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Comment by raghava | Hacker News Reader

Kannadiga* here.

very interesting theory.

Although I haven't come across many Kannadigas who choose en_CA due to KA and CA sounding similar, this is an angle for sure.

But OP's guess (en_CA alphabetically above en_GB / en_US) is a more possible reality.

Another trivia: Kannada-English dialect is called "Kanglish" here. Ex: "ಲಾಕ್-ಡವ್ನ್ ! ಬಸ್ಸು ಕಾರು ಎಲ್ಲಾ ರೋಡಿಂದಾ ಬ್ಯಾನ್!" [phonetic: 'lockdown! baSSu, kaaru ellaa road-indaa byaan!'] Though the sentence is accepted to be Kannada, only true Kannada word there is "ellaa" (=> all)

Kanglish is the norm here, and textbook Kannada isn't getting good love from many. The onslaught of Sankrit on pure classical Kannada is a different topic altogether, for another day!

*people from Karnataka who speak Kannada.

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Not too sure about Kanglish being the norm - I'd guess it depends upon which part of Bengaluru (making a wild guess here) you're in?

Where I live, that sentence would usually turn out to be something like "Naale inda lockdown, vahanagaLu yavdu Ache barubaaradu".

>> Where I live, that sentence would usually turn out to be something like "Naale inda lockdown, vahanagaLu yavdu Ache barubaaradu".

Mass media has gone bonkers my friend.

If you haven't been following, they even had a headline "first night curfew, hegirutte gottaa!?" with "first night" in a different color.

It's all about masala headlines. Nobody bothers about textbook Kannada anymore, except of course students and hapless Kannada teachers.

Media out here are total sellouts who are just busy peddling absolute BS to their viewers, anything and everything for TRPs

I assumed you were referring to how people normally conversed in Kannada :)

Personally, I don't consider TV Kannada to be indicative of the language spoken on the streets or in the homes of the city. I would be concerned if this headline had made its appearance in print; I don't think that has happened yet.

Every language tends to evolve and borrow some amount of vocabulary from other languages. I've seen this to be especially true when the spoken and written forms are different, as is the case with quite a few Indian languages. The language spoken on the street is not textbook Kannada - it hasn't been textbook Kannada in forever! None of "Hegidiya Guru" or "Yenu Maga" or "Bro!" is a textbook example of an interpersonal greeting - you'd be hard pressed to find the first one in vogue these days, it is now history. The spoken form continues to evolve on its own. (I can see this being the case with at least three other languages).

> "first night curfew, hegirutte gottaa!?" with "first night" in a different color.

I laughed so hard at this. Is it TV9?

Has to be! I'd be very surprised if it wasn't :)

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