Kannada script

The Kannada script (IAST: "Kannaḍa lipi"; obsolete: Kannara, Kanarese or Canarese script) is an abugida of the Brahmic family, used primarily to write the Kannada language, one of the Dravidian languages of South India especially in the state of Karnataka. Kannada script is widely used for writing Sanskrit texts in Karnataka. Several minor languages, such as Tulu, Konkani, Kodava, Havyaka, Sanketi and Beary, also use alphabets based on the Kannada script. The Kannada and Telugu scripts share high mutual intellegibility with each other, and are often considered to be regional variants of single script. Other scripts similar to Kannada script are Sinhala script (which included some elements from the Kadamba script), and Old Peguan script
(used in Burma).
The Kannada script ( "akṣaramāle" or "varṇamāle") is a phonemic abugida of forty-nine letters. The character set is almost identical to that of other Brahmic scripts. Consonantal letters imply an inherent vowel. Letters representing consonants are combined to form digraphs "(" "ottakṣara)" when there is no intervening vowel. Otherwise, each letter corresponds to a syllable.
The letters are classified into three categories: "svara" (vowels), "vyañjana" (consonants), and "yōgavāhaka" (semiconsonants).
The Kannada words for a letter of the script are "akshara", "akkara", and "varṇa". Each letter has its own form ( "ākāra") and sound ( "śabda"), providing the visible and audible representations, respectively. Kannada is written from left to right.
History.
The Bhattiprolu Brahmi script evolved into the Kadamba script by the 5th century, which in turn developed into the Telugu-Kannada script (or 'Old Kannada script') in the 7th century. The Telugu and Kannada scripts then separated by around 1300 C.E.
Over the centuries some changes have been made to the Kannada script. These changes consist of:
Vowel letters.
There are thirteen (fourteen if the obsolete vowel ೠ is included) vowel letters ( "svara").
When a vowel follows a consonant, it is written with a diacritic rather than as a separate letter.
Yōgavāha.
The "Yōgavāha" (part-vowel, part consonant) include two letters:
Another two "Yōgavāha" used in Sanskrit, but present in Kannada script, are known as "Ardhavisarga":
Consonant letters.
Two categories of consonant letters ( "vyan̄jana") are defined in Kannada: the structured consonants and the unstructured consonants.
Structured 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. These consonants are shown here with their ISO transcriptions.
Unstructured consonants.
The unstructured consonants are consonants that do not fall into any of the above structures:
 (ya),
 (ra),
 (ṟa; obsolete),
 (la),
 (va),
 (śa),
 (ṣa),
 (sa),
 (ha),
 (ḻ; obsolete).
Consonant conjuncts.
The Kannada script is rich in conjunct consonant clusters, with most consonants having a standard subjoined form and few true ligature clusters. A table of consonant conjuncts follows, although the forms of individual conjuncts may differ according to font.
Consonant conjuncts with ರ (ra).
Of special note is the sequence concerning the letter (ra). Unlike other letters, the conjunct form is written second even if it is pronounced first in the sequence.
For example, the /rnaː/ in the word "Karnāṭaka" (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ) is written ರ್ನಾ rather than ರ‍್ನಾ.
Consonant conjuncts with nasal consonants.
The nasal consonants 
 (ṅa), (ña), (ṇa), (na), and (ma) are usually written as an anusvara when preceding another consonant rather than a consonant conjunct.
For example, the /ŋg/ in the word "Beṅgaḷūru" (ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು) is usually written rather than (ಬೆಙ್ಗಳೂರು).
Obsolete Kannada letters.
Kannada literary works employed the letters (transliterated " or 'rh') and (transliterated ", 'lh' or 'zh'), whose manner of articulation most plausibly could be akin to those in present-day Malayalam and Tamil. The letters dropped out of use in the 12th and 18th centuries, respectively. Later Kannada works replaced 'rh' and 'lh' with (ra) and (la) respectively.
Another letter (or unclassified "vyanjana" (consonant)) that has become extinct is 'nh' or 'inn'. Likewise, this has its equivalent in Telugu, where it is called "Nakaara pollu". The usage of this consonant was observed until the 1980s in Kannada works from the mostly coastal areas of Karnataka (especially the Dakshina Kannada district). Now, hardly any mainstream works use this consonant. This letter has been replaced by (consonant n).
Places of articulation.
There are five classifications of passive articulations:
Apart from that, other places are combinations of the above five: 
The attempt of articulation of consonants (Uccāraṇa Prayatna) is of two types,
Articulation of consonants.
Articulation of consonants is be logical combination of components in the two prayatnams. The below table gives a view upon articulation of consonants.
Akshara.
Written Kannada is composed of akshara or "kagunita", corresponding to syllables. The letters for consonants combine with diacritics for vowels. The consonant letter without any diacritic, such as "ka", has the inherent vowel "a" . This is called "dīrgha". A consonant without a vowel is marked with a 'killer' stroke, such as "k". This is known as "hrasva".
The formations shown boldface above are seldom used in the normal course of the language.
Numerals.
The decimal numerals in the script are:
Transliteration.
Several transliteration schemes/tools are used to type Kannada characters using a standard keyboard. These include Baraha (based on ITRANS), Pada Software and several internet tools like Google transliteration, Quillpad (predictive transliterator). Nudi, the Government of Karnataka's standard for Kannada Input, is a phonetic layout loosely based on transliteration.
In popular culture.
Due to its resemblance to an eye and an eyebrow, the Kannada letter "ṭha" is used in the "look of disapproval" (displayed as "ಠ_ಠ"), a popular emoticon used to convey disapproval or contempt. Similarly, the akshara "rr̥a" has been used in emoticons to represent a monocle, while "tha" has been used to represent a tearing eye.
Unicode.
Kannada script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.
The Unicode block for Kannada is U+0C80–U+0CFF: