Kannada is a Southern Dravidian language spoken mainly in the state of Karnataka in the southwest of India. There are also Kannada speakers in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Goa and Kerala, and in the USA, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In 2011 there were about 56.4 million speakers of Kannada, including 43 million native speakers.

Kannada is the official and administrative language of Karnataka, and was officially designated a classical language of India in 2011. It is also known as Banglori, Canarese, Havyaka or Kanarese.

Kannada first appeared in writing from the 3rd-1st centuries BC. The earliest known texts in Old Kannada were written in the Brahmi script and are dated at 450 AD. Poetry in Kannada started to appear in 700 AD, and literary works from 850 AD.