Kannada voice typing, straight into Kannada script

Unicode Kannada, and the Nudi files that predate it

The page opens with Kannada (India), tag kn-IN, already selected, and it is the only Kannada option in the menu. What comes back is Unicode Kannada: the same letters, vowel signs and ottaksharas a Kannada keyboard produces, not a romanised version and not a font trick, so it can go into a message, a form or a document with no converter in between. Save .txt writes it as a UTF-8 file, the encoding current apps expect.

That has not always been true of Kannada text. Nudi, the Kannada Ganaka Parishat’s typing software, followed the Government of Karnataka’s font-encoding standard up to version 5.0 and became Unicode-based only from version 6.0. Documents made with the older versions store Kannada in that font-based encoding, so their text and dictated text will not sit cleanly together until one of the two has been converted.

ಬಸ್ or ಬಸ್ಸು: English words and numbers in Kannada

Kannada tends to give English words a final vowel. The Alar Kannada–English dictionary enters bus as ಬಸ್ಸು, phone as ಫೋನು and doctor as ಡಾಕ್ಟರು, while news sites print both habits, ಬಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ (in the bus) beside ಬಸ್‌ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ (in the buses). The sample above has both too: ಬಸ್ಸಿಗೆ, for the bus, then ಬಸ್ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣ, the bus stand. Which form you get, and whether a borrowed word arrives in Kannada or Latin letters, is the recogniser’s choice; this page converts nothing, so settle on one spelling as you proofread.

The short o of English office and doctor has no letter of its own in Kannada script. Marathi and Gujarati use ऑ and ઑ for that sound; Kannada spells it with the long ಆ, as in ಆಫೀಸ್ and ಡಾಕ್ಟರ್, and the month ಆಗಸ್ಟ್ (August) works the same way. For an email address, a vehicle registration or any line that must stay in English, change the menu to English (India) while you say it: listening restarts in English, whatever you have dictated so far is kept, and you can change back for the next Kannada sentence.

Kannada has its own digits, ೦ to ೯, yet Prajavani and Udayavani print Western digits, and Kannada news copy attaches the ending straight to the number: 2027ರ (of 2027), 24ನೇ (24th). A number you say may come back as digits or as a word, 6 ಗಂಟೆಗೆ or ಆರು ಗಂಟೆಗೆ (at six o’clock), and this page leaves it as it arrives. Follow the newspapers’ style when you tidy up, and read phone numbers, dates and rupee amounts digit by digit.

Full stops, and the ಆ that turns a sentence into a question

Modern Kannada ends a sentence with the same full stop as English, and the upright danda (।) of Hindi prose plays no part in it. Kannada grammar calls the full stop ಪೂರ್ಣವಿರಾಮ; the comma (ಅಲ್ಪವಿರಾಮ), semicolon (ಅರ್ಧವಿರಾಮ) and question mark (ಪ್ರಶ್ನಾರ್ಥಕ ಚಿಹ್ನೆ) are the familiar characters as well. Older Kannada writing used almost none of them, and palm-leaf manuscripts simply marked the end of a verse with a vertical stroke; the modern set came into use as the study of English spread.

Question marks are the easiest to put back, because Kannada marks a yes-or-no question on the word itself with a long ಆ, written as the vowel sign ಾ at the end: ಬರುತ್ತೀರಿ means you will come and ಬರುತ್ತೀರಾ asks will you come; ಟಿಕೆಟ್ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿತಾ asks whether you got the ticket. Other questions carry a question word such as ಏನು (what), ಎಲ್ಲಿ (where), ಯಾವಾಗ (when) or ಯಾಕೆ (why). A sentence that ends in that long ಆ, or is built round one of those words, is the one that needs a question mark.

On this page every mark goes in by hand. The spoken punctuation commands are English words, so their checkbox is switched off for Kannada, and a spoken ಪೂರ್ಣವಿರಾಮ is not turned into a full stop. Dictate the whole paragraph, then make one pass for the marks: a full stop where your voice fell, a comma where you paused, a question mark after each question. That is how the comma after ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೇನೆ and the full stop after ಸಿಗೋಣ got into the sample at the top of the page.

Kannada keyboards: InScript, phonetic, Nudi and Baraha

Kannada can be typed two ways. InScript puts a Kannada letter on each key and builds ottaksharas from the virama, so you press the letters in the order you say them. The one surprise is ರ before another consonant: for ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ you type ರ, the virama and then ನಾ, and the ರ is drawn as the arkaavottu, a small mark written after ನಾ although it is pronounced first. A phonetic or transliteration keyboard takes the word in English letters instead, kannada for ಕನ್ನಡ, and offers the Kannada spelling. Transliteration is quicker to pick up; InScript types exactly what you press, with no suggestions to choose between.

• Windows 11: add Kannada from Language & region in Settings and the Kannada INSCRIPT keyboard comes with it. For typing by sound, open Kannada’s Language options and add Kannada Phonetic. Whichever is active, the taskbar shows ಕ in place of ENG.
• Kannada software for Windows: Nudi, from the Kannada Ganaka Parishat, has been Unicode-based since version 6.0. Baraha, a Windows-only program, offers phonetic Kannada typing with a limited free mode and a one-time paid licence.
• Mac: three Kannada input sources, named InScript, QWERTY and Transliteration, are listed in System Settings under Keyboard, Text Input.
• Android: Gboard has a Kannada layout and a Kannada transliteration layout, plus keyboards for Tulu and for Konkani written in Kannada script.
• iPhone and iPad: Apple offers Kannada (Alphabetic), Kannada (InScript) and Kannada (Transliteration) keyboards under Settings, General, Keyboard. Gboard’s language list for iPhone does not include Kannada.

Google has Kannada dictation; Apple and Microsoft do not

Every major platform types Kannada, but far fewer will take it by voice. Google’s services are the working route: this page or Google Docs on a Windows PC or a Mac, and Gboard on an Android phone. Where things stood when this page was last checked, in September 2026:

• Google Docs: choose Kannada from the language menu in the voice typing box, which opens from Tools. Google’s help page says the browser controls the speech-to-text service there, as it does on this page. The spoken punctuation words it lists are English ones (period, comma, question mark), and voice commands need an English account and an English document, so a Kannada document still gets its marks from the keyboard.
• Gboard on Android: Kannada has been among Gboard’s voice typing languages since Google’s 2017 expansion. With Kannada added as a Gboard language, the microphone key dictates Kannada in apps where Gboard is your keyboard.
• Apple: three Kannada keyboards come with iOS and iPadOS, and macOS has three Kannada input sources, but Kannada is not among the languages Dictation accepts on any of them.
• Microsoft: neither Windows 11 voice typing, the panel that opens with the Windows key and H, nor Dictate in Microsoft 365 lists Kannada. Both cover Marathi, Tamil and Telugu, the main languages of Karnataka’s neighbours Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

ಹೋಗ್ತೀನಿ or ಹೋಗುತ್ತೇನೆ, ಲ or ಳ, ಬ or ಭ: what to check

Speak the Kannada you want to read. Written Kannada is largely standardised on the Mysuru–Bengaluru variety, while spoken Kannada varies from region to region: Dharwad Kannada, Mangaluru Kannada, Havyaka Kannada and Kundagannada all sound different. Even in Bengaluru people say ಹೋಗ್ತೀನಿ where a letter would have ಹೋಗುತ್ತೇನೆ (I will go), and ಇವತ್ತು where formal prose uses ಇಂದು (today). The recogniser may keep colloquial forms as you said them, so for a formal letter or an application, dictate in the written register or plan to edit.

Proofread the sounds Kannada depends on. Everyday words differ by a single sound: ಬಲೆ (net) and ಬಳೆ (bangle), ಕತ್ತು (neck) and ಕಟ್ಟು (to tie), ಬಲ (right) and ಬಾಲ (tail). Check ಲ against ಳ, dental against retroflex consonants, and short against long vowels first, especially if the room was noisy or the microphone was far away.

Then look at the aspirated letters. Most Kannada words spelt with ಭ, ಧ, ಘ or ಖ are borrowings, largely from Sanskrit, and many speakers do not aspirate them in everyday talk, so ಸಭೆ (meeting), ಭಾಷೆ (language) and ಧನ್ಯವಾದ (thank you) can sound as if they had the plain ಬ and ದ. The recogniser has to choose between the plain and the aspirated letter from a sound that may not carry the difference. In formal words, names and anything official, check ಬ against ಭ, ದ against ಧ and ಗ against ಘ, or give those words their full aspirated sound as you dictate.

One script, five languages: Kannada, Tulu, Konkani, Kodava and Beary

Kannada is the official language of Karnataka and one of India’s classical languages, a status the Government of India granted in 2008. The 2011 Census counted about 43.7 million people whose first language is Kannada, most of them in Karnataka. Its script, a close relative of the Telugu script, is also used to write Tulu, Konkani, Kodava and Beary.

That shared script causes confusion. The kn-IN recogniser is built for the Kannada language, not for everything written in Kannada letters, so Tulu, Konkani or Kodava speech will not come out as those languages. For Tulu and Konkani, typing on Gboard’s keyboards for them on Android is the realistic option.