Kannada is one of the many
Dravidian languages of India, and spoken primarily in the state of
Karnataka. There are at least four major
regional
dialects:
These are the names of the major cities or towns in which the dialects are spoken, which is why there are multiple names for each. There are also a number of smaller dialects, such as Havikr Kannada. Furthermore, the upper castes tend to speak the language slightly differently, making the odds of one Kannadiga understanding another perfectly slightly lower than 50-50.
Kannada is most closely related, both in script and in vocabulary, to Malayalam, another Dravidian language. The Kannada script is also used to write another, related language, Tulu, as the script for that language has been lost and is only slowly being recovered.
How to count to ten in Kannada:
- ondhu
- eradu
- mooru
- naal'ku
- aydhu
- aaru
- eyLu
- eNtu
- ombaTHu
- haTHu
I apologise for the shitty transliteration, but it's the best I could do.