Standardization and Modernization: Two conflicting trends In Kannada

This paper intends to discuss the prevailing conflict between Standardization and Modernization in constructing Kannada lexicon. Nineteenth century lexicographers, who were Christian missionaries, prepared a lexicon for Kannada which drew material from written and oral sources. Native scholars in twentieth century while preparing a new lexicon for Kannada relied heavily on written sources and kept out lexical items found only in spoken variety. In fact these scholars were defining and constructing a Standard variety for Kannada. More than fifty percent of the vocabulary in this new lexicon consists of words either borrowed or derived from Sanskrit. Second half of the twentieth century brought in many changes in the usage of Kannada. Kannada speaking regions under different ruling agencies were united. This created a new space for the growth of Standard Kannada. Modernization opened up more domains for Kannada usage. There was a felt need for a variety of Modern Kannada so that it could be used in more number of domains. This process marginalized regional and social dialects to loose their identity. Modern Kannada gained currency. This variety uses more number of English words. These English words are borrowed and adopted to suit the needs of Kannada. This new register allows compounds with words belonging to different languages viz. English and Kannada, English and Sanskrit or English and Perso-Arabic. Traditional grammarians and promoters of Standard Kannada rule out such compounds terming them as ‘ari samasa’ (enemy compounds) This duality of using Sanskrit vocabulary for Standard Kannada and English vocabulary for Modern Kannada is the case in point. These two verities initially operated in specific domains; Standard Kannada in formal written discourses and Modern Kannada in formal spoken discourses. Recent trends show that domain restriction or specification of this sort is no more rigid. Modern Kannada has made inroads in to formal written discourses. Technological innovations and growth of communication media have created new space for Modern Kannada.

 

Irony is that both Standard Kannada and Modern Kannada have no place for vocabulary from various regional and social dialects. That part of Kannada lexicon is being eased out of currency. Creative writers who are anxious to retain the identity of Kannada try to reclaim these dialects in their writings. But this in turn has created a situation where these dialects have become instruments for creating social stereotypes.