Sankethi language - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sankethi is distinct from Kannada

Kannada language

Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world...

and is now an independent language according to Dravidian

Dravidian languages

The Dravidian language family includes approximately 85 genetically related languages, spoken by about 217 million people. They are mainly spoken in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in northeastern Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, and...

linguists such as Hampa Nagarajaiah. Many still call it a dialect of Kannada in keeping with tradition. It is to be noted that Sankethi can hardly be understood by native Kannada speakers.

Sankethi very much resembles Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

and sometimes the words and pronunciation sound as if it is dialect of Tamil

Tamil language

and can very well understood by native Tamils. The striking difference being the ending sound words used to add respect in Tamil

Tamil language

will be missing in Sankethi the feature that is common in the usage Tamil

Tamil language

by native Malayalam

Malayalam language

Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...

speakers of Kerala. The language has certainly been influenced by and borrowed from Kannada and Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

, at the same time much of the language retains its original characteristics. It shares similarities with Malayalam as well, as it is believed to have originated from the region referred in modern days as Kerala-Tamil Nadu border and they must have spoken a similar tongue in the days gone. Sankethi has also retained the proto-Dravidian elements in some places.

Phonology

The language is highly developed and differentiated in terms of the number of sounds used. It uses all the sounds in Kannada or Sanskrit plus a few more. In particular, the inflection of the sound "a" can change the meaning significantly. "à" can be called the interrogative as it seems to be a development of "e" and gives the meaning of interrogation when placed initially while "a" gives an affirmative meaning.

e.g "àdu" will mean "which" while "adu" means "that" - note these are the Kaushika Sankethi ways of pronunciation which are significantly different to the Bettadpura Sankethi pronunciations of the same words - "àdi" for "which" and "adi" for "that". Likewise àttukku (Kaushika) or àttukki (Bettadapura)= why,to which? and attukku- because of that, to that; àvuñ= which man, avuñ= that man etc.

This sound can of course occur in other places and cause differences in meaning.
Another peculiar sound used is the anunAsika/nasal intonation as in avuñ. This is like the sound in Spanish. The presence or absence of this sound at the end of some words can be crucial in differentiating whether it refers to the masculine gender or a feminine/plural.

e.g colnAñ= he said, colnA= she said, they said.

Another unigue feature is the occurrence of the full sound "u" and the half rounded "ù". In Tamil "ù" occurs as a rule at the end of words. There are only a few exceptions. But in Sankethi the 2 sounds are distinct and can cause a change in meaning.

e.g ALu= depth, ALù= to rule, man.

There is also the rare occurrence of a flattend "Ā" as in the English word "bank".

e.g pĀru-grandson.

There is also a clear distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants unlike in Tamil.

Grammar

Sankethi has a rich vocabulary. As the community is very close-knit, there also kinship terms aplenty in the Sankethi language. There is much emphasis laid on differentiation of numbers(singular and plural) which is not seen either in spoken Kannada or Tamil. There is also a clear dfferentiation of the tenses and person(1st, 2nd or 3rd). There are 3 genders(masculine, feminine and neuter) and a clear differentiation between the inclusive nad non-inclusive pronoun- nAnga,engaDE vs nAmba/nAma, nammaDE/nambaDE.The case markers are also significantly different from Tamil. One feature, not seen in either Kannada or Tamil is the usage of neuter gender, when the subject is someone young, a child or someone closely related (like a sibling). Nearly all words are vowel-ending and there is a musical quality to the speech. Also most words ending in "a" in kannada including the proper names end in "u" in SankEti. As a rule, words that end in "e" in kannada and "ai" in Tamil end in "a" in Sankethi. This is similar to Malayalam and Telugu

Telugu language

Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

.

Negation is indicated by suffixing the appropriate ending. They usually contain "al", "il" or "Ade" and rarely "Ame" and "A"
nAñ paNNinEñ- I did, nAñ paNNitillEñ- I did not do
paNNallEñ- I will not do
paNNAde (rarely paNNAme)- without doing

1st person- Eñ, paNNinEñ- I did, paNNitillEñ- I didn't do
2nd person- a, A- paNNinA- you did, paNNitilla- You didn't do
3rd person- paNNinAñ-he did, paNNinA-she/they did, paNNitilAņ- he didn't do, paNNitillA- she/theydidn't do.

Number

adu- that, avhiyA- those, avhA- they
adu paNNitu- it did, avhiyA paNNitina- those did, avhA paNNinA- they did
adu paNNitilla- it did not do, avhiyA paNNitillina- those did not do, avhA paNnaitillA- they did not do
adu paNNalla- it will not do, avhiyA paNNallina- those wont do,avhA paNNallA- they will not do

As for tense

past- paNNinEñ- I did
Past continuous- paNNANindEñ- I was doing
present continuous- paNNANñ rANi/rANEñ- I am doing
future- paNNaNi/ paNNaNEñ- I will do
future continuous- paNNAN iraNi/iraNEñ- I will be doing

Vibhakti or case endings( illustrated with avuñ and rAmu)[ Tamil usage is indicated within square brackets for comparison]{kannada usage given within flower brackets}

1st case- no ending, the prakRti itself will act in the 1st case- avuñ, rAmu [same] {same}
2nd case- a- avana. rAmana [ai-avanai, rAmanai], {an, annu, a-avanan, avanannu, avana, rAmanannu}
3rd case- aNNu- avanaNNu, rAmanaNNu [Al-avanAl, rAmanAl], {in, inda-avanin, avaninda, rAmaninda}
4th case- kù- avanukkù, rAmanukkù [ku-avanukku,rAmanukku], {ge-avanige, rAmanige}
5th case- àNNu,- avańaNNu, rAmańaNNu [in- avanin, rAmanin, avanaiviDa], {in,iginta-avanin, avanigin, avaniginta, rAmaniginta}
6th case- dE,ndE,DE,tE- avandE, rAmandE [adu- avandu, rAmanadu also avanuDaiya]{a, A-avana,avanA, rAmana}
7th case- uL, paDe, al, [kaN, il, uL, mEl] {oL, alli, ali, oLu}
8th(sambOdhana)- by elongating the final vowel or prefixing with DE, dO, aDa, Eyi, Oyi etc.

Dialects

The four subgroups speak distinct dialects which are mutually easily understood. Of the 4 dialects, The Kaushika dialect stands furthest from Tamil.The language has no script of its own. Efforts are on to develop/improvise one. There are some traditional songs in Sankethi. Many have tried their hand at writing prose, poetry and songs in Sankethi.

Phonology

Grammar

Number

As for tense

Dialects

See also