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Alphabet of the Kannada language, one of the Dravidian languages in India.
General
The language has 49 characters in its alphabet and is phonetic. 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 alphabet, owing to the fact that 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 alphabet 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.
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)
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)
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