The Kannada script (
IAST: ''Kannaḍa lipi''; obsolete: Kanarese or Canarese script in English) is an
abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel n ...
of the
Brahmic family
The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India ...
, used to write
Kannada, one of the
Dravidian languages of
South India especially in the state of
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
. Kannada script is also widely used for writing
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
texts in Karnataka. Several minor languages, such as
Tulu,
Konkani,
Kodava,
Sanketi and
Beary, also use alphabets based on the Kannada script.
The Kannada and
Telugu scripts share very high mutual intellegibility with each other, and are often considered to be regional variants of single script. Other scripts similar to Kannada script are
Sinhala script
The Sinhala script ( si, සිංහල අක්ෂර මාලාව, Siṁhala Akṣara Mālāva), also known as Sinhalese script, is a writing system used by the Sinhalese people and most Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka and elsewhere to write ...
(which included some elements from the
Kadamba script), and Old
Peguan script
(used in
Burma).
The Kannada script ( ''akṣaramāle'' or ''varṇamāle'') is a
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
abugida of forty-nine letters. The character set is almost identical to that of other
Brahmic scripts
The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient Ind ...
. Consonantal letters imply an
inherent vowel An inherent vowel is part of an abugida (or alphasyllabary) script. It is a vowel sound which is used with each unmarked or basic consonant symbol. For example, if the Latin alphabet used 'i' as an inherent vowel, "Wikipedia" could be rendered as "W ...
. Letters representing consonants are combined to form digraphs ''('' ''ottakṣara)'' when there is no intervening vowel. Otherwise, each letter corresponds to a
syllable.
The letters are classified into three categories: ''svara'' (
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s), ''vyañjana'' (
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
s), and ''yōgavāhaka'' (
semiconsonants).
The Kannada words for a letter of the script are ''akshara'', ''akkara'', and ''varṇa''. Each letter has its own form ( ''ākāra'') and sound ( ''śabda''), providing the visible and audible representations, respectively. Kannada is written from left to right.
[''A Grammar of the Kannada Language.'' F. Kittel (1993), p. 5]
History
The
Brahmi script evolved into the
Kadamba script by the 5th century, which in turn developed into the
Kannada-Telugu script (or 'Old Kannada script') in the 7th century. The Kannada and Telugu scripts then separated by around 1300 C.E.
[
Over the centuries some changes have been made to the Kannada script. These changes consist of:
# Modification of existing glyphs: In the early Kannada script, no orthographic distinction was made between the short mid , and long mid , . However, distinct signs were employed to denote the special consonants viz. the trill the retroflex lateral and the retroflex rhotic , by the 5th century.
# Introduction of new characters: Kannada script includes characters like , , , , , , , , , , and mahāprāṇa characters like , , , , , , , , , . The introduction was done so that ]Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
(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.
Vowel letters
There are thirteen (fourteen if the obsolete vowel ೠ is included) vowel letters ( ''svara'').
When a vowel follows a consonant, it is written with a diacritic rather than as a separate letter.
Yōgavāha
The ''Yōgavāha'' (part-vowel, part consonant) include two letters:
# The anusvara: (''aṁ'')
# The visarga: (''aḥ'')
Another two ''Yōgavāha'' used in Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, but present in Kannada script, are known as ''Ardhavisarga'':
# The Jihvamuliya:
# The Upadhmaniya:
Consonant letters
Two categories of consonant letters ( ''vyan̄jana'') are defined in Kannada: the structured consonants and the unstructured consonants.
Structured 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. These consonants are shown here with their ISO
ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization.
ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance
* Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007
* Iso ...
transcriptions.
Unstructured consonants
The unstructured consonants are consonants that do not fall into any of the above structures:
(ya),
(ra),
(ṟa; obsolete),
(la),
(va),
(śa),
(ṣa),
(sa),
(ha),
(),
(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 the font.
Consonant conjuncts with ರ (ra)
Of special note is the sequence concerning the letter (ra). Unlike other letters, the conjunct form is written second even if it is pronounced first in the sequence.
For example, the /rnaː/ in the word ''Karnāṭaka'' (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ) is written ರ್ನಾ rather than ರ್ನಾ.
Consonant conjuncts with nasal consonants
The nasal consonants
(ṅa), (ña), (ṇa), (na), and (ma) are usually written as an anusvara when preceding another consonant rather than a consonant conjunct.
For example, the /ŋg/ in the word ''Beṅgaḷūru'' (ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು) is usually written rather than (ಬೆಙ್ಗಳೂರು).
Obsolete Kannada letters
Kannada literary works employed the letters (transliterated '' or 'rh') and (transliterated '', 'lh' or 'zh'), whose manner of articulation most plausibly could be akin to those in present-day Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...
and Tamil. The letters dropped out of use in the 12th and 18th centuries, respectively. Later Kannada works replaced 'rh' and 'lh' with (ra) and (la) respectively.[Rice, Edward. P (1921), "A History of Kannada Literature", Oxford University Press, 1921: 14–15]
It is still used to write the Badaga language and a vowel + virama + ḻ is used to transcribe its retroflex vowels.
Another letter (or unclassified ''vyanjana'' (consonant)) that has become extinct is 'nh' or 'inn'. Likewise, this has its equivalent in Telugu, where it is called ''Nakaara pollu''. The usage of this consonant was observed until the 1980s in Kannada works from the mostly coastal areas of Karnataka (especially the Dakshina Kannada district). Now, hardly any mainstream works use this consonant. This letter has been replaced by (consonant n).
Places of articulation
There are five classifications of passive articulations:
: Kaṇṭhya: Velar
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive a ...
: Tālavya: Palatal
The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
: Mūrdhanya: Retroflex
: Dantya: Dental
: Ōshtya: Labial
Apart from that, other places are combinations of the above five:
: Dantōsthya: Labio-dental (E.g.: v)
: Kantatālavya: E.g.: Diphthong e
: Kantōsthya: labial-velar (E.g.: Diphthong o)
The attempt of articulation of consonants (Uccāraṇa Prayatna) is of two types,
: Bāhya Prayatna: External effort
:: Spṛṣṭa: Plosive
:: Īshat Spṛṣṭa: Approximant
:: Īshat Saṃvṛta: Fricative
: Abhyantara Prayatna: Internal effort
:: Alpaprāna: Unaspirated
In linguistics, a tenuis consonant ( or ) is an obstruent that is voiceless, unaspirated and unglottalized.
In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of with a voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish ''p, t, ...
:: Mahāprāna: Aspirated
:: Śvāsa: Unvoiced
:: Nāda: Voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
Articulation of consonants
Articulation of consonants is be logical combination of components in the two prayatnams. The below table gives a view upon articulation of consonants.
Pronunciation of letters
*archaic
Writing order
Akshara
Written Kannada is composed of akshara
Aksara (also ''akshara'', Devanagari अक्षर, IAST ''akṣara'') is a Sanskrit term translating to "imperishable, indestructible, fixed, immutable" (i.e. from अ, '' a-'' "not" and क्षर्, ''kṣar-'' "melt away, perish").
It h ...
or ''kagunita'', corresponding to syllables. The letters for consonants combine with diacritics for vowels. The consonant letter without any diacritic, such as ''ka'', has the inherent vowel ''a'' . This is called ''dīrgha''. A consonant without a vowel is marked with a 'killer' stroke, such as ''k''. This is known as ''hrasva''.
The formations shown boldface above are seldom used in the normal course of the language.
Numerals
The decimal numerals in the script are:
Transliteration
Several transliteration schemes/tools are used to type Kannada characters using a standard keyboard. These include Baraha (based on ITRANS
The "Indian languages TRANSliteration" (ITRANS) is an ASCII transliteration scheme for Indic scripts, particularly for the Devanagari script.
The need for a simple encoding scheme that used only keys available on an ordinary keyboard was felt i ...
), Pada Software and several internet tools like Google transliteration, Quillpad (predictive transliterator). Nudi, the Government of Karnataka's standard for Kannada Input, is a phonetic layout loosely based on transliteration.
In popular culture
Due to its resemblance to an eye and an eyebrow, the Kannada letter ''ṭha'' is used in the "look of disapproval" (displayed as "ಠ_ಠ"), a popular emoticon
An emoticon (, , rarely , ), short for "emotion icon", also known simply as an emote, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers, and letters—to express a person's feelings, ...
used to convey disapproval or contempt. Similarly, the akshara ''rr̥a'' has been used in emoticons to represent a monocle, while ''tha'' has been used to represent a tearing eye.
Unicode
Kannada script was added to the Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.
The Unicode block for Kannada is U+0C80–U+0CFF:
See also
*Pyu script
The Pyu script is a writing system used to write the Pyu language, an extinct Sino-Tibetan language that was mainly spoken in present-day central Burma. It was based on the Brahmi-based scripts of both north and south India. The best available ...
*Goykanadi
or Kandavī is a Brahmic script that was once used in the territory of Goa to write Konkani and sometimes Marathi in the Konkan coast. Similarly, it was used by the trading Saraswat and Daivajna families along with the Modi script to mai ...
* Bhattiprolu script
* Kannada Braille
* Kannada grammar
* Kannada literature
*Kannada poetry
Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ) is the language spoken in Karnataka (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ, ಕರುನಾಡು). Karnataka has eight Jnanapeeth (ಜ್ಞಾನ ಪೀಠ ಪುರಸ್ಕೃತ) award winners, the highest honor bestowed for Indi ...
* Lari
* Official script
* Telugu script
*Grantha script
The Grantha script ( ta, கிரந்த எழுத்து, Granta eḻuttu; ml, ഗ്രന്ഥലിപി, granthalipi) is a South Indian script, found particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Originating from the Pallava script, th ...
* ISO 15919
References
External links
* — South and Southeast Asian Scripts
* — Kannada Code Chart
Kannada alphabet
— From Omniglot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kannada Script
Brahmic scripts
Kannada language
Konkani
Tulu language
Alphabets
Officially used writing systems of India