Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ kannaḍa; also, less commonly, Kanarese) is one of the major Dravidian languages of southern India. Speakers of its various dialects number roughly 40 million people. It is the state language of Karnataka, one of the four southern states in India. It is written using the Kannada script.

History

The first example of Kannada writing can be found in the Halmidi inscription, dated c. 450 CE.

"Kavirajamarga (850AD) of king Nripatunga Amoghavarsha of the Rashtrakuta dynasty is the earliest literary work available in Kannada." History of Kannada literature, Dr. Jyothsna Kamat.

The book however makes references to earlier Kannada works dating back to 6th century (King Durvinita of Ganga dynasty of Talkad)The first record on Kannada language is traced to Emperor Ashoka's Brahmagiri edict dated 230 BC.

The development of Kannada as a distinct language from a proto-Dravidian language is probably impossible to date. However, the written tradition of this language is around 1500-1600 years based on the archeological evidences. The initial development of the Kannada language is similar to that of other Dravidian languages. During later centuries, Kannada, along with other indian languages like Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi etc., has been highly influenced by Sanskrit vocabulary and literary styles.

Kannada is a highly inflected language with three genders (masculine, feminine, neutral or common) and two numbers (singular, plural). It is inflected for gender, number and tense, among other things.

"The Great Greek dramatists of the 4th century B.C., particularly Euripedes and Aristophanes, appear to have been familiar with the Kannada country and the Kannada language, and had actually used Kannada phrases and expressions in the dialogues of their characters. This shows a far more intimate contact of the Greeks with Kannada Indian culture than with Indian Culture elsewhere."

"Kannada is one of



the most ancient literatures not only of South India, but of all India as well. The antiquity of Kannada literature as at present goes back to the 9th century of the Christian era, but as the first work available in Kannada happens to be a work of grammar, it can quite safely be inferred that Kannada must have already had an older flourshing history before that period. As a matter of fact, references in the Tamil Buddhist commentators of the 10th century A.D. (Comentary on Nemrinatham, a Tamil grammatical work,) show that Kannada literature must have flourished as early as the Post-Sangam period of Tamilnadu, i.e., the 4th century A.D." — The place of Kannada and Tamil in Indias national culture, Sri K. Appadurai,INTAMM. 1997

"Perhaps being the oldest language next to Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Tamil, Kannada country and language have a rich heritage. Most of the works in literature and secular sciences mentioned in reference books like Kavirajamarga are still not to be traced. But works of later centuries mention now extinct works on various topics. Thus, Chudamani (a 96,000 verse-measures), a commentary on logic Tatwarthamahashastra by Tambulacharya belonged to the 7th century. Naturally, no shastra (science) treatise could be written so voluminously unless the language in vogue is not fully developed. Epigraphs prove the antiquity of the Kannada language". -History of Kannada Literature, Dr. Jyotsna Kamat

Some intersting facts about Kannada language history and antiquity can be found in this link below.

Dialects

There is also a sharp distinction between the spoken and written forms of the language. Spoken Kannada tends to vary from region to region. The written form is more or less constant throughout Karnataka, however. The ethnologue identifies about 20 dialects of Kannada. Notable of them are Kunda (spoken exclusively in Kundapura), Havyaka (spoken mainly by Havyaka Brahmins), Are Bhashe (spoken mainly in Sullia region of Dakshina Kannada), Soliga Kannada, Badaga Kannada, Gulbarga Kannada, Dharavada Kannada, Chitradurga Kannada etc..

Classification

The written Kannada language has come under various religious and social influences in its 1600 years of known existence. Linguists generally divide the written form into four broad categories.

• Poorvada Halegannada (Pre-ancient Kananda) : This is the language of Halmidi scripture thought to be from fourth or fifth century.
• Halegannada (Ancient Kannada) : From ninth century CE onwards, until fourteenth century Kannada works were classified under 'Ancient Kannada'. In this period Kannada developed into a matured language. Mostly Jain and Saivite poets produced works in this period.

This period saw the emergence of Vachana Sahitya, a unique and native form of literatureand is the sum contributions from all sections of society.

• Nadugannada ( Middle
  
  
  
  Kannada) : In this period Brahmanical Hinduism had a great influence on Kannada. A Kannada grammar based on Sanskrit grammar was developed by Keshiraja Bhatta. Language itself Sanskritized to a large extent. Non-brahmin Hindu saints like Kanakadasa and Prrandaradasa also produced devotional poems in this period. Kanakadasa's Ramadhanya Charite is a rare work on class struggle. This period saw the advent of Haridasa Sahitya which made rich contributions to bhakti literature and sowed the seeds of carnatic music.
• Hosagannada ( Modern Kannada) : The Kannada works produced by the end of nineteenth century and later are classified under Hosagannada or Modern Kannada. However, till the beginning of twentieth century there were Kannada literary works that could still be classified under Middle Kannada. Most notable among them is poet Muddana's works. Sometimes, his works were described as the 'dawn of Modern Kannada'. Generally, linguists treat Indira Bai or Saddharma Vijayavu by Gulvadi Venkata Raya as the first literary work in Modern Kannada.

Current Literary Trends

Modern Kannada in twentieth century has been influenced by many movements. Notable among them are Navodaya, Navya, Dalita/Bandaya.Presently Kannada literature is ahead of all other languages in India with seven Jnanpith awards and forty six Sahitya Academy awards.

Geographic distribution

Kannada is mainly spoken in Karnataka in India, and to a good extent in the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and in Kerala.

Official status

Kannada is one of the 22 official languages of India and is the official language of the state of Karnataka.

Kannada script

Main article: Kannada script

The language has 52 letters phonemic and according to academic profile 49 letters are present in Kannada language. These 49 letters are divided into two groups: Swaragalu (15 letters) and "Vyanjanagalu" (34 letters), similar to the vowels and consonants of English, respectively. The character set is almost identical to that of other Indian languages. The script itself, derived from brahmi script, is fairly complicated like most other languages of India owing to the occurrence of various combinations of "half-letters", or symbols that attach to various letters in a manner similar to diacritical marks (such as aigüe, grave, and cédille marks) in the Romance languages. The Kannada script is almost perfectly phoetic, but for the sound of a "half n" (which becomes a half m). The number of written symbols, however, is far more than the 52 characters in the alphabet, because different characters can be combined to form compound characters (ottaksharas). Each written symbol in the Kannada script corresponds with one syllable, as opposed to one phoneme in languages like English. The script of Kannada is also used in other languages such as Tulu, Kodava Takk and Konkani.

Transliteration

Several transliteration schemes are used to type Kannada characters using a standard keyboard. These include Baraha (based on ITRANS) and Nudi, the government of Karnataka's standard for Kannada transliteration.

Unicode

Extinct Kannada Letters

Until thirteenth century, Kannada literary works employed letters 'rh', 'lh(zh)', whose manner of articulation most plausibly could be akin to those in present day Malayalam. Tamil is supposed to exhibit only 'lh' and not 'rh'. The later Kannada works replaced 'rh' and 'lh' with ರ(ra) and ಳ(La) respectively.

Another letter (or unclassified vyanjana(consonant)?) that has become extinct is 'nh' or 'inn'(Again this has its equivalent in Malayalam). The usage of this consonant was observed until the 1980s in mostly coastal Karnataka(especially, Dakshina Kannada district) Kannada works. Now hardly any mainstream works use this consonant. This letter has been replaced by ನ್(consonant n).

The Dictionary

A German priest Reverend Ferdinand Kittel composed the first Kannada dictionary consisting of more than 70,000 words.

See also

• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• Bangalore kannada
• Kannada Proverbs

Kannada Literature

Learning Resources

• A means to transliterate from romanized English to Unicode Kannada

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