch Kannada movies with subtitles. 

With Kannadiga films, you have an opportunity to hear people having natural dialogue in the language. Turning on English subtitles will help you understand what’s going on and what the characters are saying. If you want to learn the script, you can turn on subtitles in the Kannada script so you can hear the words being spoken.

Check out the news in Kannada. 

If you live in Bangalore, you can find news programs on tv and the internet in Kannada. Not only can these programs help you learn the language, but they can also help you stay informed about events happening in your city.

Listen to Kannada radio stations. 

In and around Bangalore, you should be able to pick up radio stations broadcasting in Kannada and playing Kannadiga music. The repetition of music lyrics is a good way to learn a language.

Listening to Kannadiga music also gives you some insight into the values and culture of the native people of the area.