Kannada Alphabets & Letters

Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ) is written in its own script, a member of the Brahmi family like Devanagari, and a close cousin of the Telugu script: the two grew out of the same medieval script, which is why their round letters look so alike. It is an abugida: a consonant on its own already carries the vowel a, so ಕ is read ka, and other vowels are added as signs. Schools in Karnataka teach the alphabet (ವರ್ಣಮಾಲೆ, varnamale) as 49 letters: 13 vowels (ಸ್ವರಗಳು, swaras), 2 yogavahas (ಯೋಗವಾಹಗಳು) ಅಂ ಅಃ, and 34 consonants (ವ್ಯಂಜನಗಳು, vyanjanas).

The vowels are ಅ ಆ ಇ ಈ ಉ ಊ ಋ ಎ ಏ ಐ ಒ ಓ ಔ. Kannada keeps short and long e and o apart: ಎಲೆ (ele, leaf) starts with a short e, ಏಳು (ēḷu, seven) with a long one; ಒಳಗೆ (inside) has a short o, ಓದು (read) a long one. The consonants follow the classic order of Indian grammar: 25 grouped letters (ವರ್ಗೀಯ) in five rows of stops, ಕ ಖ ಗ ಘ ಙ, ಚ ಛ ಜ ಝ ಞ, ಟ ಠ ಡ ಢ ಣ, ತ ಥ ದ ಧ ನ, ಪ ಫ ಬ ಭ ಮ, then 9 ungrouped ones (ಅವರ್ಗೀಯ): ಯ ರ ಲ ವ ಶ ಷ ಸ ಹ ಳ.

The last of them, ಳ, is a sound English lacks: an l said with the tongue curled back. It is everywhere in everyday Kannada: ಹಳ್ಳಿ (village), ಬಾಳೆಹಣ್ಣು (banana), ಏಳು (seven). The retroflex row ಟ ಠ ಡ ಢ ಣ is said the same way, with the tongue tip turned up, while ತ ಥ ದ ಧ ನ are said with the tongue against the teeth.

Kannada has about 52 million speakers by CLDR's estimate and is the official language of Karnataka, with large communities across the borders in Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala. It is a Dravidian language, related to Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Tulu, and India declared it a classical language in 2008. The Kannada script is also used to write Tulu, Kodava and the Konkani of coastal Karnataka, so the letters on this page serve several languages.

Kagunita: the Kannada vowel signs

Kagunita (ಕಾಗುಣಿತ) is the chart every Kannada child learns after the alphabet: one consonant written with every vowel sign in turn. For ಕ it reads ಕ ಕಾ ಕಿ ಕೀ ಕು ಕೂ ಕೃ ಕೆ ಕೇ ಕೈ ಕೊ ಕೋ ಕೌ ಕಂ ಕಃ, and the same pattern runs for every consonant from ಕ to ಳ (the 'ka to la' chart). The signs are: ಾ for ಆ, ಿ for ಇ, ೀ for ಈ, ು for ಉ, ೂ for ಊ, ೃ for ಋ, ೆ for ಎ, ೇ for ಏ, ೈ for ಐ, ೊ for ಒ, ೋ for ಓ, ೌ for ಔ.

Look at the little tick on top of ಕ, ಗ or ನ: it is the talekattu (ತಲೆಕಟ್ಟು, 'head-tie'), and it stands for the vowel a. When another vowel is added, the sign takes its place: ಕ becomes ಕಿ, ಕೆ, ಕೊ. In Unicode you type the consonant first and the sign second, and the font draws the result.

Under the hood Unicode builds several Kannada signs from parts: ೀ is ಿ plus the length mark ೕ, ೇ is ೆ plus ೕ, ೈ is ೆ plus the ai length mark ೖ, ೊ is ೆ plus ೂ, and ೋ is ೊ plus ೕ. That is the only job of ೕ and ೖ; keyboards type the finished signs, so you never need the length marks on their own.

Ottakshara, the halant and the anusvara

When two consonants meet with no vowel between them, Kannada writes the second one as a small ottu (ಒತ್ತು) below or beside the first: an ottakshara (ಒತ್ತಕ್ಷರ). In Unicode the joint is made with the halant ್: ಕ + ್ + ಕ = ಕ್ಕ as in ಅಕ್ಕ (elder sister), ಮ + ್ + ಮ = ಮ್ಮ as in ಅಮ್ಮ (mother), and the name ಕನ್ನಡ itself has ನ್ನ. ಜ + ್ + ಞ = ಜ್ಞ is said jña, as in ಜ್ಞಾನ (knowledge). A ರ before another consonant becomes the arkavottu (ಅರ್ಕಾವೊತ್ತು), a small hook written after the next letter, as in ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ and ಧರ್ಮ; you still type ರ + ್ + the following consonant and the font moves it.

Shown on its own, the halant (ಹಲಂತ) marks a consonant with no vowel, as in ಕ್. Native Kannada words almost always end in a vowel, so English words borrowed into Kannada may gain one: bus is ಬಸ್ಸು (bassu), while bank is commonly written ಬ್ಯಾಂಕ್. ಙ and ಞ rarely stand alone; they mostly appear inside clusters such as ಜ್ಞಾನ.

The anusvara ಂ writes a nasal that takes the place of the next consonant: n in ಅಂಚೆ (post), ng in ಸಂಗೀತ (music), m in ಅಂಬಾರಿ. The visarga ಃ, a breathy h, lives in a few words from Sanskrit such as ದುಃಖ (sorrow). Together they are the yogavahas that close the vowel row of the school chart, ಅಂ ಅಃ.

Sanskrit and Old Kannada letters

ಋ is a vowel letter from Sanskrit, said ru in Kannada: ಋಷಿ (sage), and as a sign in ಕೃಷಿ (farming) and ಕೃಷ್ಣ. Its long partner ೠ with the sign ೄ, and the vowels ಌ and ೡ, are kept only for Sanskrit written in Kannada script; the avagraha ಽ, which marks a vowel swallowed between Sanskrit words, belongs there too. The nukta ಼ adds a dot under a letter to write sounds from Urdu, Persian and English, ಫ಼ for f and ಜ಼ for z, though most writers simply use ಫ and ಜ.

ಱ, the 'cart' r (ಶಕಟರೇಫ, shakata repha), is a letter of Old Kannada (ಹಳಗನ್ನಡ), the language of the early poets. It dropped out of use centuries ago, as did ೞ, a third l sound. Today you meet them in editions of classical poetry and in grammar books; modern spelling writes ರ and ಳ in their place.

Kannada numbers, punctuation and the rupee

Kannada has its own digits: ೦ ೧ ೨ ೩ ೪ ೫ ೬ ೭ ೮ ೯, so the year 2026 is ೨೦೨೬. They are used in books, calendars and some official and school material, but everyday Kannada writing mostly uses the international digits 0–9. Pick one set and keep it for a whole text.

Modern Kannada prose uses the same punctuation as English: the full stop, comma, question and exclamation marks, and curly quotation marks “ ” and ‘ ’. The Indian danda । and double danda ॥ (Unicode's Devanagari danda, shared by all Indian scripts) still end lines of verse and devotional songs. Prices are written with the Indian rupee sign ₹, in Kannada ರೂಪಾಯಿ.

How to type Kannada in MS Word, on a laptop and on WhatsApp

Windows 10 and 11 include Kannada keyboards: Settings → Time & language → Language & region → Add a language → Kannada, then choose the Kannada phonetic keyboard (type namaskara, get ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ) or the standard InScript layout, and switch with Windows + Space. The Karnataka government's free Nudi software and the phonetic Baraha are also widely used. macOS has Kannada input sources under System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources. On Android and iPhone, add Kannada in Gboard or the iOS keyboard settings; Gboard can also turn Latin typing into Kannada, which is the quickest way to type Kannada on WhatsApp.

In MS Word, any Unicode Kannada keyboard works; set the text in a Unicode font such as Tunga, Nirmala UI or Noto Sans Kannada. In Word for Windows, type a character's hex code and press Alt+X: 0C95 Alt+X gives ಕ. In HTML the same letter is ಕ. Many older office documents were typed in non-Unicode Nudi or Baraha fonts that store Kannada as Latin letters drawn to look like Kannada; pasted anywhere else they turn into gibberish, so convert them to Unicode before copying them to a website or a phone.