BENGALURU: I came to know about Esperanto when I was a little girl. It drew my interest because it was an entirely new language constructed by a Polish medico in 1880s. Much later, thanks to fantasy lit and sci-fi movies, I came across many such artificial languages such as the ones devised by JRR Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek’s Klingon, Avatar’s Na’vi and Dothraki from Game of Thrones. As a student of linguistics, I have always found changes in a particular language over time fascinating.
When I started blogging in Kannada back in 2006, I came across a set of people who preferred to write Kannada in a different way. Declaring themselves to be the followers of eminent Kannada linguist Dr D N Shankara Bhat, they strongly advocated the usage of words that originated in Kannada. I read up on Dr Bhat and interestingly, he has a doctorate in Sanskrit and has worked in various reputed universities across the world.
Since several decades, he has been working on bridging the gap between spoken and written forms of Kannada language. His ‘Ellara Kannada’ concept proposes to drop aspirates or Mahapranas from the alphabet since they are not parts of spoken Kannada, while encouraging people to let go of Sanskrit-based words from their vocabulary. He has also suggested many Kannada words that are indigenous, easier to understand and pronounce.
While many embraced these ideas, Dr Bhat also faced brickbats from those who were not ready for change. Trolling was endless. Meanwhile, the octogenarian linguist quietly continues his work from his quaint village home in Shivamogga district. His followers slowly continue to grow in numbers. They have been educating the public on usage of Kannada words through publications, social media posts and interactions.
A few weeks ago, there was a new buzz on Facebook over this Ellara Kannada. A few influencers started strongly advocating it, contending that we have to make it happen by letting go of aspirates from Kannada alphabets. They also brought in the argument that the present alphabet was a casteist construct to suit the privileged lot, which students from rural belts of Karnataka found extremely difficult to imbibe.
While partially agreeing with what they were saying, I did feel a little uneasy about the practical applications of this concept. I asked them, what about those who have aspirates in their names? Do they legally change them? Word association is another problematic area. If you have been tuned to pronounce a particular word while associating a certain image with it, it will be very hard to let go of it. Moreover, Kannada pop culture these days heavily borrows from and relies on English.
All I can say is that this is a very interesting development for Kannada. Those who want this change to happen will also have to work on bringing these Kannada words into daily use first before lobbying for it. It may not happen overnight and will require years of hard work. Let us see if Ellara Kannada is here to stay.