Kannada alphabet

Kannada ಕನ್ನಡ
Type	Abugida
Languages	Kannada, Konkani, Tulu, Kodava, Badaga, Beary bhase
Time period	c. 230BCE–present[1]
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs [2] Proto-Sinaitic alphabet Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī Kadamba Kannada ಕನ್ನಡ
Sister systems	Telugu Sinhala Peguan
ISO 15924	Knda, 345
Direction	Left-to-right
Unicode alias	Kannada
Unicode range	U+0C80–U+0CFF

The Kannada alphabet (ಕನ್ನಡ ಲಿಪಿ) is an abugida of the Brahmic family,^[3] used primarily to write the Kannada language, one of the Dravidian languages of southern India. Several minor languages, such as Tulu, Konkani, Kodava, and Beary, also use alphabets based on the Kannada script.^[4] The Kannada and Telugu scripts share high mutual intellegibility with each other, and are often considered to be regional variants of single script. Similarly, Goykanadi, a variant of Old Kannada, has been historically used to write Konkani in the state of Goa.^[5]

History

The Kannada script derives from the Old Kannada script,^[6] which evolved around 10th century as the continuation of the Kadamba script of the 4th century CE.^[7] This evolved from the ancient Brahmi script of the 3rd century BCE.

Evolution

Halmidi Inscription Replica

Over the centuries some changes have been made to the Kannada script. These changes consist of:

1. Modification of existing glyphs: In the early Kannada [Telugu-Kannada] script, no orthographic distinction was made between the short mid [e, o] ಎ, ಒ and long mid [eː, oː] ಏ, ಓ. However, distinct signs were employed to denote the special consonants viz. the trill [r] ಱ the retroflex lateral [ɭ] ಳ and the retroflex palatal [ɺ] ೞ found only in South Indian languages, by 5th century.
2. Introduction of new characters: Kannada script includes characters like [ç] ಶ, [ʂ] ಷ, [rɨ] ಋ, [rɨː] ೠ, [lɨ] ఌ, [lɨː] ౡ, [eʲ] ಐ, [oʷ] ಔ, [am] ಅಂ, [ah] ಅಃ, and mahāprāṇa characters like [kʰ] ಖ, [ɡʱ] ಘ, [tʃʰ] ಛ, [dʒʱ] ಝ, [t̪ʰ] ಥ, [d̪ʱ] ಧ, [ʈʰ] ಠ, [ɖʱ] ಢ, [pʰ] ಫ, [bʱ] ಭ. The introduction was done so that Sanskrit (and loanwords into the Kannada language from the donor language Sanskrit) could be written using the Kannada script.

These changes have facilitated the use of the Kannada script for writing many of the literary Indic languages, including Sanskrit.

General

The Kannada script (aksharamale or varnamale) is a phonemic abugida of forty-nine letters, and is written from left to right. The character set is almost identical to that of other Brahmic scripts. Consonantal letters imply an inherent vowel. Letters representing consonants are combined to form digraphs (ottaksharas) when there is no intervening vowel. Otherwise, each letter corresponds to a syllable.

The letters are classified into three categories: swara (vowels), vyanjana (consonants), and yogavaahaka (part vowel, part consonant).

The Kannada words for a letter of the script are akshara, akkara, and varna. Each letter has its own form (ākāra) and sound (shabda), providing the visible and audible representations, respectively. Kannada is written from left to right.^[8]

Vowel letters

There are fourteen vowel letters (swaras).

Brahmi script, Kanheri Caves

A Bilingual sign board in Kannada and Latin script

When a vowel follows a consonant, it is written with a diacritic rather than as a separate letter.

Yogavaahakas

The Yogavaahakas (part-vowel, part consonant) include two letters:

1. The anusvara: ಅಂ (aom)
2. The visarga: ಅಃ (ahā)

Another two Yogavaahakas used in Sanskrit, but present in Kannada script, are known as Ardhavisarga:

1. The Jihvamuliya: ೱ
2. The Upadhmaniya: ೲ

Consonant letters

Two categories of consonant letters (vyanjana) are defined in Kannada: the structured consonants and the unstructured consonants. The structured consonants are classified according to where the tongue touches the palate of the mouth and are classified accordingly into five structured groups.

Structured consonants

See place of articulation for more information on tongue positions.

Unstructured consonants

The unstructured consonants are consonants that do not fall into any of the above structures:

ಯ (ya), ರ (ra), ಱ (ṟa) (obsolete), ಲ (la), ವ (va), ಶ (śa), ಷ (ṣa), ಸ (sa), ಹ (ha), ಳ (ḷa), ೞ (ḻ) (obsolete).

Consonant Conjuncts

The Kannada script is rich in conjunct consonant clusters, with most consonants having a standard subjoined form and few true ligature clusters. A table of consonant conjuncts follows, although the forms of individual conjuncts may differ according to font.

Numerals

Akshara

Written Kannada is composed of akshara or kagunita, corresponding to syllables. The letters for consonants combine with diacitics for vowels. The consonant letter without any diacritic, such as ಕ ka, has the inherent vowel a ಅ. This is called deergha ದೀರ್ಘ. A consonant without a vowel is marked with a 'killer' stroke, as ಕ್ k. This is known as hrasva ಹ್ರಸ್ವ.

* This diacritic has the form ಿ when combined with other consonant letters.

The formations shown bold above are seldom used in the normal course of the language.

Script similarities

Telugu script is closely related to the Kannada script.

Scripts which are close to Kannada script other than Telugu script are Sinhala script^[9] (which included some elements from the Kadamba script^[10]), and old Peguan script (used in Burma).^[11]

Look of Disapproval

Due to its resemblance to an eye and an eyebrow, the Kannada letter ಠ is used in a popular emoticon called the look of disapproval, which is displayed as ಠ_ಠ. The use of the emoticon has been documented since 2007,^[12] and it is used to convey disapproval or contempt.^[13] Similarly, the akshara ರೃ has been used in an emoticon to represent a monocle.

Unicode

See also

• Pyu script
• Goykanadi
• Bhattiprolu script
• Kadamba script
• Kannada Braille
• Kannada grammar
• Kannada literature
• Kannada poetry
• Lari
• Kannada script evolution
• Official script

References

External links

• The Unicode Book: Chapter 9 PDF (634 KB) — South and Southeast Asian Scripts
• The Unicode Standard 5.0 — Kannada Code Chart  PDF (111 KB)
• Kannada alphabet — From Omniglot
• Kannada lessons, alphabet worksheet — Kannada library