Page "Kannada language" Paragraph 3

Kannada is a southern Dravidian Language and the history of Kannada is conventionally divided in four periods: Purva Halegannada from the 5th century ( as per early epigraphic records ), the Halegannada ( Old Kannada, 9th to 14th century ), the Nadugannada ( Middle Kannada, 14th to 18th century ), and Hosagannada ( Modern Kannada, 1800 to present ).

Kannada is influenced to an appreciable extent by Sanskrit.

According to the Dravidian scholars Bhadriraju Krishnamurti and Kamil Zvelebil, Kannada and Tamil split into independent languages from the proto Tamil-Kannada sub-group around 5th-6th.

century B. C.

or earlier, Influences of other languages such as Prakrit and Pali can also be found in Kannada language.

The scholar Iravatham Mahadevan proved that Kannada was already a language of rich oral tradition earlier than 3rd century B. C., and based on the native Kannada words found in Prakrit and Sanskrit inscriptions of that period, Kannada must have been spoken by a widespread and stable populations.

The scholar K. V.

Narayana claims that many tribal languages which are now designated as Kannada dialects could be nearer to the earlier form of the language with lesser influence from other languages.