KANNADA LANGUAGE - ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆ

Kannada is the state language of Karnataka, one of the four southern states in India. It is also one of the official languages of the Republic of India. It is written using the Kannada script. Kannada is almost as old as Tamil, the truest of the Dravidian family.
Dravidian language, the official language of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is spoken by more than 33 million people in Karnataka; an additional 11 million Indians may speak it as a second language. The earliest inscriptional records in Kannada are from the 6th century. Kannada script is closely akin to Telugu script in origin. Like other major Dravidian languages, Kannada has a number of regional and social dialects and marked distinctions between formal and informal usage.