Sankethi (, sometimes spelled Sanketi) is a South Dravidian language that is closely related to Kannada. It is sometimes considered a dialect of Kannada or Tamil, but there are considerable differences that make each language unintelligible to speakers of the other language. It has strong lexical influences from Kannada (particularly in the colloquial form), as well as borrowings from Sanskrit. It is most commonly spoken in Karnataka, India by the Sankethi people, who migrated from Sengottai in Tamil Nadu.
The language is most often written in the Kannada script. However, Sankethi (especially in the spoken form) has relatively higher frequencies of consonant clusters of more than two consonants and semivowels. This makes it difficult to write in the Kannada script, which would require multiple subscripted letters (à ²Âà ²¤à ³Âà ²¤à ²Âà ³Âà ²·à ²° - ottaká¹£ara). As a result, Sankethi is rarely found in printed or any written form, and has no standardized form.
Three main dialects exist of the Sankethi language: Kaushika, Bettadpura and Lingadahalli, each associated with the three primary Sankethi communities located in Karnataka. These dialects are all located in a sprachbund which includes not only Kannada but also Tulu, due to Sankethi villages being located in the Malnad region. As Sankethi has no standardized form, it can be difficult to assess what the "true" grammar and features of Sankethi is, as evidenced in the literature by H.S. Ananthanaryana and Kikkeri Narayana. The grammar and semantic features of Kannada are those most often assimilated into Sankethi, as many Sankethis are bilingual in Kannada.
Sankethi phonology is very similar to Kannada and Tamil, with the classical Sanskrit aspirates and retroflex laterals characteristic of many Dravidian languages. Like a few other South Indian languages including Konkani, Marathi, and Saurashtra, the language has a few uncommon aspirates: [], [nð], and [ÃÂð], though both most often appear in their palatalized forms. Its presence is often marked by the presence of long vowels, as well as syllable finally (where they are often palatalized in that position). See the table below for the range of Sankethi consonants.
Sankethi vowels are very similar to Tamil and Kannada vowels:
In Sankethi, some nouns that end in à ² (o) have a final nasal sound, which is not indicated with the anusvÃÂra when written down. This is especially prevalent in the Lingadahalli dialect.
Below is a table comparing some basic words in Sankethi, Kannada, Tamil and Thigala.
One peculiar feature of Sankethi is its use of words and structures of both Sanskrit and Dravidian origin to form new words. A study by H.S. Ananthanarayana details a number of noun formation strategies in Sankethi.
-à ²®à ²¯à ³ - "full of" (ex. à ²ªà ³Âà ²µà ²®à ²¯à ³ - full of flowers)
Nouns
Sankethi grammar is fairly similar to those of most other Dravidian languages, with six cases: nominative (unmarked), accusative, instrumental-ablative, dative, genitive, and locative. The vocative is not fully functional case, and not all nouns have a separate form for it, and as such is not included in the traditional list. The grammar detailed below pertains to the Kaushika dialect.
As in Tamil and Malayalam, there is clusivity distinction for first person plural pronouns in Sankethi: à ²¨à ²¾à ²Âà ² (nÃÂnga; exclusive) VS à ²¨à ²¾à ²Âà ²¬à ³ (nÃÂmbu/ inclusive), though the frequency usage varies. A good example of its usage is the Sankethi endonym for the language: à ²Âà ²Âà ²Âà ²¡à ³ à ²µà ²¾à ²°à ³Âà ²¥à ³ (eá¹Âgaá¸Âe vÃÂrthe), which implies that the language belongs to the speaker and the Sankethi community, so as to distinguish it from a shared language.
Below is a table of pronouns:
Polite versions of he and she are à ²Âà ²µà ³Âà ²¹à ³Â/à ² à ²µà ³Âà ²¹à ³ (ivhu/avhu) and à ²Âà ²µà ³Âà ²¹à ³Â/à ² à ²µà ³Âà ²¹à ³ (ivhe/avhe), which are increasingly considered archaic. They are most frequently replaced by à ²Âà ²µà ³Âà ²¹à ²¾/à ² à ²µà ³Âà ²¹à ²¾ (ivhÃÂ/avhÃÂ), perhaps as an influence from Kannada. TÃÂnga is usually found only in religious contexts, and even then, nënga is often preferred. TÃÂnga and nënga have the same inflections and verb conjugations. The use of à ²Âà ²µà ³Âà ²¹à ³Âà ²¯/à ² à ²µà ³Âà ²¹à ³Âà ²¯ is rare, since the word was historically used to refer to people outside the Sankethi community. Eventually it acquired a more general, pejorative meaning of âÂÂthose people (outsiders)âÂÂ, and as such is rarely used.
Case Declension
The declensional classes are similar to Kannada, marked by animate versus inanimate and weak (à ²Â, à ²Â, à ²Â, à ²Â, à ²Â) versus strong vowel (à ² , à ²Â, à ²Â, à ²Â, à ²Â, à ²Â, à ²Â, à ²Â) endings. Gender only exists for human nouns, and is only relevant in the third person verb conjugations. Generally, the verb classes are delineated as 1st (animate strong vowel ending), 2nd (inanimate strong vowel ending), 3rd (animate weak vowel ending), and 4th (inanimate weak vowel ending).
Though Sankethi vocabulary is not systematized, there are some general rules for taking nouns from Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada, or Malayalam.
See the table below for case declensions. The nominative is the base form of a given noun, and as such is not included in the table below.
Verbs
Verbs in Sankethi have two kinds of verbs stems. There are verbs that end in à ²Â/à ² (u/o) and à ²Â/à ² (i/e). Generally speaking, they undergo the following changes during conjugation
Below are tables that show different tenses, given for the verb à ²¸à ²¾à ²ªà ²¡à ³ (to eat/drink):
Non-Past Simple
<nowiki>*</nowiki>In all tenses, the à ²¨à ³ form's final -à ³Âà ²¯ (-ya) becomes -à ²Âà ²¯ (-eya) as a question, and the à ²¨à ³Âà ²Âà ² form changes from -à ³Âà ²¯à ³ (-yo) to -à ²¿à ²³ (-iḷa) as a question.
Imperfective and Perfective Aspects
The imperfective aspect is marked by taking the gerundial form of a verb (the stem takes the ending -ÃÂá¹Âá¸Âu), and then attaching the conjugated form of iru in its auxiliary form (rÃÂá¹Âi, rÃÂá¹Âá¸Âeya, etc.).
This is contrasted with the perfect aspect, where the past participle is placed first instead of the gerundial aspect. In addition, because
Past
The past tense in Sankethi is complex due to a number of stem rules inherited from Tamil. The past tense is also notable in that the à ²¨à ³Âà ²Âà ² (nënga) form is where Sankethi's uncommon aspirates are most visible. There a number of different kinds of past tense endings associated with certain verb endings. There are also a number of irregular verbs, with no necessarily discernible pattern.
à ²ªà ²£à ³Âà ²£à ³ - -à ² ending verbs
à ²Âà ²¡à ³ - -à ²¡à ³ ending verbs without a stressed penultimate syllable (change to -à ²Âà ³Âà ²Â-)
à ²¸à ²¾à ²ªà ²¡à ³ - -à ²¡à ³ ending verbs with an unstressed penultimate syllable
à ²ªà ²¾à ²°à ³ - stressed long vowel as the penultimate syllable (change the final syllable to -à ²¤à ³Â)
à ²Âà ²³à ²¿ - -à ² ending verbs
à ²Âà ²³à ³ (uḷu to fall) (also à ² à ²³à ²¿, à ²¨à ²¡à ²¿)
This is a special pattern unique to à ²¨à ²¿à ²²à ³Âà ²²à ²¿ (nilli) and -à ²Âà ³Âà ²¯à ³ (-kyo) ending verbs (ex. à ²¤à ³Âà ²Âà ²Âà ³Âà ²¯à ³ - tuá¹Âkyo)
The following verbs are irregular:
à ²Âà ³Âà ²¡à ³ (to give)
à ²ªà ³Âà ²¡à ²¿ (to carry)
à ²Âà ²¿à ²°à ²¿/à ²Âà ²°à ²¿ (to smile/peel) (add -à ²Â- before adding endings)
à ²¤à ³Âà ²¯à ²¿ (to wash)
à ²µà ²¯à ³Âà ²¯à ²¿ (to scold)
à ²Âà ²°à ³ (to be)
à ²µà ²°à ³ (to come)
à ²ªà ³Âà ²¹à ³ (to go)
à ²Âà ²¹à ³ (to happen/become)
Past Perfect/Past Progressive or Remote Past
The past progressive and past perfect in Sankethi are the same, and their meaning is distinguished only by context. For this reason, the conjugations below may be referred to jointly as the remote past.
Future
This is a hypothetical construction for the future tense in Sankethi, though it functions more like a hypothetical ("Shall I...?"). C.T. Dathathreya reconstructs this set of conjugations by referring to Tamil and Kannada conjugations for the future tense. In a literary or poetic context, it would likely imply the future tense, and when appearing as an instruction, it has the jussive meaning of "must do" or the passive meaning "will be done". Dathathreya refers to this as the "future indefinite", suggesting a distant (hence very hypothetical) circumstance.
Negation
Negation is indicated by suffixing the appropriate ending, and similar to Kannada, there are separate forms for each tense. Again, the example verb is à ²¸à ²¾à ²ªà ²¡à ³ (sÃÂpaá¸Âu). Some Sankethi speakers negate with the ending -à ² à ²²à ³Âà ²²à ³ (alle) and others with -à ² à ²²à ³Âà ²² (alla). It varies with the generation of the speakers and their proximity to Tamil or Kannada communities. The negative future is a hypothetical construction based on C.T. Dathathreya's reconstruction.
Present: à ²¸à ²¾à ²ªà ²¡à ²²à ³Âà ²² (sÃÂpaá¸Âalla)
Present Progressive: à ²¸à ²¾à ²ªà ²¡à ²°à ²¾à ²Âà ²¡à ²¿à ²Âà ³Âà ²Âà ²²à ³Âà ²² (sÃÂpaá¸ÂarÃÂá¹Âá¸Âikkalla)
Past/Present Perfect: à ²¸à ²¾à ²ªà ²¡à ²¿à ²Âà ³Âà ²Âà ²²à ³Âà ²² (sÃÂpaá¸Âikkalla)
Past Progressive: à ²¸à ²¾à ²ªà ²¡à ²¾à ²¨à ³Âà ²¨à ²¿à ²Âà ²¦à ²²à ³Âà ²² (sÃÂpaá¸ÂÃÂnnindalla)
Future: à ²¸à ²ªà ²¡à ²µà ²¿à ²²à ³Âà ²² (sÃÂpaá¸Âavilla)
Imperative
Prohibitive
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Ellàmanuà Âyangaá¸·à « svatantramayiá¹Âe huá¹Âá¹Âaná¸ÂÃÂ. AvhÃÂḷukkume ÃÂntahkaraá¹Âà « ghanate hakku rená¸Âà « uná¸Âà «. VivÃÂkà « antaḥkaraá¹Âà « ikartaá¹Âá¹Âà « avhÃÂlà «me vattarà « kottarà « tamayà «á¹ tambyÃÂnyu pà Âle naá¸Âandhgaá¹Âà «.