Hinduism: Details about 'Kannada Script'

Index / Hinduism / Sanskrit Language / Kannada Script /

Navigation

Home
One level up
Back
Index of contents
Links
Hinduism-Shop

Useful Links


Hinduism Portal
History Hindu deities Denominations Mythology Reincarnation Karma
Nirvana Dharma Ayurveda Scriptures Festivals By country

The Kannada script is an abugida of the Brahmic family, primarily to write the Kannada language, one of the Dravidian languages in India. It is also used for Konkani, Tulu and Kodava languages.

Contents

General

The script has 49 characters in its alphasyllabary and is phonemic. The Kannada character set is almost identical to that of other Indian languages. The number of written symbols, however, is far more than the 49 characters in the alphasyllabary, 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 Kannada writing system is an abugida, with consonants appearing with an inherent vowel.

The is classified into three categories: swaras (or vowels), vyanjanas (or consonants) and yogavaahas (part vowel/part consonants).

Note: Unicode character entities used below. You will need a font that supports Kannada to see the characters. English transliterations based on Unicode character names listed next to symbol.howÁ

Vowels

There are fourteen vowels (swaras): ಅ (a), ಆ (aa), ಇ (e), ಈ (ee), ಉ (u), ಊ (uu), ಋ (rr), ೠ (between rruu and rrii); ಎ (a~), ಏ (ea), ಐ (ai), ಒ (o), ಓ (oo), ಔ (ou)

Consonants

Two types of consonants are



identified 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. The five consonants in each structured group, in order, are voiceless, voiceless aspirate, voiced, voiced aspirate, and nasal.

Structured consonants

Velars - ಕ (ka), ಖ (kha), ಗ (ga), ಘ (gha), ಙ (nga)

Palatals - ಚ (ca), ಛ (cha), ಜ (ja), ಝ (jha), ಞ (nya)

Retroflex - ಟ (tta), ಠ (ttha), ಡ (dd), ಢ (ddha), ಣ (nna)

Dentals - ತ (ta), ಥ (tha), ದ (da), ಧ (dha), ನ (na)

Labials - ಪ (pa), ಫ (pha), ಬ (ba), ಭ (bha), ಮ (ma)


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), ಲ (la), ವ (va), ಶ (sha), ಷ (ssa), ಸ (sa), ಹ (ha), ಳ (lla)

Yogavaahas

The yogavaahas (part-vowel, part consonant) include the anusvara: ಂ (am), and the visarga: ಃ (ah)ǐǔŌ

Numbers

The decimal numbers in the script are: ೦ (0), ೧ (1), ೨ (2), ೩ (3); ೪ (4), ೫ (5), ೬ (6), ೭ (7), ೮ (8), ೯ (9)

Kannada language
Kannada literature | Kannada
Hubli kannada | Kannada language
Kannada film industry | Kannada alphabet | Kannada film | Kannada poetry | Kannada Saahithya Parishath
Skritur kannadek

Kannada-Schrift Каннада (письменность)


Visitors who viewed this also viewed:

Hinduism: Guru Nanak
Hinduism: Orissa
Hinduism: Schools Of Hinduism
New Age: Critias Plato
Buddhism: Nirvana Sutra
Christianity: Book Of Joshua


 


Click here for our Hinduism-Shop





This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Kannada_script". A list of the wikipedia authors can be found here.