Learning Kannada Audio Clip #02

Duration: 4min 5 sec

Pronouns and Introduction (continued)
Welcome to “Audio-Clip number 2 ” for Learning Kannada.

This is Ravindra Karnad and in this session, we will continue with the usage of some
pronouns and just a couple of other simple words.
As an example for this session, we continue with how to introduce ourselves in Kannada.
In the previous audio clip we learnt the following words or sentences:
“Namaskaara Naanu Deepak”.
And for the feminine gender “Namaskaara Naanu Radha”. Or to be more specific
“Nanna Hesaru Deepak” or “Nanna Hesaru Radha”

Let’s go on a little further: When asking someone “Who are you?” the way one would
say it would depend on who one is addressing. In most Indian Languages, the pronoun
“YOU” takes on different forms depending on whether we are addressing someone in a
formal & a respectful manner (such as when speaking to seniors, elders etc) or we are
addressing someone in a casual, friendly manner when speaking with peers or with
children.

The word “Yaaru” in Kannada means who, but the pronoun “YOU” could take on 3
forms;

If one is addressing a child or a friend or a peer where one does not necessarily want to
be formal one could ask “Niinu Yaaru?” or “Who are you?”.
“Niinu” is the word for YOU (without respect) and “Yaaru” means “WHO”
“Niinu Yaaru?” or “Who are you?”.

However the 2nd form of YOU if addressing someone with respect, the word “niinu”
would be replaced by “niivu”. Hence if addressing an elder or a senior one would say
“Niivu Yaru” . “niivu” is “YOU” with respect.

An even more formal and respectful variant of the word YOU is “TAAVU” and one
would ask “TAAVU YARU”. This is used less often and only when one wants to be more
formal.

So, to summarise “Niinu” is to address a child / a friend / a peer whereas “Niivu” is for
elders or to address someone with respect. Lastly, the most formal and respectful word is
“Taavu”.

Recall that we learnt the word “Nanna” meaning the possessive adjective for the word
“Naanu” in saying “Naana Hesaru Deepak”
Likewise for Niinu the possessive adjective is “ninna” so we can ask “Ninna Hesaru
Yenu?” or “What is your name?” so this the informal way (or the one without respect) of
asking “Ninna Hesaru Yenu?” .

The respectful form of the same question would be “Nimma hesaru yenu?”. “Nimma”
being the possessive form of “niivu”
 Learning Kannada Audio Clip #02
Duration: 4min 5 sec
Pronouns and Introduction (continued)
And lastly, the even more formal manner of addressing, as when talking to a dignitary
would be to “Tamma hesaru yenu” ?
So just to revise,
The possessive forms are
Naanu becomes Nanna (I and my) Niinu becomes Ninna (i.e. YOU and YOUR
without respect) and Niivu becomes Nimma (You and your with respect)
And finally the most formal and respectful way is Taavu which becomes Tamma in the
possessive form.
Thanks for listening and hope you enjoy learning Kannada with these series of audio
clips