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{{Short description|German missionary and linguist of Kannada}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Ferdinand Kittel
[[File:Kittel, Ferdinand (1832-1903).jpg|thumb|Ferdinand Kittel (1854)]]
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1832|4|08}}
| birth_place = Resterhafe, [[East Frisia]], [[Germany]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1903|12|18|1832|4|08}}
|death_place = [[Tübingen]]
| occupation = [[Priest|Christian Priest]], Kannada research writer.
| subject = [[Kannada literature]]
}}
'''Reverend Ferdinand Kittel''' was a [[Lutheran]] priest and [[indologist]] with the [[Basel Mission]] in south India and worked in [[Mangalore]], [[Madikeri]] and [[Dharwad]] in [[Karnataka]]. He is most famous for his studies of the [[Kannada]] language and for producing a Kannada-English dictionary of about 70,000 words in 1894.<ref name="Manjulakshi">{{cite journal| last =Manjulakshi| first =L.|author2=Shripad Bhat| title =Kannada Dialect Dictionaries and Dictionaries in Subregional Languages of Karnataka| journal =Language in India| volume =5| date =2005-09-09| url =http://www.languageinindia.com/sep2005/kannadadictionary1.html| access-date =2007-09-27 }}</ref> He also composed numerous Kannada poems.<ref name="Karnatak University 1876">Journal of the Karnatak University: Humanities: Volume 19 Karnatak University - 1975 "He was also involved in the work of the revision of the Kannada Bible. But his magnum opus was the school dictionary English- Kannada Shala Nighantu, which saw the light of the day in 1876. Though [[William Reeve (missionary)]] compiled and published ..."</ref>

==Early life==
He was born 7 April 1832.Resterhafe, [[East Frisia]] Freeland, off the northeastern coast of Germany. The father Gottfried Christian Kittel was Gaz Freit, a priest. Mother Tudov Helen Hubert. Kittel is the eldest of his 5 children. His education was praised by the headmaster as "Never Less Than Good." Join the [[Basel Mission]] as the desire of his father.

==In India==
He had learned Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and English. He arrived in India in 1853. As a missionary, he endeavoured to follow Paul's [[first Epistle to the Corinthians]] and "become as an Indian unto the Indians".<ref>{{Bibleverse|1|Corinthians|9:20-9:23|KJV}}</ref>

Having a strong desire to learn Kannada, he undertook exhaustive studies learning the Kannada language, customs and local music. This earned rebuke from the Basel Mission, where he was already an outsider on account of his North German origin and academic education (the other missionaries were chiefly from southwest Germany and the lower/middle classes, though [[Gottfried Weigle]] had studied at Tübingen). This marginalised him by pushing him to a remote station in the [[Nilgiris (mountains)|Nilgiris]] and later confining him to the mission's press in Mangalore. He returned to Germany, but visited India again in his fifties to complete his dictionary, which by then had become for him an end in itself, and not merely an instrument secondary to missionary work.<ref name=wendt/>

==Contribution to Kannada==
Kittel worked in [[Mangalore]], [[Madikeri]] and [[Dharwad]] in [[Karnataka]], inspired by and attracted to Kannada Literature.

He is most famous for his studies of the [[Kannada]] language and for producing a Kannada-English dictionary of about 70,000 words in 1894.<ref name="Manjulakshi"/><ref name="Aliyeh2">{{cite news|last1=Rizvi|first1=Aliyeh|title=Resident Rendezvoyeur: Against all odds|url=http://www.bangaloremirror.com/columns/others/Resident-Rendezvoyeur-Against-all-odds/articleshow/48414461.cms|access-date=12 August 2015|agency=Bangalore Mirror Bureau|issue=Bangalore|publisher=Bangalore Mirror|date=9 August 2015}}</ref> (Many Kannada-language dictionaries had existed at least since poet Ranna's 'Ranna Khanda' in the tenth century.) Kittel also composed numerous Kannada poems.<ref name="Karnatak University 1876"/>

In 1862, Kittel, published his Kannada poem `Kathamale' which presented the life of Jesus Christ in the form of Indian musical metre style. Kittel also wrote a book on [[Kannada grammar]] called ''A Grammar of the Kannada Language: Comprising the Three Dialects of the language''.<ref>{{cite book| last =Kittel| first =F.| title =A grammar of the Kannada language in English| publisher =Basel Mission| year =1903| location =Mangalore| url =https://archive.org/details/grammarofkannada00kittuoft| isbn =81-206-0056-8 }}</ref> He translated [[Nagavarma II|Nagavarma's]] work on Kannada [[Prosody (poetry)|prosody]].<ref>{{Cite book | year=1988 | title = Nāgavarmana Kannaḍa chandassu | author1=Nāgavarma | author2= Ferdinand Kittel | edition=reprint | publisher=Asian Educational Services | isbn=978-81-206-0367-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=75FVAV4ge6EC }} Originally published by Basel Mission Book & Tract Depository, 1875.</ref>

==Contemporary recognition==
Kittel is today almost forgotten in Germany, but is still widely recognised in Karnataka.<ref name=wendt/> Many educational institutions have been named after him.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} A statue at the end of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] road in the city of [[Bangalore]] commemorates him. [[Austin Town]] in Bangalore was renamed "Kittel Nagar".<ref name=Aliyeh2/>

==Legacy==
The book ''An Indian to the Indians? On the Initial Failure and the Posthumous Success of the Missionary Ferdinand Kittel (1832–1903)'', edited by Reinhard Wendt, describes various aspects of his work.<ref name=wendt>{{Cite book | editor-last=Wendt|editor-first=Reinhard | title=An Indian to the Indians? On the Initial Failure and the Posthumous Success of the Missionary Ferdinand Kittel (1832–1903) | publisher=Otto Harrassowitz | place=Wiesdbaden | year=2005 | isbn=3-447-05161-2 | series = Studien zur außereuropäischen Christentumsgeschichte (Studies on non-European history of Christianity) | url=http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_3004.ahtml | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113130809/http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_3004.ahtml | url-status=dead | archive-date=2011-01-13 }} [http://www.libreka.de/9783447051613] Reviews: [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-30758234_ITM Robert Eric Frykenberg], [https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10783-007-9029-y Martin Krieger], [http://www.eupjournals.com/doi/abs/10.3366/swc.2007.13.2.196 Nile Green], [http://www.eupjournals.com/doi/abs/10.3366/swc.2007.13.2.199]</ref>

==See also==
* [[Hermann Mögling]] printed the first Kannada Newspaper
* [[Herman Gundert]]
* [[Kannada language]]
* [[Kannada grammar]]
* [[Shabdamanidarpana]]
* [[Thomas Hodson]]
* [[William Reeve (missionary)|William Reeve]]
* [[Hermann Mögling]]
* [[Njattyela Sreedharan]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.hermann-gundert-gesellschaft.de/en_kittel.HTML Ferdinand Kittel and the Cultural Dialogue with India], International Seminar, Germany 2003
* [http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/kar/11879.htm Portrait of Kittel] at Kamat's Potpourri

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kittel, Ferdinand}}
[[Category:East Frisians]]
[[Category:Lexicographers]]
[[Category:Protestant missionaries in India]]
[[Category:Dravidologists]]
[[Category:Christian clergy from Mangalore]]
[[Category:1832 births]]
[[Category:1903 deaths]]
[[Category:Linguists of Kannada]]
[[Category:Translators of the Bible into Kannada]]
[[Category:19th-century translators]]
[[Category:German Protestant missionaries]]
[[Category:German expatriates in India]]
[[Category:Missionary linguists]]
[[Category:19th-century lexicographers]]

Ferdinand Kittel - Revision history

UpdateBot at 08:44, 30 June 2022