A Grammar of Arebase

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Foreword The Central University of Karnataka established in 2009 by an Act of Parliament aims at addressing the concerns of equity and access.

The prime objectives of the University are to disseminate and advance knowledge by providing instructional and research facilities to the students and to pay special attention to the betterment of the social and economic conditions besides affecting the welfare of the people by making contributions towards the intellectual and academic growth.

In view of the aims and in pursuance of the direction by the Government of India the University started a Centre for Endangered Languages in November 2015.

The Centres main aim is the preservation and promotion of endangered languages through documentation and revitalisation for restoring the status of these languages used to enjoy in the past. The Centre also works to empower the Endangered Language communities too in possible ways by training the persons from among them for sustainable development.

Language is not only a tool for communication, but also a base for the intellectual outputs of knowledge, culture and civilization of mankind. Due to the impact of science and technology, and the process of globalization, many of the world languages are at the verge of extinction.

Preface This book is an outcome of the part of the project of documentation and analysis of Endangered Languages of Karnataka funded by UGC. Though it was an idea to bring a comprehensive grammar of Arebase, an attempt is made to bring a better work with almost all details, so that it will be helpful in the task of revitalisation process of the language.

The book comprises of three parts :

1) Introduction, providing the details of Ethnic, Cultural, Social and Habitual setup of the community

2) A Grammar and

3) A Dictionary With the help of this book, language readers can be prepared for the use of Arebase children. Though many books like Novels, Short stories, Poetry collection and epical rendering are published, only one grammar by Prof. K. Kushalappa Gowda, (Gowda Kannada) and one Dictionary by Mr. Gangadhara are available.

The name 'Arebase' is used by the speakers since beginning, but Prof. Gowda called it as Gowda Kannada. Now Government of Karnataka identified it as 'Arebase' only. Actually Arebase is not the language of Gowdas alone. it also is spoken by the other communities who co-exist with Gowda in the Puttur and Coorg belt. Arebase also has areal dialects.

Introduction Arebase, now considered as a regional language is spoken in Coorg, Sullya and Puttur area. As among the communities who speak this language, Gowda community is the bigger one, was also called as Gowda Kannada. This was certainly a dialect of Kannada as among many regional dialects of Kannada like Mysore Kannada, Malnad Kannada, Dharwad Kannada and Kalaburagi Kannada. In the beginning of dialectal study this was called as 'Gowda Kannada' by some Scholars.

As Gowdas of Karnataka speak many dialects the term was an ambiguous one. Presently the Government of Karnataka identified it as separate language and the name given is 'Arebase'. All the Gowdas of Sullia area are not speaking this variety of Language. Half of them speak Tulu. Of course Tulu has become the second language of every one of South Kanara and Coorg areas and Kannada the third language.

The term Arebase ( < are bha: e) means half language. In the beginning, the speakers of this language amidst Tulu speaking majority, identified this language as half Kannada. Then itself become the name for this language. Mainly this language is spoken by the Gowdas aka Vakkaliga Gowdas who are also identified as 'Sullia Gowdas'.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages