Was Kannada Really Born Out of Tamizh?

Tamizh actor and politician, Kamal Haasan, while speaking at a promotion event for his upcoming film, Thug Life, said this while talking about friend and Kannada actor, Shivrajkumar, who was present at the promotion event.

“Actor Shivarajkumar is my family living in another state. That's why he is here. That's why when I started my speech, I said ‘my life and my family is Tamizh’. Your language [Kannada] was born out of Tamizh. So you are included in that line.”

This drew backlash from people who said that his “Kannada was born out of Tamizh” claims were false.

So, did Kannada really evolve from Tamizh as Kamal Haasan claimed?

Both Kannada and Tamizh are ancient languages with histories spanning centuries. However, Kannada was not born out of Tamizh.

Instead, both languages are considered branches of a common ancestor, an ancient language we call, Proto-Dravidian.

Think of Proto-Dravidian as the great-grandmother of both languages.

So, Kannada and Tamizh are more like sisters, rather than mother and daughter, who grew from the same ancient root.

The point where they started to separate from this common ancestor is estimated to be around 3000 BCE and em erged as distinct languages much later. This is way before we have the earliest written evidence for either language.

Even though old Tamizh literature or inscriptions might be found dating back earlier than the oldest known Kannada inscriptions, this refers to the written records, not the actual age of the languages themselves.

In fact, sometimes Kannada has preserved older forms of words than Tamizh. For example, the ancient word for "ear" is believed to be *kew-i, which is closer to Kannada's kivi than Tamizh's sevi.

So to conclude, no, Kannada was born out of Tamizh. They are sister languages who share a common ancient origin.