Editing Kannada (section)

== Phonology ==
[[File:Deepadadi 25.ogg|thumb|Spoken Kannada]]

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center 
! colspan="2" |
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]/<br />[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Retroflex]]
![[Postalveolar consonant|Post-alv.]]/<br />[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|{{IPA link|m}} (ಮ)
|{{IPA link|n}} (ನ)
|{{IPA link|ɳ}} (ಣ)
|({{IPA link|ɲ}}) (ಞ)
|({{IPA link|ŋ}}) (ಙ)
|
|- 
! rowspan="4"  |[[Plosive]]/<br />[[Affricate]]
!<small>voiceless</small>
|{{IPA link|p}} (ಪ)
|{{IPA link|t̪}} (ತ)
|{{IPA link|ʈ}} (ಟ)
|{{IPA link|tʃ}} (ಚ)
|{{IPA link|k}} (ಕ)
|
|-
![[Aspirated consonant|<small>aspirated</small>]]
|{{IPA link|pʰ}} (ಫ)
|{{IPA link|t̪ʰ}} (ಥ)
|{{IPA link|ʈʰ}} (ಠ)
|{{IPA link|tʃʰ}} (ಛ)
|{{IPA link|kʰ}} (ಖ)
|
|-
![[Voice (phonetics)|<small>voiced</small>]]
|{{IPA link|b}} (ಬ)
|{{IPA link|d̪}} (ದ)
|{{IPA link|ɖ}} (ಡ)
|{{IPA link|dʒ}} (ಜ)
|{{IPA link|ɡ}} (ಗ)
|
|-
!<small>[[Breathy voice|breathy]]</small>
|{{IPA link|bʱ}} (ಭ)
|{{IPA link|d̪ʱ}} (ಧ)
|{{IPA link|ɖʱ}} (ಢ)
|{{IPA link|dʒʱ}} (ಝ)
|{{IPA link|ɡʱ}} (ಘ)
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Fricative]]
|
|{{IPA link|s}} (ಸ)
|{{IPA link|ʂ}} (ಷ)
|{{IPA link|ʃ}} (ಶ)
|
|{{IPA link|h}} (ಹ)
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant]]
|{{IPA link|ʋ}} (ವ)
|{{IPA link|l}} (ಲ)
|{{IPA link|ɭ}} (ಳ)
|{{IPA link|j}} (ಯ)
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
|{{IPA link|r}} (ರ)
|
|
|
|
|}

* Most consonants can be [[geminate]]d.
* [[Aspirated consonant]]s very rarely occur in native vocabulary only in a few numerals like the number 9 and 80, which can be written with a /bʱ/, as in "ಒಂಭತ್ತು", ''ಎಂಭತ್ತು''. However, it is usually written with a /b/, as in "ಒಂಬತ್ತು", ''ಎಂಬತ್ತು''.
* The aspiration of consonants depends entirely on the speaker and many do not do it in non-formal situations.
* The alveolar trill /r/ may be pronounced as an alveolar tap [ɾ].
* The voiceless retroflex sibilant /ʂ/ is commonly pronounced as a /ʃ/ except in consonant clusters with retroflex consonants.
* There are also the consonants /f, z/ which occur in recent English and Perso-Arabic loans but they may be replaced by the consonants /pʰ, dʒ/ respectively by speakers.<ref name="bhk"/>

Additionally, Kannada included the following phonemes, which dropped out of common usage in the 12th and 18th century respectively:
* /{{IPA link|r}}/ ಱ (ṟ), the alveolar trill.
* /{{IPA link|ɻ}}/ ೞ (ḻ), the retroflex central approximant.

Old Kannada had an archaic phoneme /ɻ/ under retroflexes in early inscriptions that merged with /ɭ/ and it maintained the contrast between /r/ (< PD ∗ṯ) and /ɾ/ from (< PD ∗r). Both merged in Medieval Kannada.<ref name="bhk">{{Cite book|title= The Dravidian Languages |last= Krishnamurti |first= Bhadriraju |year= 2003 |publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn= 978-0-521-77111-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54fV7Lwu3fMC}}</ref>

In old Kannada at around 10th-14th century, most of the initial /p/ [[debuccalise]]d into a /h/ e.g. OlKn. pattu, MdKn. hattu "ten".{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=120}}

Historically, the Tamil-Malayalam languages and, independently, Telugu, phonemically palatalised /k/ before a front vowel; Kannada never developed such phonemic palatalisation (cf. Kn. ಕಿವಿ {{IPA|/kiʋi/}}, Ta. செவி {{IPA|/seʋi/}}, Te. చెవి {{IPA|/tʃeʋi/}} "ear");{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=128}} however, ''phonetically'', Kannada speakers frequently palatalise velar consonants before front vowels, for example, realising ಕಿವಿ {{IPA|/kiʋi/}} "ear" as {{IPA|[ciʋi]}} and ಗಿಳಿ {{IPA|/ɡiɭi/}} "parrot" as {{IPA|[ɟiɭi]}}.

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | [[Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan="2" |[[Central vowel|Central]]
! colspan="2" | [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! <small>short</small>
! <small>long</small>
!<small>short</small>
!<small>long</small>
! <small>short</small>
! <small>long</small>
|- style="text-align: center;"
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|i}} (ಇ)
| {{IPA link|iː}} (ಈ)
|
|
| {{IPA link|u}} (ಉ)
| {{IPA link|uː}} (ಊ)
|- style="text-align: center;"
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA link|e}} (ಎ)
| {{IPA link|eː}} (ಏ)
|
|
| {{IPA link|o}} (ಒ)
| {{IPA link|oː}} (ಓ)
|- style="text-align: center;"
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| colspan="2" |
|{{IPA link|a}} (ಅ)
|{{IPA link|aː}} (ಆ)
|
|
|}

* {{IPA|/ɐ/}} and {{IPA|/aː/}} are phonetically central {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ɐ}}, {{IPAplink|äː}}]}}. {{IPA|/ɐ/}} may be as open as {{IPA|/aː/}} ({{IPAblink|ä}}) or higher {{IPAblink|ɐ}}.
* The vowels /i iː e eː/ may be preceded by /j/ and the vowels /u uː o oː/ may be preceded by /ʋ/ when they are in an initial position.
* The short vowels /a i u e o/, when in an initial or a medial position tend to be pronounced as [ɐ ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ]. In a final position, this phenomenon occurs less frequently.
* /æː/ occurs in English loans but can be switched with /aː/ or /ja:/.<ref name="bhk"/>

At around the 8th century, Kannada raised the vowels e, o to i, u when before a short consonant and a high vowel, before written literature emerged in the language, e.g. Kn. kivi, Ta. cevi, Te. cevi "ear".{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=106}}

===Colloquial speech===
Sources:<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/598435 | jstor=598435 | last1=Bright | first1=William | title=Phonological Rules in Literary and Colloquial Kannada | journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society | date=1970 | volume=90 | issue=1 | pages=140–144 | doi=10.2307/598435 }}</ref><ref>https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Books/Linguistics/Mega%20linguistics%20pack/Dravidian/Kannada%2C%20A%20Reference%20Grammar%20of%20Spoken%20(Schiffman.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/411694 | jstor=411694 | title=Dravidian Metaphony | last1=Bright | first1=William | journal=Language | date=1966 | volume=42 | issue=2 | pages=311–322 | doi=10.2307/411694 }}</ref>

* Initial i/e have a y- onset and w- for u/o.
* In many dialects, e/o gets lowered to [æ, ɔ] when followed by non high vowels. Some dialects have /a/ as [ə] when a high vowel comes after it and [a] elsewhere.
* Final -e's become i's, in the south its mostly with verbs but in the north it happens everywhere, eg. bere > bære > bæri. This along with the previous change can create some surface minimal pairs, eg. [bæ:ɖə] "don't" vs [be:ɖə] "ask!" (conj of /be:ɖu/).