formerly Kanarese language
Dravidian language , the official language of the Indian state of Karnataka .
It is spoken by more than 33 million people in Karnataka; an additional 11 million Indians may speak it as a second language. The earliest inscriptional records in Kannada are from the 6th century. Kannada script is closely akin to Telugu script in origin. Like other major Dravidian languages, Kannada has a number of regional and social dialects and marked distinctions between formal and informal usage.