Culture

Languages of Honavar

Kannada is the language of everyday life in Honavar, but walk through the market or the fishing harbour and you will also hear Konkani and local dialects of Kannada that are centuries old.

A many-tongued coast

Honavar sits on an old trade coast between Goa and Mangaluru, at the foot of the Western Ghats. For centuries traders, farmers, fishing families and people fleeing persecution in Goa settled here. Each brought a language with them.

Kannada is the official language and the one almost everyone speaks. Konkani is the home language of many families. English is understood in hotels, banks and by younger people.

Mother tongues in Uttara Kannada district

55%Kannada

about 18%Konkani

9.5%Marathi

Census of India 2011, Uttara Kannada district. Figures for Honavar taluk alone are not published. Kannada is the majority language in the taluk.

Kannada and its local dialects

The Kannada spoken in coastal Uttara Kannada sounds different from the Kannada of Bengaluru or Mysuru. Several communities have their own dialects, some of which split from mainstream Kannada more than a thousand years ago and keep older words and verb forms.

Havigannada (Havyaka Kannada) is spoken by Havyaka families of the areca-growing villages around Honavar, Kumta, Sirsi and Siddapura. Words that begin with o or e in standard Kannada often begin with wa or ye here: ondu (one) becomes wandu, ele (leaf) becomes yele. 'Why' is entakke instead of yaake. 'How' is henge instead of hege.

Achchagannada is the Kannada of the Halakki Vokkaliga community, whose songs and oral epics are a treasure of Uttara Kannada folk culture.

Want to try a few words? See our Kannada phrases for travellers.

Konkani

Konkani came down the coast with families who left Goa, many of them in the second half of the 16th century, when the Portuguese began forced conversions. Today it is the home language of many communities in Uttara Kannada: Gaud Saraswat Brahmins, Chitrapur Saraswats, Daivajna goldsmiths, Kharvi fishing families, Bhandaris, Gabits, Ramakshatriyas, Konkani Marathas, Vanis and Catholics. Each has its own flavour of the language.

Linguists call the Konkani of this district North Canara or Badgikar Konkani. It shows more Goan influence than the Konkani of Udupi and Mangaluru. In Kumta and Honavar, they note, people use consonants in abundance.

Most Konkani speakers in Karnataka write it in the Kannada script. Saraswat families in Uttara Kannada often use Devanagari, which the Konkani Parishad meeting at Karwar in 1939 chose for the language.

Konkani became one of India's scheduled languages in 1992, through the 71st amendment to the Constitution. Konkani speakers mark 20 August as Konkani Manyata Divas (recognition day). The Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy was set up in 1994 to support Konkani writing and culture.

Read about the Konkani-speaking communities of Honavar.

Other languages

Marathi is common in the northern taluks of the district near Goa and Belagavi, but rare in Honavar. Tulu, the language of the Udupi and Mangaluru coast further south, is not traditionally spoken here.

Signboards in Honavar are mostly in Kannada, with English on main roads. A smile and a 'namaskara' go a long way.