Kannada is a Dravidian language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Karnataka. Kannada is spoken in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Goa, and Kerala in India, as well as in the United States, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Kannada was spoken by approximately 56.4 million people in 2011, with 43 million of them being native speakers.
Kannada is Karnataka’s official and administrative language, and it was designated as a classical Indian language in 2011. Banglori, Canarese, Havyaka, and Kanarese are some of the other names given to it.
Kannada was first written down as words in Tamil inscriptions from the third to first centuries BC. The oldest known Old Kannada texts date from 450 AD and are written in the Brahmi script. Kannada’s poetry and literary works first appeared in 700 AD and 850 AD respectively.
The Kannada alphabet evolved from the Kadamba and Clukya scripts, which were used between the 5th and 7th centuries AD and were descended from Brahmi. These scripts evolved into the Old Kannada script, which morphed into the Kannada and Telugu scripts by around 1500. Kannada and Telugu scripts were standardized in the early nineteenth century under the influence of Christian missionary organizations.
Kannada was often written with the Tigalari script, which was formed in Karnataka in the 12th century.