Reading the Kannada script
๐ฏ Read your name and simple words.
๐ฃ๏ธ Say these out loud
- เฒ เฒ เฒ เฒ เฒ เฒ ๐ a aa i ee u oo the first vowels Kannada has 13 vowels and 34 consonants.
- เฒ เฒ เฒ เฒ เฒ ๐ ka kha ga gha nga the throat consonants The Sanskrit order again โ throat, palate, roof, teeth, lips.
- เฒ + เฒพ = เฒเฒพ ๐ ka + aa = kaa how the vowel mark works
- เฒเฒจเณเฒจเฒก ๐ KAN-na-da Kannada เฒ + เฒจเณ + เฒจ + เฒก. The เฒจเณ is tucked below the เฒจ โ look closely.
- เฒฎเฒจเณ ๐ MA-ne house A pure Dravidian word, cousin to Tamil เฎฎเฎฉเฏ.
- เฒจเณเฒฐเณ ๐ NEE-ru water Shared across all four Dravidian languages: เฎจเฏเฎฐเฏ, เฐจเฑเฐฐเฑ, เฒจเณเฒฐเณ, เดจเตเดฐเต.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
๐ Kannada and Telugu are twins on the page
The two scripts descend from the same Kadamba writing and separated only a few hundred years ago. A reader of one can guess most of the other, which is why South Indian signboards feel familiar once you learn either.
- Kannada เฒ / Telugu เฐ ยท Kannada เฒฎ / Telugu เฐฎ
- Both stack the second consonant underneath.
- Both put a mark above the letter to carry the vowel.
- Learn one and the second takes days rather than weeks.
๐ Among the people
Kannada's oldest surviving inscription, at Halmidi, dates from around 450 CE โ which makes the written language about 1,600 years old.
๐ Practise today
- Write your name in Kannada.
- Copy the first consonant row daily for a week.
- Compare five Kannada letters with their Telugu twins.
