Kannada Lesson 3
Introduction to nouns
In Kannada, nouns (ಹೆಸರುಪದ/ನಾಮಪದ - hesarupada/nāmapada) are declined into one of seven cases:
nominative - ಕರ್ತವಿಭಕ್ತಿ/ಪ್ರಥಮ ವಿಭಕ್ತಿ - kartāvibhakti/prathama vibhakti - 1st
accusative - ಕರ್ಮಬಿಭಕ್ತಿ/ದ್ವಿತಿಯ ವಿಭಕ್ತಿ - karmavibhakti/dvitiyavibhakti - 2nd
instrumental-ablative - ಕರಣವಿಭಕ್ತಿ/ತೃತಿಯ ವಿಭಕ್ತಿ - karaṇavibhakti/tṛtīya vibhakti - 3rd
dative case - ಸಂಪ್ರದಾನವಿಭಕ್ತಿ/ಚತುರ್ಥಿ ವಿಭಕ್ತಿ - saṃpradānavibhakti/caturthi vibhakti - 4th
genitive case - ಸಂಭಂದವಿಭಕ್ತಿ/ಪಂಚಮಿ ವಿಭಕ್ತಿ - saṃbhandavibhakti/pancami vibhakti - 5th
locative case - ಅಧಿಕಾರಣವಿಭಕ್ತಿ/ಸಷ್ಠಿವಿ ಭಕ್ತಿ - adhikaraṇavibhakti/ṣaṣṭhi vibhakti - 6th
vocative case - ಸಂಬೊಧನಾವಿಭಕ್ತಿ/ಸಪ್ತಮಿವಿ ಭಕ್ತಿ - saṃbodhanāvibhakti/saptami vibhakti - 7th
Each case will be explained individually as they come. A side note: Here, one can observe the tendency of Kannada to use simpler words not only in pronunciation but also in meaning; for most people, it is more pragmatic to label the cases by number and remember their function, rather than use the traditional name from Sanskrit, which requires some amount of extrapolation to interpret the meaning. Something to remember for case declension is something called declensional sandhi, which refers to the sound or spelling changes that occur in a word as a result of declension. In Kannada, there are four declensional classes, and each case has different endings for different nouns. Fortunately, there are relatively simple ways to figure out whether a noun is of a certain class. (Note: when a complete vowel character is being given by itself in instructions, it refers to the sound, not the letter itself. For example, if an instruction says to drop the final ಉ, it means to drop the final u sound from the stem. So dropping the ಉ from ಬರು would make it ಬರ್.)
First class nouns include all masculine and feminine that end in ಅ (a). These nouns drop the final ಅ before adding markers and declensional endings.
Second class nouns include all neuter nouns that end in ಅ. These nouns drop the final ಅ before adding markers and declensional endings.
Third class nouns include all nouns that end in ಇ (i), ಈ (ī), ಎ (e), ಏ (ē), or ಐ (ai). These nouns add a final ಯ್ (y) (known as a ಯತ್ವ - yatva) before adding markers and declensional endings. Merge the letter with the ending.
Fourth class nouns (by far the most common) include all nouns that end in ಉ (u), ಊ (ū), ಋ (ṛ), ೠ (ṝ), ಓ (ō), or ಔ (au). These nouns add a final ವ್ (v) (known as a ವತ್ವ - vatva) before adding markers and declensional endings. Merge the letter with the ending.
Most nouns in native Kannada end in ಉ, and many nouns that have had that ಉ normalized for euphony require the final ವ್ to be added. If the form in the dictionary or vocabulary list has ಉ at the end, then it has been normalized.
The most basic case to learn is the nominative case, which simply specifies that a noun is the subject of a phrase, and has no prepositional, object, or adverbial functions. Every noun listed in a dictionary is given in its base form which, unlike other languages with case systems, is not its nominative form. That said, colloquial Kannada tends to ignore the nominative cases in a lot of cases. See the table below for the endings for the nominative case (ಪ್ರಥಮ ವಿಭಕ್ತಿ - prathama vibhakti - first case):
Something to remember: Just because a word is someone’s name does not mean it is automatically 1st Class declension, even though many are. The declensional class of noun does not indicate anything about its qualities (such as a woman’s name being worth less if it ends in ಇ and as a result is 3rd Class declension).
For today’s practice: Identify what class of noun each of these nouns belongs to, and then decline it in the nominative case. ನವಿಲು - navilu - peacock ಪುಸ್ತಕ - pustaka - book ನೀರು - nīru - water ರಾಮ - Rāma - a boy’s name/the name of the hero of the Ramayana ಅನ್ನ - anna - cooked rice ನಂದಿನಿ - Nandini - a girl’s name ಸಮಯ - samaya - time ಹಿರಿಯ - hiriya - elderly person ಮರ - mara - tree ಬಾಚಣಿಗೆ - bacaṇige - comb ಮಾವಿನಕಾಯಿ - māvinakāyi - mango Don’t hesitate to shoot us an ask if you have a question! See you all at the next lesson!
