Daughter or sister — How are Kannada and Tamil related?

Deccan Herald

31-05-2025

Actor Kamal Haasan's remark that Kannada was born out of Tamil has sparked a furore in Karnataka, but he has said nothing new. Leaders of all political hues in Tamil Nadu propagate the sentiment, and it is part of the state anthem as well. .The actor's casual remark, made in Chennai at the audio release of his upcoming film, Thug Life, could also be seen in the context of the Dravidian movement spearheaded by Periyar in the early part of the 20th century. As an ideologue, Periyar (1879-1973) espoused the cause of the south and opposed Hindi dominance. He held that all south Indian languages were born from Old Tamil. In current-day politics, Kamal Haasan is seeking to enter the Rajya Sabha with support from the DMK, a party founded on Periyarist ideology..What Periyar calls Old Tamil is the very same language that linguists call Proto-Dravidian, assumed to have been the source of Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tulu, Kodava, Badaga and less widely spoken languages such as Chenchu..Kamal Hassan's position on the supremacy of Tamil is contentious. For Kannadigas, the dispute is not so much about whether Kannada and Tamil are related — there is no question that they are — but about how they are related. Linguists DH spoke to argue that the languages are sisters, and not mother and daughter..The fallout of Kamal Haasan's casual remark, and his subsequent refusal to retract his position and apologise, has triggered outrage in Karnataka. .Thug Life, directed by Mani Ratnam, comes 38 years after Nayakan, the gangster drama on which the two had collaborated and created box office history. .Meti Mallikarjun, linguist, professor and researcher at Kuvempu University, Shivamogga, says it is a common belief among Tamil people that Tamil is the mother of all Dravidian languages. 'There is no rationale behind it. It is like a folk belief,' he says. .Kamal Haasan would not have made the controversial statement had he acquired a deeper understanding of the history of the southern languages, he observes. 'The two languages are like branches of the same tree. The roots are what is known as Proto-Dravidian,' he says..The multiplicity of tongues in India derives predominantly from two language families — Proto-Dravidian and Proto-Indo-Aryan. 'We have 25 to 27 languages in the Dravidian family. Some studies suggest the number is 70, but we have no evidence to support it,' Meti says. .The languages branched out at different points in time — Brahui, Malto, Tulu, Gondi, Kodava, Tamil, Kannada and so on. Gradually, when mutual intelligibility among the languages faded, they became independent languages, he adds. .A well-known linguist based in Karnataka says Kannada and Tamil share a cognate relationship, and one is not a descendant of the other. .Predictably, politicians wade into language controversies to score points and push their agendas. The claim that Kannada descended from Sanskrit is advanced by some. 'These are popular ideas that do not have evidence to support them,' the linguist, who requested anonymity, says..Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada were part of the same Dravidian language group (known as the south Dravidian language group), he explains. 'Kannada was the first to branch out from it. Tamil and Malayalam were together for a long time. Some studies also suggest that Tulu and Kodava had already branched out much before Kannada,' he says..K Nallathambi, who writes fiction and poetry in Kannada and Tamil, says, 'The languages have many identical words but that does not mean one originated from the other. Korean has many words in common with Tamil, but that does not mean Korean originated from Tamil.'.The academics do not dispute the antiquity of Tamil. 'Sangam literature, which dates back to about 300 BCE, is evidence that Tamil is an old language. To add to it, one of the oldest grammar books, Tolkappiyam, was written by Tolkappiyar, a contemporary of Panini. It is a famous grammar book of south India,' Meti says..Prof Carlos, who was a Tamil professor in the Kannada department at Bangalore University — he taught Tamil through Kannada — says the belief that Tamil is older than other southern languages is deeply rooted in Tamil Nadu. 'In his poem chosen as the Tamil Nadu state anthem, Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai says all Dravidian languages originated from Tamil. The Tamils sing this song every day and go by it. He also praises the other languages. He refers to Telugu as a beautiful language, and Kannada as a happy language and so on. But he also says that they all came from the womb of the Tamil mother. This is what Kamal has also said,' he says..Tracing the history.The British missionary and linguist Robert Caldwell, who wrote A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages in the mid-19th century, debated the etymology of the name Tamil. 'He writes that 'Dramil' has now become Tamil. But there is a debate about it. Some people say Tamil has become Dramil in some Sanskrit texts,' says Meti. .Carlos calls attention to A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, originally published in 1961, compiled by M B Emeneau and T Burrow. 'In this book, about 12 Dravidian languages are enumerated with their roots. Words are listed in alphabetical order and compared with the other languages..For example, hogu ('go' in Kannada) is listed alongside po in Tamil and so on,' he explains. He describes it as a pioneering book that put forth the theory that all south Indian languages came from a Proto-Dravidian mother..While it is true that Kannada and Tamil share many similarities in grammar and lexis, it is equally true that, over the centuries, they have chosen their priorities differently. Formal Kannada borrows generously from Sanskrit, while formal Tamil mines its Dravidian lexis to create new terms. For example, for 'president', Kannada uses 'rashtrapati', a term adopted by many Indian languages with a Sanskrit influence, while Tamil has coined a more native 'kudiyarasu thalaivar' — head of the republic..Neither Kamal Haasan nor Mani Ratnam is a stranger to Kannada. The actor has starred in several hit Kannada films, including Rama Shama Bhama (2005), in which he speaks Kannada in the north Karnataka dialect. Mani Ratnam made his directorial debut with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi (1983). .The two languages enjoy much warmth, but sometimes, sibling rivalry kicks in.