The Kannada language

Brief account of its origin .development ,status and its usage .

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Kannada ( Kannaa) is one of the major Dravidian languages of India Native speakers are called Kannadigas ( Kannadigaru), number roughly 38 million, making it the 27th most spoken language in the world.

It is one of the official languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka.

Ministry of Culture, the Government of India has officially recognized Kannada as a classical language.

Kannada is attested epigraphically from the mid-1st

millennium CE, and literary Old Kannada flourished in the 9th to 10th century Rashtrakuta Dynasty. Contemporary Kannada literature is the most successful in India, with India's highest literary honor, the Jnanpith awards, having been conferred seven times upon Kannada writers, which is the highest for any language in India

The 6th Century Kannada inscriptions at Badami

The initial development of the Kannada language is similar to that of other Dravidian languages and independent of Sanskrit.
During later centuries, Kannada, along with other Dravidian languages like Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, etc., has been greatly influenced by

Sanskrit in terms of vocabulary, grammar and literary styles

Pre-old Kannada (Purava HaleGannada or) was the

language of Banavasi in the early Common Era, the Satavahana and Kadamba periods and hence has a history of over 2000 years. The Ashoka rock edict found at Brahmagiri (dated to 230 BC) has been suggested to contain a word in identifiable Kannada. Mostly Jain and Saivite poets produced works in this period.

Old Kannada inscriptions at Arasikere

Halmidi_Old Kannada_inscription

Old Kannada Inscription at Kukunoor

Written tradition of Kannada begins in the 5th to 6th

century CE. The earliest examples, resembling those of Tamil, in Hale Kannada (Old Kannada) script can be found in the Halmidi inscription, dated 450 CE The 5th century Tamatekallu inscription of Chitradurga and the Chikkamagaluru inscription of 500 CE are further examples. Over 30,000 inscriptions written in the Kannada language have been discovered so far. From the ninth to fourteenth centuries CE, Kannada works were classified under Old Kannada (Halegannada).

1.

In the period between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries CE, Brahmanical Hinduism had a great influence on Middle Kannada (Nadugannada) language and literature. Non-Brahmin Hindu saints produced devotional poems in this period.

2. This period saw the advent of Haridasa Sahitya which

made rich contributions to bhakti literature and sowed the seeds of Carnatic music.

The Kannada works produced by the end of the

nineteenth century and later are classified as Hosagannada or Modern Kannada.

Most notable among them are the poet Muddana's works.

His works may be described as the "Dawn of Modern Kannada".

The language uses forty-nine phonemic letters, divided into three groups: Swaragalu (vowels thirteen letters); Yogavaahagalu ( Not vowel, Not Consonant, two letters, and ); and Vyanjanagalu (Consonants - thirty-four letters),

similar to the vowels and consonants of English, respectively.

The Kannada script is almost perfectly phonetic, but for the sound of a "half n" (which becomes a half m). The number of written symbols, however, is far more than the forty-nine characters in the alphabet, because different characters can be

combined to form compound characters (vattaksharas)

The Kannada alphabet

Kannada (Kanarese or Canarese) script is derived from the Old Kannda script. Old Kannada script is the continuation of the Kadamba script involved during 10th century CE, used to write the Kannada and Telugu languages, called as Kannada-Telugu script. Modern scripts of Kannada and Telugu started to separate as early as the 13th century CE (During 1100 CE - 1400 CE). The Kadamba script is evolved from the Brahmi script (during 5th century CE).

Shravanabelagola_Chandragiri

Each sound has its own distinct letter, and therefore every word is pronounced exactly as it is spelt; so the ear is a sufficient guide. After the exact sounds of the letters have been once gained, every word can be pronounced with perfect accuracy. The accent falls on the first syllable

Grammar
The first authoritative known book on Kannada grammar is Shabdhamanidarpana by Keshiraaja. The first available Kannada book is a treatise on poetry Kaviraja Maarga.

The variations of dialects are several. Janapadas of Soliga, Badaga and other tribes of Karnataka having rich contribution to Kannada literature have their own style. Various districts of Kannada have mixed variations of dialects like Dharwad Kannada, Sankethi, Havigannada, Are Bhashe, Mysooru Kannada, Kundagannada etc.

Kannada is mainly spoken in Karnataka in India, and to a good extent in the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa, as well as in sizeable communities in the USA, Europe, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Middle Eastern countries, Canada, Malaysia, Australia, the UK, and Singapore.

The official and administrative software is

Nudi .

The user friendly and commonly used software is

Baraha The other softwares include Shri lipi

etc

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