Kodava is one of several scripts that have been under development in Karnataka, reports Prathik Ponnanna, State President of the Karnataka Linguistic Minorities Association, or KaLMA.
Byari and Konkani are in development, but Tulu and Kodava are now approved and out, so to speak, in public.
The Konkani script was actually one of five proposed scripts, including the Coorgi-Cox script created by linguist Gregg Cox in 2005. In February 2022, after extensive deliberation, the Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy, a government body in Karnataka which represents eighteen Kodava-speaking communities, chose as the official script of the Kodava language a script created in 1970 by Dr IM Muthanna, a linguist who has written books in Kodava, English and Kannada.
The recognition by the Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy means that the script, now called Kodava Lipi, can be taught in schools and used for official notifications and posters. It is already in use in signage, and online classes began on April 1, 2023.
Update: Prathik Ponnanna writes (September 2023) “We will be introducing the below charts throught posters in Kodagu, Tulunad, Mysuru and Hassan, Also parts of Kannur, Kasaragod, Wayanad in our efforts to popularize and promote Kodava Tribal Language, this will happen over a period of two years.”
15.3173° N, 75.7139° E
