Kannada; A Kanarese Grammar

years ago at the request of the Rev. H. H. Newham, at that

time General Superintendent of the Methodist Missionary

Society in Mysore State, the Mission Press having published

the original edition, as also its predecessor, the `Elementary

Grammar' of the Rev. Thomas Hodson (1859). The work

could not be taken up at once and has had to be done in oddments

of time. When it was decided to make a revision, it was agreed

to make it fairly thorough that it might reflect, to some extent

at least, the changes which have taken place in written and

spoken Kanarese as a result of the notable literary renascence

of the period since this grammar was written. The year after

Mr. Spencer's book was published, that is, 1915, is commonly

regarded as marking the appearance of a new interest in the

history of Kanarese literature and a new effort to make the

language an effective medium of expression in the, modern

world. This was the year of the establishment of the Kannada

Sahitya Parishat, the Kanarese Literary Academy. As fruit of

the labours of the founders of the Academy and their coadjutors

great changes have been wrought in the language as popularly

written and spoken . The movement represented a reaction

away from a highly Sanskritized style of writing, a style of

resounding compound words, ornate figures and labyrinthine sentences, and towards the natural idiom of Kannada as found in

old ballads and folk tales. Its result is seen in substantial literary

achievement of considerable variety. From the point of view

of language the consequence has been to forge a fresh style for

popular writing and journalism, as also for factual statements in

history and branches of modern knowledge. Characteristic

words and idioms have been restored to use which undeservedly

had been allowed to lapse.