Kannada language

Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ) is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, mainly spoken in the South Indian state of Karnataka. It is spoken by approximately 38 million people. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka. Kannada is also spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa, and outside India in USA, Europe, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Middle Eastern countries, Canada, Malaysia, Australia, the UK, and Singapore. In 2008 Kannada was given classical language status.

Kannada is written using the Kannada script. The earliest examples of Kannada inscription containing Brahmi characters resembling Tamil in Old Kannada script can be found in the Halmidi inscription, dated 450 AD.

The history of Kannada is divided into three periods: Old Kannada - 6th to 13th century, Middle Kannada - 14th to 18th century, and Modern Kannada 19th century to present.

Pre-old Kannada was the language of Banavasi in the early Common Era, the Satavahana and Kadamba periods and hence has a history of over 2000 years. Middle Kannada was significantly influenced by Sanskrit in vocabulary, grammar, and literature. Kannada also has Hindi and Marathi loanwords.

Kannada is a diglossic language. The written form is more or less constant throughout Karnataka. Kannada has about 20 dialects. Ethnologue classifies Kannada proper, Badaga, Holiya, and Urali as a group of "Kannada languages".

Kannada uses 49 phonemic letters: 13 vowels, 34 consonants, and two special characters, the anusvara and the visarga. Kannada script, derived from Brahmi script, is complicated like many other Indian languages with glyphs or symbols that are attached to various letters. Each written symbol in the Kannada script corresponds with one syllable, as opposed to one phoneme in languages like English. The Kannada script is also used in Tulu, Kodava Takk, and Konkani.

Info: Wikipedia