Kannada grammar () describes the structure of the Kannada language, which has a native tradition of grammar dating back to Kēśirāja's treatise, the Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa ("The Jewel Mirror of Language") c. 1260 CE). The Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa continues to be cited by modern writers of literary Kannada.Studies in Indian History, Epigraphy, and Culture – By Govind Swamirao Gai, pp. 315A Grammar of the Kannada Language F.Kittel (1993), pp. 3 Kannada prior to the 13th century is generally known as ಹಳೆಗನ್ನಡ (haḷegannaḍa), "Old Kannada", in modern scholarship, while the medieval language before the 18th century CE is known as ನಡುಗನ್ನಡ (naḍugannaḍa),"Middle Kannada" or ಮಧ್ಯಕಾಲೀನ ಕನ್ನಡ (madhyakālīna kannaḍa) "Medieval Kannada". In the premodern tradition, Kēśirāja's work remained the literary standard for the Kannada language for centuries until the colonial era when Modern Kannada (ಹೊಸಗನ್ನಡ hosagannaḍa) became systematized for the first time.
The first treatise on Kannada grammar in English was written in 1864 by Rev. Thomas Hodson, a Wesleyan missionary, as An Elementary Grammar of the Kannada, or Canarese Language. Rev. Ferdinand Kittel's A Grammar of the Kannada Language in English remains an authority on the history of the Kannada language, documenting and comparing the ancient, middle and modern stages of Kannada. Modern authorities of Kannada include T.V. Venkatachalashastry, who has written a commentary on the Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa, called the Darpaṇavivaraṇa, and T.N. Srikantaiah, a Kannada educator and scholar who wrote An Intermediate Grammar of Kannada. While many dialects with variant usages exist, the modern form of literary Kannada derived from the grammatical tradition is described here.
Nouns
Gender, number, and animacy Modern Kannada nouns are distinguished as human and non-human. This is a feature known as animacy or rationality in Tamil, and is found across other Dravidian languages.Ferdinand Kittel, pp. 39 Animate nouns can be marked with the masculine or feminine gender, though only certain, native Kannada roots and pronouns require an explicit gender marker. Human beings, deities, and personified animals are treated as animate, while all other nouns are considered inanimate and grammatically neuter (including animals that have biological sex and mass nouns including people). Infants and young children are also typically referred to in the neuter before they can express themselves.
While there are several derivational suffixes that can mark gender, such as -iga/-iti (m./f.), the most common suffixes are the gender-number markers -n, -ḷ, -(a)r, and -gaḷ. The suffixes -n and -ḷ mark the masculine and feminine singular, though this depends on the root. For nouns of Sanskrit origin, the -ḷ ending can be used to derive a feminine noun, but this is often considered archaic in modern Kannada, especially for nouns that are already semantically feminine (ex. strī "woman"). Native Kannada nouns too will opt to use the -n as an epicene (not marking gender) singular, even though verbs and other elements of a sentence may convey a semantically feminine subject.
The suffixes -(a)r and -gaḷ are both epicene but are partially distinguished by animacy. Only human nouns can take -(a)r, but -gaḷ can be taken by all nouns. Nouns ending in -a tend to take the -(a)r plural, while all others take -gaḷ. Both endings can also be used to convey an honorific plural, where the marked noun may be singular, but is treated as grammatically plural to convey respect. A doubled plural combining -(a)r and -gaḷ is not uncommon for titles and nouns referring to respected persons (ex. rājarugaḷu). Furthermore, some nouns can appear with either plural: strīyaru and strīgaḷu both occur. (The a in -(a)r is added in the case of noun roots that don't already end in -(a).)
There is also the kinship plural -andir, which is used exclusively with nouns of Kannada origin that mark family relations (one exception is bhāvandiru "brothers-in-law".) Adjectives marked in the plural can also take the neuter plural ending -(a)vu when qualifying a head noun that is plural or when marking an otherwise unspecified plural subject (ex. "the big ones"). Mass nouns and other phrases which denote plurals semantically are often treated as grammatically singular, a principle known as jātyēkavacana (the "categorical singular").
Noun declension Kannada has six morphologically distinct cases: nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, genitive, and locative. Traditional grammarians have listed the ablative as a separate case function, having modeled Kannada grammar on the Sanskrit tradition, though the instrumental encompasses this meaning. Ashwathanarayana et al recommend the use of the postposition dese ("origin", "cause") in the instrumental to distinguish the ablative in Kannada, but add that it is not a case ending. Sreekantaiya points out that the ablative is not regularly used in this way either. The vocative is also sometimes considered an eighth case, but is usually treated as an application of the -e/ē of emphasis (avadhāraṇa) to the nominative case. The vocative can be expressed by lengthening the final vowel of a noun as well, or in the plural, with the specifically vocative endings -a/ā and -ir/irā, which are usually appended to the nominative.
Declensional classes and augments Kannada has six declensional classes, some of which are historically described in the Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa and the grammatical tradition. They are broadly defined by the augments (āgama ) taken to form the oblique, which are stem forms that receive case endings (pratyaya). There are five augments: "zero" (marked Ø), d, in, aṇ, and ar. The "zero" class is called as such because traditional grammars describe the roots' declensions as resulting from sandhi, and thus don't require an augment. Some Old Kannada roots referring to persons had obligatory gender-number markers, which are not usually indicated in the modern language outside of written contexts. The "zero" class assumes the presence of -n, -ḷ, -(a)r, -gaḷ, or -andir in the root to be declined.
The declensional classes derive from their Old Kannada syllable structure, which has changed over time. Many words in Modern Kannada, through its medieval stage, underwent epenthesis by inserting i and u at the ends of certain consonant-final syllables. In Old Kannada, sonorant consonants were permitted at the ends of word roots, and along with short and long root vowels, defined the declensional classes. These sonorants have -u appended at the end in the modern language. The following table explains these classes and their obliques, summarizing B. Ramachandra Rao's description. The augments have been bolded below, and implied augments in the "zero" class have been put in parentheses. SubtypeCharacteristicsOblique augmentExampleClass I1aRoots that take gender-number markers, including third person pronoun roots ava- and āta-Øtamma(n) ("younger brother") ava(ḷ) ("she") arasa(r) ("king(s)")
bandhu(gaḷ) ("relatives")1bRoots with sonorant finals -ṇ, -n, y, l, and ḷ; these double following a short vowelkāl ("leg") kaṇṇ ("eye")1cInanimate nouns with disyllabic roots with final -i and -egiḷi(y) ("parrot") tale(y) ("head")Class IIRoots ending in -u or -ū -inkāḍu ("forest") -> kāḍin hū ("flower") -> hūvinClass IIISanskrit nouns and inanimate, native Kannada nouns with final -a -v/dmēgha(v)/mēghad ("cloud") mara(v)/marad ("tree")Class IVNative Kannada nouns indicating directions and location -aṇkeḷage ("down/below") -> kelagaṇ mūḍu ("east") -> mūḍaṇClass VRoots denoting number; the oblique of the interrogative ēnu forms in this class -arondu -> ondar ēnu -> ētarClass VIPronominal roots in the first and second personshort and long roots in different casesnān ("I") ~ nan(n) nāv ("we") ~ nam(m) In Modern Kannada, some of these classes are obsolete, particularly in everyday speech. Class Ib and IV tend to be declined as members of Class II, though erudite speakers may continue to use the older augments to emulate the classical language (particularly in writing). Kittel notes that in some places, the genitive form of Class IV nouns (i.e. the stem + -aṇa) has fossilized as a noun unto itself, which is then declined in Class III due to the -a final. The currency of Class V varies from place to place, also sometimes merged in Class II. Nouns of Class 1a tend to be given in dictionaries without their gender-number marker, requiring the speaker to know which marker to apply.
Case Endings and Sandhi Case endings in Kannada are appended to the oblique stem described above. Different classes' oblique stem are used for different cases. The oblique is obligatory in all cases for Class I nouns, whereas the other classes only require the oblique in the instrumental-ablative, dative, genitive, and locative.
Each ending comes in an abstract form that may undergo sandhi in contact with the oblique stem. The dative case mark -i(ge) sometimes undergoes sandhi due to the contact of -ge with the stem (becoming -kke), and elsewhere does not due to the interceding -i. Similar to the implied sandhi of Class I, Class III nouns take -v before case endings, which is not considered an augment, but a natural product of sandhi between the final a and vowel-initial case endings. Notice also that oblique of any class with a short root vowel and final sonorant doubles its final consonant before a vowel-initial case ending. This made a rule from Old Kannada (where the final sonorants of short vowels double before vowel-initial endings) a permanent change in Modern Kannada. It is for this reason that such nouns are often declined as Class II nouns in the modern language, as the root form is no longer visible.
The various declensions are described below, with the case ending bolded, and hyphenated where sandhi occurs. Class CaseEnding Ia IbIcII III IVVVI nominative -u tammanu kaṇṇ-ugiḷiy-akāḍ-umarav-umūḍ-uond-unānu accusative -annu/anna tammanannu kaṇṇ-annugiḷiy-akāḍ-annumarav-annumūḍ-annuond-annunann-annu instrumental-ablative -inda tammaninda kaṇṇ-indagiḷiy-indakāḍinindamarad-indamūḍaṇindaondar-indanann-inda dative -(i)ge tammanige kaṇṇ-igegiḷigekāḍ-igemara-kkemūḍaṇigeondarige/ ond-akkenanage* genitive -a tammana kaṇṇ-agiḷiy-akāḍinamaradamūḍaṇaondaranann-a locative -alli tammanalli kaṇṇ-alligiḷiy-allikāḍinallimaradallimūḍaṇalliondarallinann-alli vocative -ē tammanē kaṇṇ-ēgiḷiy-ēkāḍēmara-vēmūḍēond-ēnān-ē *Exceptional case where sandhi does not double the final sonorant and changes the -i to -a. This occurs in all nouns of this class (ex. nīnu -> ninage, nāvu -> namage). Note in the case of nāvu ("we") and nīvu ("you" pl.), the final v becomes m in its short oblique, a remnant of Old Kannada, where m and v often alternate.
Case variation and compound cases In addition to the cases listed above, Kannada exhibits what grammarians call "case variation" (vibhakti-pallaṭa). Recognized as early as Kēśirāja, this phenomenon refers to the use of one case for the meaning of another. This was much more common in Middle Kannada, especially in vernacular poetry. For example, the accusative may be used in the sense of the locative (particularly as a destination), and the locative in the sense of the instrumental. This tends to vary dialectically and it is difficult to establish strict patterns for its occurrence.
Relatedly, Kannada also has a number of postpositions that compound or extend the basic case forms, such as kaiyalli (lit. "in the hand", idiomatically "by means of"), the dative followed by ōskara, expressing "for the sake of", or the dative with -inta ("in this way", "therefrom") forming the comparative. These also tend to vary dialectically, and are not typically acknowledged in the grammatical tradition.
Pronouns