Kodava Thakk Padipo – Session 1

The first session of the online teaching program ‘Kodava Thakk Padipo‘.

Learning Notes for Session-1

Hello Everyone!

Let us learn the Kodava Language

nanga kodava thakk pariyana(speak)- Padikana(learn)

Hope you all are fine?

ninga ellaru chaayith uLLiira?

Recap:

nanga(we or let us)

ninga(You)

ellaru (all)

pariyana( speak)

padikana( learn)

Days( dhina)

Week(waara)

Good (chaayi)

aache (Day)

Let us learn Numbers- one to Ten

Numbers ( anke??)

One- ondh

            */dh/ is nice and soft like the sound in ‘the’ or ‘their’

Two- dhand

            */d/ is hard and sharp with the tongue curled backwards.

Three- muundh

Four- naal

            */aa/ is a nice and open sound — the same sound you make when you have to open your mouth at the dentist ‘aaaahhhhh’!

Five- anji

Six- aar

Seven – êêL

            *this has a long vowel sound /êê/ that some of you might not be familiar with. Think of it as the same sound in ‘shirt’, ‘her’, ‘burn’ but without the /r/ sound at the end.

Eight- êtt

            *this has a short /ê/ sound as in ‘about’ or ‘assume’.

Nine- woyimbadh

Ten- pathth

Let us now learn to identify few Animals

Animals( praaNi)

Cow- payyu

Horse- kudhure

Sheep-kori

Hen- koaLi

            */oa/ is pronounced like the English ‘coal’ or ‘oar’

            */L/ is pronounced similar to the normal /l/ sound but instead with the tongue curled backwards. (See the diagram located below under “Pronunciation Notes”)

Rabbit- mona

Donkey- kaththe

            *Remember that the /th/ sound is doubled here. This is important! For example:

                        kaththe means ‘donkey’ whereas

                        kathe means ‘story’.

Goat – aad

Dog- naayi

Duck- baathkoaLi

Cat- Puunynye

Let us learn the days of the week

nanga vaara thiira pedha padikana

Monday- thingLaache

Tuesday- chowwaache

Wednesday- padhnaache

Thursday- beaLache

Friday- boLLiyaache

Saturday- cheniaache

Sunday- naarache

Pronunciation Notes:

Retroflex sounds:

There might be some sounds that are unfamiliar to you. Let’s take a look at some of them:

/L/ as in koaLi

/N/ as in praaNi,

/d/ as in aad, dhand

/t/ as in aat,

 

All of the above consonants are pronounced by bending the tongue backward as we see in the diagram below. Can we all try creating the sounds together?

 

 (Image taken from Wikipedia)