REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF
UNITED NATIONS ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS FOR GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Compiled by the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
Version 4.0, March 2016

Kannada

The United Nations recommended system was approved in 1972 (II/11) and amended in 1977 (III/12), based on a report prepared by D. N. Sharma. The tables and their corrections were published in volume II of the conference reports^1,2.

There is no evidence of the use of the system either in India or in international cartographic products.

Kannada uses an alphasyllabic script whereby each character represents a syllable rather than one sound. Vowels and diphthongs are marked in two ways: as independent characters (used syllable-initially) and in an abbreviated form, to denote vowels after consonants. The romanization table is unambiguous. The system is mostly reversible but there may exist some ambiguities in the romanization of vowels (independent vs. abbreviated characters) and consonants (combinations with subscript consonants vs. character sequences).

Romanization

I. Independent vowel characters

1	ಅ	a
2	ಆ	ā
3	ಇ	i
4	ಈ	ī
5	ಉ	u
6	ಊ	ū
7	ಋ	ṛ
8	ಎ	ĕ
9	ಏ	e
10	ಐ	ai
11	ಒ	ŏ
12	ಓ	o
13	ಔ	au

II. Abbreviated vowel characters and other symbols (ಕ stands for any consonant character)

1	ಕ	aA
2	ಕಾ	ā
3	ಕಿ	iB
4	ಕೀ	ī
5	ಕು	uC
6	ಕೂ	ūD
7	ಕೃ	ṛ
8	ಕೆ	ĕ
9	ಕೇ	e
10	ಕೈ	ai
11	ಕೊ	ŏ
12	ಕೋ	o
13	ಕೌ	au
14	ಕಂ	ṁ
15	ಕಃ	ḥ
16	್	(E)

• ^A While most consonants have a diacritic in the upper right corner of the character (like ಕ), some do not, e.g. ಖ kha, ಜ ja, ನ na, ಬ ba, ಲ la.
• ^B Variations of the diacritic, e.g. ಗಿ gi, ದಿ di.
• ^C Variations of the diacritic: ಪು pu, ಫು phu, ವು vu.
• ^D Variations of the diacritic: ಪೂ pū, ಫೂ phū, ವೂ vū.
• ^E Pronunciation without a vowel: ಕ್ k.

III. Consonant characters

1	ಕ	ka
2	ಖ	kha
3	ಗ	ga
4	ಘ	gha
5	ಙ	ṅa
6	ಚ	cha
7	ಛ	chha
8	ಜ	ja
9	ಝ	jha
10	ಞ	ña
11	ಟ	ṭa
12	ಠ	ṭha
13	ಡ	ḍa
14	ಢ	ḍha
15	ಣ	ṇa
16	ತ	ta
17	ಥ	tha
18	ದ	da
19	ಧ	dha
20	ನ	na
21	ಪ	pa
22	ಫ	pha
23	ಬ	ba
24	ಭ	bha
25	ಮ	ma
26	ಯ	ya
27	ರ	ra
28	ಲ	la
29	ವ	va
30	ಶ	sha
31	ಷ	ṣha
32	ಸ	sa
33	ಹ	ha
34	ಳ	ḷa

IV. Subscript consonant characters (with ಕ or ಲ /in lines 31, 33/ as base character)

1	ಕ್ಕ	kA
2	ಕ್ಖ	kh
3	ಕ್ಗ	g
4	ಕ್ಘ	gh
5	ಕ್ಙ	ṅ
6	ಕ್ಚ	ch
7	ಕ್ಛ	chh
8	ಕ್ಜ	j
9	ಕ್ಝ	jh
10	ಕ್ಞ	ñ
11	ಕ್ಟ	ṭB
12	ಕ್ಠ	ṭh
13	ಕ್ಡ	ḍ
14	ಕ್ಢ	ḍh
15	ಕ್ಣ	ṇ
16	ಕ್ತ	tC
17	ಕ್ಥ	th
18	ಕ್ದ	d
19	ಕ್ಧ	dh
20	ಕ್ನ	n
21	ಕ್ಪ	pD
22	ಕ್ಫ	ph
23	ಕ್ಬ	b
24	ಕ್ಭ	bh
25	ಕ್ಮ	m
26	ಕ್ಯ	y
27	ಕ್ರ	r
28	ಕ್ಲ	l
29	ಕ್ವ	v
30	ಕ್ಶ	sh
31	ಲ್ಷ	ṣh
32	ಕ್ಸ	s
33	ಲ್ಹ	h
34	ಕ್ಳ	ḷ

• ^A Subscript combinations: ಕ್ಕ್ರ kr, ಕ್ಕ್ಷ kṣh.
• ^B Subscript combination: ಕ್ಟ್ರ ṭr.
• ^C Subscript combinations: ಕ್ತ್ರ tr, ಕ್ತ್ಯ ty.
• ^D Subscript combination: ಕ್ಪ್ರ pr.

Combinations with r as the first component are written by adding a special symbol after the second consonant: ರ್ಗ rga.

Other systems of romanization

For differences between the UN system and the ISO transliteration standard ISO 15919: 2001 see the section on the romanization of Hindi.

References

1. Second United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. London, 10–31 May 1972. Vol. II. Technical papers. United Nations. New York 1974, pp. 147–148.
2. Third United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Athens, 17 August – 7 September 1977. Vol. II, Technical papers, pp. 393 etc.