The Coorgi–Cox alphabet is an

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

developed by the

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

Gregg M. Cox that is used by a number of individuals within Kodagu district of India to write the endangered

Dravidian language The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant imm ...

of Kodava, also known sometimes as ''Coorgi''. The script uses a combination of 26

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 ...

letters, eight

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 ...

letters and a diphthong marker. Each letter represents a single sound and there are no capital letters. A computer-based font has been created. The script was developed out of the request by a group of Kodava individuals to have a distinct script for Kodava Takk, to distinguish the language. Kodava Takk is generally written in the Kannada script, but can also be found written in the Malayalam script, especially along the borders with

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. The new script is intended as a unified writing system for all Kodava Takk speakers. In order to introduce the script, 10,000 CD booklets and 25,000 post cards with various scenes from the region were produced and distributed throughout the Coorg area in March and April 2005. Several books are being planned including a

phrase book A phrase book or phrasebook is a collection of ready-made phrases, usually for a foreign language along with a translation, indexed and often in the form of questions and answers. Structure While mostly thematically structured into several ...

and dictionary.Sujet publishers, Sep. 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coorgi-Cox alphabet Kodava people Writing systems