Hello,
Welcome to this blog about the polyglots / multilinguals of Karnataka. As you all are aware of the fact that India is the homeland of over 800 languages and even today one can find on the currency notes, the scripts of 15 languages depicting the denomination value of that currency note. And as per 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution, 22 languages are listed as official languages.
Also Sanskrit, which is called as "the language of the gods" by Indians, is said to be the mother of all languages.
Due to the advent of the Europeans during colonial times and globalization of today's India, this very nation has seen European languages finding the place in the giant family of the languages of India.
Having such a robust history and diversity of languages, it is a natural tendency of Indians to be multilinguals / polyglots.
And to start with, we will see in detail the aspects of polyglotism of the people of Karnataka, which is a
South Indian state having 30 districts. Karnataka shares its borders with Maharastra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Karnataka is the homeland of around 62 million inhabitants with over 80% of native Kannada speakers. Kannada is the official language of administration of the state. This very state has a unique feature of preserving and fostering the other languages like Tulu, Konkani, Kodava, etc,.
Hindi and English are learnt by every child in the curriculum and is widely used for official purposes. So an average educated person of Karnataka can converse in at least three languages i.e Kannada, Hindi and English making more than 75% of the people at least trilinguals!
The Tulu language is spoken in the region comprising of Mangalore, Udupi, Puttur, Karkala, Beltangadi, Kasargod of Kerala etc,. The people of these regions are at least bilinguals with good command over Tulu and Kannada. Even if the person is minimum educated, then Hindi and English also add up to the list of the languages. So in this part of the state one can find that almost 75% of the people converse in at least four languages. Moreover, people of Kasargod can converse in one more language i.e. Malayalam, making them fluent in five languages without any extra effort and it is possible just because of its unique location.
Coorg has its own language "Kodava". Though people study Kannada language in their curriculum, Kodava is the default language of this region. And similar to the Tulunadu region, Coorgis can speak Kodava, Kannada, Hindi, English and most of them can understand Tulu also.
Karwar, also called as Uttara Kannada, is the land of Konkani language. Konkani is the de facto language of this district despite the fact that Kannada is the official language of administration. Owing to the fact that Konkani and Marathi are close to each other, the people of this region can understand Marathi as well, making them fluent in Konkani, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and English.
Here comes the districts bordering with Maharastra i.e. Belagavi formerly Belgaum, Vijayapura formerly Bijapur, Kalburgi formerly Gulbarga and Bidar. Belagavi has more number of Marathi speakers and almost everybody use both Kannada and Marathi in their day to day activities. People of these regions are fluent in Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and English. The Bidar is situated in a unique position which makes it a neighbor of Telangana state also, adding up Telugu to the list of the languages spoken by the inhabitants, although Kannada is the official language of these districts.
Telugu speaking states border with Karnataka right from Bidar, Raichur, Bellary, Chitradurga, Tumkur till Kolar. We have Telangana from Bidar to Bellary and Andhra Pradesh towards further south till Kolar. The bordering taluks of these districts have the people fluent in both Kannada and Telugu. And due to this large border, Telugu is the most spoken second language by Kannadigas than any other language after Hindi and English. Making the people of this region well versed in Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English.
Then comes the area of the state capital, Bengaluru, which is a kind of Metropolitan city having the gigantic diaspora from different states of India. Though Tamil is the most spoken second language of Bengaluru after Hindi and English, there are many Teluguites, Malayalis, Marathis, Bengalis, Punjabis, Odiyas and Marwaris. Bengaluru also has different European language institutes for French, German & Spanish languages and East-Asian Languages like Chinese and Japanese.
It is because of the friendly nature of the Kannadigas and beautiful weather of Bengaluru, people of other states have found their abode in this beautiful city. Owing to all of the above facts and unique quality of kannadigas to pick up a language easily, Bengaluru has many polyglots / multilinguals who can speak Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, English and many other European languages like French, German, Spanish and Oriental languages like Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. Many foreign languages are fostered because of the rapid progress in IT sector and other Engineering & Technological Enterprises.
Despite the fact that Kannadigas learn other languages, they have never imposed Kannada language on the visitors, as it is very nature of Kannadigas to mingle with others and be one among them.
To conclude, an average person in Karnataka can converse in at least three languages. And the place from which a person comes further decides how many more languages a person can speak, making Karnataka truly a state of Polyglots / multilinguals.
Welcome to this blog about the polyglots / multilinguals of Karnataka. As you all are aware of the fact that India is the homeland of over 800 languages and even today one can find on the currency notes, the scripts of 15 languages depicting the denomination value of that currency note. And as per 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution, 22 languages are listed as official languages.
Also Sanskrit, which is called as "the language of the gods" by Indians, is said to be the mother of all languages.
Due to the advent of the Europeans during colonial times and globalization of today's India, this very nation has seen European languages finding the place in the giant family of the languages of India.
Having such a robust history and diversity of languages, it is a natural tendency of Indians to be multilinguals / polyglots.
And to start with, we will see in detail the aspects of polyglotism of the people of Karnataka, which is a
South Indian state having 30 districts. Karnataka shares its borders with Maharastra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Karnataka is the homeland of around 62 million inhabitants with over 80% of native Kannada speakers. Kannada is the official language of administration of the state. This very state has a unique feature of preserving and fostering the other languages like Tulu, Konkani, Kodava, etc,.
Hindi and English are learnt by every child in the curriculum and is widely used for official purposes. So an average educated person of Karnataka can converse in at least three languages i.e Kannada, Hindi and English making more than 75% of the people at least trilinguals!
The Tulu language is spoken in the region comprising of Mangalore, Udupi, Puttur, Karkala, Beltangadi, Kasargod of Kerala etc,. The people of these regions are at least bilinguals with good command over Tulu and Kannada. Even if the person is minimum educated, then Hindi and English also add up to the list of the languages. So in this part of the state one can find that almost 75% of the people converse in at least four languages. Moreover, people of Kasargod can converse in one more language i.e. Malayalam, making them fluent in five languages without any extra effort and it is possible just because of its unique location.
Coorg has its own language "Kodava". Though people study Kannada language in their curriculum, Kodava is the default language of this region. And similar to the Tulunadu region, Coorgis can speak Kodava, Kannada, Hindi, English and most of them can understand Tulu also.
Karwar, also called as Uttara Kannada, is the land of Konkani language. Konkani is the de facto language of this district despite the fact that Kannada is the official language of administration. Owing to the fact that Konkani and Marathi are close to each other, the people of this region can understand Marathi as well, making them fluent in Konkani, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and English.
Here comes the districts bordering with Maharastra i.e. Belagavi formerly Belgaum, Vijayapura formerly Bijapur, Kalburgi formerly Gulbarga and Bidar. Belagavi has more number of Marathi speakers and almost everybody use both Kannada and Marathi in their day to day activities. People of these regions are fluent in Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and English. The Bidar is situated in a unique position which makes it a neighbor of Telangana state also, adding up Telugu to the list of the languages spoken by the inhabitants, although Kannada is the official language of these districts.
Telugu speaking states border with Karnataka right from Bidar, Raichur, Bellary, Chitradurga, Tumkur till Kolar. We have Telangana from Bidar to Bellary and Andhra Pradesh towards further south till Kolar. The bordering taluks of these districts have the people fluent in both Kannada and Telugu. And due to this large border, Telugu is the most spoken second language by Kannadigas than any other language after Hindi and English. Making the people of this region well versed in Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English.
Then comes the area of the state capital, Bengaluru, which is a kind of Metropolitan city having the gigantic diaspora from different states of India. Though Tamil is the most spoken second language of Bengaluru after Hindi and English, there are many Teluguites, Malayalis, Marathis, Bengalis, Punjabis, Odiyas and Marwaris. Bengaluru also has different European language institutes for French, German & Spanish languages and East-Asian Languages like Chinese and Japanese.
It is because of the friendly nature of the Kannadigas and beautiful weather of Bengaluru, people of other states have found their abode in this beautiful city. Owing to all of the above facts and unique quality of kannadigas to pick up a language easily, Bengaluru has many polyglots / multilinguals who can speak Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, English and many other European languages like French, German, Spanish and Oriental languages like Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. Many foreign languages are fostered because of the rapid progress in IT sector and other Engineering & Technological Enterprises.
Despite the fact that Kannadigas learn other languages, they have never imposed Kannada language on the visitors, as it is very nature of Kannadigas to mingle with others and be one among them.
To conclude, an average person in Karnataka can converse in at least three languages. And the place from which a person comes further decides how many more languages a person can speak, making Karnataka truly a state of Polyglots / multilinguals.
