CANARA KONKANI

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CANARA KONKANI is broadly divided into North Canara and South Canara konkani. These are the two regions where konkani is spoken in Karnataka. Now south canara is divided into 3 districts namely udupi to the north , south canara in the middle and kasargod in the south, kasargod was taken by kerala while the Indian states were reorganized according to linguistic basis. These three districts are called as Tulunadu. So as the konkanis here trilingual, here konkanis who stay in karnataka part of tulunadu can speak tulu and kannada whereas the people who stay in kerala part of tulunadu can speak tulu, malayalam and even kannada.

South canara is districts name , the Mangalore or Kodiyal ( called by konkanis ) is the headquaters of south canara. All konkanis in tulunadu or undivided south canara region know more than 3 langauges but in every konkani house we can hear only konkani thats makes the konkanis proud to call themselves as konkanis in karnataka.



As like south canara is home land of tuluvas North Canara district is home land of konkanis nearly 32 varities of konkani caste we can find here, this district is just below the state of goa , the head quaters is karwar which is 20 km south of goa and karnataka border. it is divided into 11 taluks , the coastal taluks and 2 taluk adjoining goa border has 80 to 60 % of konkanis i.e (karwar, ankola, kumta, honnavar ,bhatkal, joida and haliyal) compared to western ghats taluks which has 30 to 40 % of konkanis i.e (sirsi, yellapur, siddapur, mundgod).

Other than canara districts we can find konkanis even in western ghats districts which is called as malenadu region in karnataka. This region covers the districts like shimoga, chikmagalur , hassan and kodagu(coorg). Even we can find many konkanis in Bangalore who have moved from canara distrcits for the sake of job and study purpose.

So Canara Konkani is divided into many varities like North Canara Konkani which has kannada influence , South canara and Udupi has tulu influence and whereas kasargod konkani has Malayalam influence. Not only region even each caste or religion has its own dialect, but one thing which i am proud to say that mostly 99 % of canara konkanis call themselves as konkanis and even they speak konkani in their houses... this is the special about canara konkanis.

In karantaka Konkani is highly developed langauge, Karnataka government has granted permission to teach Konkani as 3 rd language in the canara districts, it is taught from 6^th standard … not only in schools even we have Konkani progrmes are telecasted in air India from mangalore radio station. The govt has set up Konkani sahitya academy which is really working hard for the sake of Konkani, even many organizations like maand sobhan, Konkani village and Konkani vichar pratistapan are supportinge for the upliftment of Konkani culture, language , history and literature. There are many weeklys, dailys and monthly magazines which is circulted around canara districts like rakno, Konkani kabar etc..last year there was a guiness world record by singing Konkani song in Konkani niranthari for continuously for 48 hours.. In all the castes like Konkani Christians have not left their language, In canara district we can hear only Konkani mass or prayers in all churches as like there is kannada mass in other parts of Karnataka.

As we know konkanis have started speaking marathi in mahatrastra same like that in Karnataka only 50 % of marathis speak marathi in their house, rest has adopted kannda and even they proudly call themselves as marathi but they don’t know a single word of marathi …

Karnataka konkanis are differenciated by manglorean and karwarkar konkanis both have different dialects, In both the regions we can find all the caste of konkanis but in karwarkars we can find more of Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmins , Daivadnya Brahmins , konkan Marathas , Kudumbis , Vyshya Vanis, Konkan Kharvis , Sheregar Naiks , kudaldeshwar Brahmins, Acharis, Gabits , Devali & Bandis , Kumris , , Madivals , Navayath Muslims , Siddis and karwarian catholics , except navayath and siddis other caste speak same dialect….

In manglorean konkanis we can find more of Goud Saraswat Brahmins , Chitpavan Brahmins , Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins , Karhade Brahmins , Kunbis and manglorean catholics.

As like karwarkars there is no same or common dialect of Konkani , each caste has its own boli, like chitpavans speaks chitpavani, goud saraswats speak Konkani which has more words of tulu and kannada. Catholics have different dialect , rajapur saraswat speaks malwani dialect Konkani and karhades have almost left Konkani and have adopted kannada, tulu, malyalam etc…