Malnad is the one part of the Kannada country that contains a language which is not Kannada and never was. Kodava Takk is a separate Dravidian language with its own phonology and grammar, written in Kannada script because it has no script of its own, and mutually unintelligible with Kannada in ordinary speech. Around it sit Are Bhashe, a Kannada-Tulu transitional variety, and the Kannada of the areca uplands, which keeps older forms and an agricultural vocabulary — for garden layers, forest tenure, rainfall and areca grades — that a Bengaluru speaker will not recognise.
Malnad KannadaDravidian, Southern
Marked by retained older verb endings, a distinctive intonation, and an enormous specialised vocabulary for garden and forest — separate words for the layers of a garden, the grades of areca, the kinds of rain and the classes of land tenure. The Havyaka Brahmin register within it is distinct enough to be studied separately.
बोलने वाले: The majority language of Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru and western Hassan
Kodava TakkDravidian, Southern
A separate language rather than a dialect, written in the Kannada script and taught in almost no schools. Its speakers are universally bilingual in Kannada, which is what makes the language's position precarious despite a strong and organised sense of community identity.
बोलने वाले: Around a hundred thousand, concentrated in Kodagu
Are BhasheDravidian, Southern
Spoken by Gowda households across south-western Kodagu and the neighbouring ghat taluks, transitional between Kannada and Tulu and treated by its speakers as its own thing rather than as either.
TuluDravidian, Southern
Spoken where the slope falls west, and increasingly present in the ghat towns through trade and marriage.
Yerava (Ravula) and Jenu KurubaDravidian
Languages of forest and estate-settlement communities in Kodagu and around Nagarhole, with small and declining speaker numbers and very little published documentation.