The Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia.
Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was designated a "Classical Language of India" in 2013, citing its 2,500 years of continuous usage. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé), and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep. Malayalam is spoken by 35 million people in India. Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with a significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Kanyakumari, Coimbatore and Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the Malayali Diaspora worldwide, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, due to the large populations of Malayali expatriates there. They are a significant population in each city in India including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad etc.
Telugu is a Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language family, and one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India. It is one of the few languages that has primary official status in more than one Indian state, alongside Hindi and Bengali. Telugu is one of the six languages designated as a classical language by the Government of India. It is the 14th most spoken native language in the world. Modern Standard Telugu is based on the dialect of erstwhile Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari and West Godavari districts of Coastal Andhra.
Tulu is a Dravidian language whose speakers are concentrated in Dakshina Kannada and in the southern part of Udupi of Karnataka in south-western India and also in the northern parts of the Kasaragod district of Kerala. The native speakers of Tulu are referred to as Tuluva or Tulu people and the geographical area is unofficially called Tulu Nadu.
The Kodava is a Dravidian language spoken in Kodagu district (Coorg) in Southern Karnataka, India. It is an endangered The term Kodava has two related usages. Firstly, it is the name of the Kodava language and culture followed by a number of communities from Kodagu. Secondly, within the Kodava-speaking communities and region (Kodagu), it is a demonym for the dominant Kodava people. Hence, the Kodava language is not only the primary language of the Kodavas but also of many other castes and tribes in Kodagu. The language has two dialects: Mendele and Kiggat.
Bombay Hindi, also known as Bambaiya Hindi or Mumbaiya Hindi, is the Hindustani dialect spoken in Mumbai, in the Konkan region of India. Its vocabulary is largely from Hindi–Urdu, additionally, it has the predominant substratum of Marathi-Konkani, which is the official language and is also widely spoken in the Konkan division of Maharashtra. Bombay Hindi also has elements of Gujarati.
The Malayali people are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala & Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. They form the majority of the population in Kerala and Lakshadweep. They are predominantly native speakers of the Malayalam language, one of the six classical languages of India. The state of Kerala was created in 1956 through the States Reorganisation Act. Prior to that, since the 1800s existed the Kingdom of Travancore, the Kingdom of Cochin, Malabar District, and South Canara of the British India. The Malabar District was annexed by the British through the Third Mysore War (1790–92) from Tipu Sultan. Before that, the Malabar District was under various kingdoms including the Zamorins of Calicut, Kingdom of Tanur, Arakkal kingdom, Kolathunadu, Valluvanad, and Palakkad Rajas.
Hermann Gundert was a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. Gundert is chiefly known for his contributions as an Indologist, and compiled a Malayalam grammar book, Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1859), in which he developed and constricted the grammar spoken by the Malayalis, nowadays; a Malayalam-English dictionary (1872), and contributed to work on Bible translations into Malayalam. He worked primarily at Tellicherry on the Malabar coast, in present day Kerala, India. Gundert also contributed to the fields of history, geography and astronomy.
The culture of Kerala has developed over the past millennia, influences from other parts of India and abroad. It is defined by its antiquity and the organic continuity sustained by the Malayali people. Modern Kerala society took shape owing to migrations from different parts of India and abroad throughout Classical Antiquity.
Dravidian studies is the academic field devoted to the Dravidian languages, literature, and culture. It is a superset of Tamil studies and a subset of Indology.
Bhadriraju Krishnamurti was an Indian linguist who specialised in Dravidian languages. He was born in Ongole in the Madras Presidency of British India. He was the vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad from 1986 to 1993, and founded the Department of Linguistics at Osmania University, where he served as a professor from 1962 to 1986. His magnum opus, The Dravidian Languages, is considered a landmark volume in the study of Dravidian linguistics.
P. K. Pokker is an Indian academic, who works as the Professor of Philosophy in Calicut University. He is the former director of State Institute of Languages, Keralabhasha Institute. Then, from 1 July 2015 to July 2017 he became Senior Fellow of Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR)New Delhi, and Visiting Professor Vaikom Muhammed Basheer Chair, Calicut University from 2018 to 2021 February. Now he is Dean of Social Sciences ,Thunjathezhuthachan Malayalam University, Tirur, Kerala. The first book, Aadhunikotharathayude Keraleeya Parisaram published in 1996 got wider attention in Kerala and won Thayat award for literary criticism in 1997. In 2007 he got Kerala Sahithya academy award for scholarly literature. In 2023 Kerala sahitya academy conferred Vilasini award for his study of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer. In the first book an attempt was made to reveal the role of new theoretical approaches especially in understanding the cultural scenario of the world after cold-war. He has attended many national and international seminars. In academics he produced a number of PhDs and M.Phil scholars. There are about forty research articles and a good number of News paper- News weekly articles at his credit.
The State Institute of Encyclopaedic Publications (SIEP) is a cultural institution founded in 1961 under the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala, India with the objective of disseminating knowledge to the people of Kerala in their pursuit of learning. It was constituted as part of the government policy that Malayalam should be used as the medium of education, administration and judiciary.
Renganaath Ravee is an Indian sound designer, sound editor and documentary filmmaker.
Madhusudhanan is an Indian film maker and artist, also known as K. M. Madhusudhanan. His debut feature film, Bioscope has received many awards. He is working with different media in art, including sculpture, printmaking installation art and film.
Puthussery Ramachandran Pillai was an Indian poet of the Malayalam language. He was a scholar of Dravidian linguistics and a professor of Malayalam for more than three decades. On 14 March 2020, he died of age-related illnesses.
Professor Anvita Abbi is an Indian linguist and scholar of minority languages, known for her studies on tribal languages and other minority languages of South Asia. In 2013, she was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India for her contributions to the field of linguistics.
Anwar Ali, also known Anvar Ali, is an Indian poet and lyricist writing in Malayalam. He is also a literary editor and critic, translator, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker.
The importance of Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew is that linguistically these words are the earliest attestation of the Tamil language. These words were incorporated into the writing of the Hebrew Bible starting before 500 BCE. Although a number of authors have identified many biblical and post-biblical words of Tamil, Old Tamil, or Dravidian origin, a number of them have competing etymologies and some Tamil derivations are considered controversial.
Njattyela Sreedharan is a lexicographer from Thalassery in Kerala. He is known for compiling a dictionary connecting four major Dravidian languages Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.
