Kannada script

History

1. Modification of existing glyphs: In the early Kannada script, no orthographic distinction was made between the short mid ಎ, ಒ and long mid ಏ, ಓ. However, distinct signs were employed to denote the special consonants viz. the trill ಱ the retroflex lateral ಳ and the retroflex rhotic ೞ found only in South Indian languages, by the 5th century.
2. Introduction of new characters: Kannada script includes characters like ಶ, ಷ, ೠ, ఌ, ౡ, ಐ, ಔ, ಅಂ, ಅಃ, and mahāprāṇa characters like ಖ, ಘ, ಛ, ಝ, ಥ, ಧ, ಠ, ಢ, ಫ, ಭ. The introduction was done so that Sanskrit could be written using the Kannada script. These changes have facilitated the use of the Kannada script for writing many of the literary Indic languages, including Sanskrit.

   Vowel letters

Yōgavāha

1. The anusvara: ಅಂ
2. The visarga: ಅಃ

1. The Jihvamuliya: ೱ
2. The Upadhmaniya: ೲ

   Consonant letters

Structured consonants

Unstructured consonants

Consonant conjuncts

Consonant conjuncts with ರ (ra)

Consonant conjuncts with nasal consonants

Obsolete Kannada letters

Pronunciation of letters

Writing order

Akshara

Numerals

Transliteration

In popular culture

Unicode