Tamil-Kannada languages

The Tamil-Kannada languages are a part of the family of Dravidian languages that include Tamil and Kannada. Both are recognized as official languages of India and are spoken mainly in South India. Both the languages are the off-shoots of the South-Proto-Dravidian branch. The separation of Tamil and Kannada occurred after the separation of Tulu and before the separation of Kodagu branch from South-Proto-Dravidian language, somewhere around 2000-1500 BC.

Phonetic comparison between current Tamil and Kannada

Tamil at present has both retroflex lateral and retroflex fricative, while Kannada has retained only the retroflex lateral. Evidences show that both retroflex fricative and the retroflex laterals were once (before the 10th century) present in Kannada also. However all the retroflex fricatives changed in to retroflex laterals in Kannada later.

In Kannada, the bilabial voiceless plosive ('p-') at the beginning of many words have disappeared to produce a velar fricative (h) or have disappeared completely. This change is unique to Kannada in the Dravidian family. Tamil doesn't show this change.

Tamil, like Telugu, shows the conversion of velar plosives ('k-') in to palatal plosives at the beginning of the words (refer to comparative methods for details). Kannada however, is totally inert to this change and hence the velar plosives are retained as such or with minimum changes in the corresponding words.