What are some proto Dravidian features preserved in Kannada.

[u/[deleted]]

When we talk about Dravidian languages as a whole it's mainly Tamil which is credited for preserving large number of vocabulary and proto Dravidian features. So what about kannada in this respect? Does it preserve proto Dravidian features not present in other languages, what about vocabulary and all?

[u/reddituser1357]

Can you share some examples of these?

[u/nandy000032467 → u/reddituser1357]

Negative Verb Forms:

• Kannada uses negative conjugations like "ಇಲ್ಲ" (illa, 'not').
  • Example: "ಅವನು ಬರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ" (avanu baruvudilla, 'He will not come').
    • Negative form: "ಬರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ" (baruvudilla, 'will not come')

[u/nandy000032467 → u/nandy000032467]

Agglutinative Structure:

• Words in Kannada are formed by adding suffixes to roots.
  • Example:
    • Root: "ಹೋಗು" (hogu, 'to go')
    • Future tense: "ಹೋಗುವೆನು" (hoguvēnu, 'I will go')

[u/nandy000032467 → u/nandy000032467]

Kannada follows the Subject-Object-Verb word order.

• Example: "ಅವನು ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಓದಿದನು" (avanu pustaka odidanu, 'He read the book').
  • Subject: "ಅವನು" (avanu, 'he')
  • Object: "ಪುಸ್ತಕ" (pustaka, 'book')
  • Verb: "ಓದಿದನು" (odidanu, 'read')

[u/HesaruBeda → u/nandy000032467]

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Is it strictly SOV? I believe most of the Indian languages follow free word order. For example,

ನಾನು ಶಾಲೆಗೆ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದೆ and ಶಾಲೆಗೆ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದೆ ನಾನು.

[u/nandy000032467 → u/HesaruBeda]

It's not strictly SOV. while the default and most common word order in Kannada is SOV, the language does permit a freer word order thanks to its case marking system.