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The official language of Karnataka is Kannada, which has its
roots in the Dravidian family. Kannada language has a rich
literary tradition; with Kannada literature having seven
Jnanpith awardees to its credit. It is as old as the Tamil
language, which is also from the Dravidian family. However,
it was only in the ninth century that Kannada actually
became an independent language. Kannada is spoken by nearly
65 percent of the population of Karnataka.
Tulu, Kodava Takk and Konkani are some of the other native
languages of Karnataka. The people living in the coastal
districts of Karnataka, which consists of the districts of
Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, speak Tulu.The oldest |
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surviving Tulu text is the Tulu Mahabharato, which was
written by Arunabja in the Tulu script. Tulu script has
shown a gradual and steady decline, and thus Tulu language
uses Kannada script.
Majority of Kodavas reside in the Kodagu district. They
speak the Kodava Takk. In this language there are two
variations - one which is the northern variation and the
other which is the southern variation. They are known as
Mendale Takka and Kiggaati Takka respectively. The script
used by the Kodavas for writing is the Kannada script. The
Akademi of Tulu Sahithya and the Kodava Sahitya Akademi make
it a point to promote their respective languages. These
bodies are making sure that their languages do not die a
natural death.
People who reside in the regions of Uttara Kannada and in
some parts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts speak the
Konkani language. This language too uses the Kannada script
for its writings. Since Karnataka has a large Muslim
population, Urdu language is also spoken in Karnataka
widely.
Karnataka is slowly growing more cosmopolitan and with the
number of information technology companies making a beeline
for setting up their businesses in Karnataka, especially in
Bangaluru and Mysore, the popularity of English as a medium
of expression and communication is on the rise. Many couples
in Karnataka want their children to study in English medium
schools, so as to enhance their job prospects, and this move
has been a setback to the popularity of the Kannada language
in the recent years.
The state government promotes the use of Kannada as the
official language of Karnataka for purposes like
communication, but it is not averse to the use of English
either. There are a number of people who speak English in
Karnataka as the need for the IT industry and the tourism
industry is making English language highly popular here.
A minority of people living in the state also speak other
languages like Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Persian, Tibetan, etc.
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