The Kodagu Alphabet

Kodagu ^[1] (also known as Kodava Takk or Coorgi) is a South Dravidian language spoken by the Kodava people of Coorg (Kodagu district), Karnataka, India.

The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) documents Kodagu as a distinct South Dravidian language with its own phonological and grammatical system, written in the Kannada script.

Despite sharing the writing system with Kannada, Kodava Takk is not mutually intelligible with Kannada — the two are genetically related but linguistically separate.

Kodagu ^[2] is written in the Kannada script — a Brahmic abugida encoded in the Unicode Kannada block (U+0C80–U+0CFF).

The Kannada script is shared with the Kannada language, the Tulu language and several other regional languages of Karnataka.

The Unicode Consortium encodes all the letters required for Kodagu writing in this block, making Kodagu text fully compatible with modern digital systems.

Kodagu ^[1] belongs to the South Dravidian I subgroup of the Dravidian language family — the same subgroup as Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.

The CIIL documents Kodagu as a distinct branch within South Dravidian I, with significant differences from Kannada in phonology, grammar and vocabulary.

Kodava Takk preserves archaic Dravidian features that distinguish it from its literary South Dravidian relatives.

Kodagu ^[1] is spoken primarily in Kodagu district (Coorg) of Karnataka, India — the hill district in the Western Ghats known for coffee plantations and the martial tradition of the Kodava people.

The CIIL documents Kodagu as a minority language of the Coorg highlands, with speaker communities also found in Mysore, Mangalore and Bengaluru.

Significant out-migration over the past century means Kodava speakers are now found in cities across India, particularly in the Indian Army where the Kodava community has a strong tradition of service.

Kodagu ^[1] and Kannada are both South Dravidian languages and both use the Kannada script, but they are distinct languages that are not mutually intelligible.

The CIIL documents Kodagu (Kodava Takk) as a separate language with its own phonological inventory, grammatical structures and vocabulary.

While Kodava Takk speakers in Karnataka typically learn Kannada as a second language, the two are genetically related but linguistically separate — like Catalan and Spanish in Europe.

Kodagu (Kodava Takk) ^[1] faces pressure from Kannada — the official language of Karnataka and the dominant language of education and administration in the region.

While the Kodava people maintain a strong cultural identity, Kodava Takk is a minority language with a relatively small speaker base. Younger Kodava people growing up in Bengaluru or other cities often use Kannada or English as their primary language.

The CIIL supports documentation of minority Indian languages including Kodagu, and community organisations actively promote Kodava Takk among younger generations.

Kodava Takk ^[1] means "the language of the Kodava people" — takk is the Kodava word for language or speech.

The Kodava people are the indigenous community of the Coorg (Kodagu) highlands of Karnataka.

The CIIL documents Kodava Takk as the endonym — the name speakers use for their own language — distinguishing it from the exonym "Kodagu" used in Kannada and "Coorgi" used in English.

Kodagu (Kodava Takk) ^[1] has a rich consonant inventory characteristic of South Dravidian languages. It includes four stop series (velar, palatal, retroflex and dental), aspirated consonants, and the retroflex laterals ḷ and ḻ — sounds that set it apart from neighbouring Indo-Aryan languages.

The Kannada script ^[2] represents these phonemes, though Kodava Takk also preserves sounds beyond the standard Kannada inventory.

This makes Kodagu phonologically distinct even from its closest genetic relatives — a testament to its status as an independent South Dravidian language.