Sankethi dialect

Sankethi is a dialect of Kannada - Tamil hybrid spoken in Karnataka, India by the Sankethi people, who immigrated from Madurai and Sengottai in Tamil Nadu in the 15th century. Its vocabulary has been greatly influenced by Kannada and Malayalam.

Phonology

The language is highly developed and differentiated in terms of the number of sounds used. It uses all the sounds in Tamil and Sanskrit plus a few more. In particular, the inflection of the sound a can change the meaning significantly. à can be called the interrogative as it seems to be a development of e and gives the meaning of interrogation when placed initially while a gives an affirmative meaning.

This sound can of course occur in other places and cause differences in meaning. Another peculiar sound used is the anunAsika/nasal intonation as in avuñ. This is like the sound in Spanish. The presence or absence of this sound at the end of some words can be crucial in differentiating whether it refers to the masculine gender or a feminine/plural.