Sankethi dialect
| Sankethi | |
|---|---|
| Basically Thrissur | |
| Native to | Karnataka |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | sank1249 |
Sankethi is a dialect of Kannada[Sanskrit] and [Tamil] spoken in Karnataka, India by the Sankethi people, who immigrated from Tamil Nadu in the 15th century. Its vocabulary is primarily Sanskritised Brahmin Tamil, as the Sankethi people are Smartha Brahmins who are originally from Puddukotai and Tanjore, with influences from Kannada.
The language is highly developed and differentiated in terms of the number of sounds used. It uses sounds in Tamil and Malayalam too. In particular, the inflection of the sound a can change the meaning significantly. à can be called the interrogative as it seems to be a development of e and gives the meaning of interrogation when placed initially while a gives an affirmative meaning.
This sound can of course occur in other places and cause differences in meaning. Another peculiar sound used is the anunAsika/nasal intonation as in avuñ. This is like the sound in Spanish. The presence or absence of this sound at the end of some words can be crucial in differentiating whether it refers to the masculine gender or a feminine/plural.
Another unique feature is the occurrence of the full sound u and the half rounded ù. In Tamil ù occurs as a rule at the end of words. There are only a few exceptions. However, in Sankethi the two sounds are distinct and can cause a change in meaning.
There is also the rare occurrence of a flattened Ā as in the English word bank.
Sankethi has a rich vocabulary. As the community is very close-knit, there are also plenty of kinship terms in the Sankethi language. There is much emphasis laid on the differentiation of numbers (singular and plural) which is not seen either in spoken Kannada or Malayalam. There is also a clear differentiation of the tenses and person (1st, 2nd or 3rd). There are 3 genders, masculine, feminine and neuter; and a clear differentiation between the inclusive and non-inclusive pronoun – nAnga, engaDE versus nAmba/nAma, nammaDE/nambaDE. The case markers are also significantly different from Tamil. One feature, not seen in either Kannada or Tamil is the use of the neuter gender, when the subject is someone young, a child or someone closely related (like a sibling). Nearly all words are vowel-ending and there is a musical quality to the speech. Also most words ending in a in Kannada including the proper names end in u in SankEti. As a rule, words that end in e in Kannada and ai in Tamil end in a in Sankethi. This is similar to Malayalam and Telugu.
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