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The Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia.
Tamil is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and union territory of Puducherry, and the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in the four other South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also spoken by the Tamil diaspora found in many countries, including Malaysia, Myanmar, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Indonesia, and Mauritius. Tamil is also natively spoken by the Sri Lankan Moors. One of 22 scheduled languages in the Constitution of India, Tamil was the first to be classified as a classical language of India.
Languages spoken in the Republic of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians; both families together are sometimes known as Indic languages. Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino–Tibetan, Tai–Kadai, and a few other minor language families and isolates. According to the People's Linguistic Survey of India, India has the second highest number of languages (780), after Papua New Guinea (840). Ethnologue lists a lower number of 456.
Kinnauri is the most widely used language in Kinnaur. The languages have seen different nomenclatures in written literature. Kinnauri was mentioned as Kunawaree, Kanauri, Kanawari and Kunawari. It is the language of upper caste in lower Kinnaur. It is also spoken in Moorang tehsil and, Ropa and Giabong villages in upper Kinnaur. It is a Sino-Tibetan dialect cluster centered on the Kinnaur district of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
South Dravidian is one of the four major branches of the Dravidian languages family. It includes the literary languages Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu, as well as several non-literary languages such as Badaga, Irula, Kota, Kurumba, Toda and Kodava.
Chenchu language is a Dravidian language which belongs to the Telugu branch of its South-Central family. This language is spoken mostly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states in India by about 280,764 people of the Chenchu Aboriginal forests hunter-gatherer tribe. It is also called Chenchukulam, Chenchwar, Chenswar or Choncharu.
Proto-Dravidian is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Dravidian languages native to the Indian subcontinent. It is thought to have differentiated into Proto-North Dravidian, Proto-Central Dravidian, and Proto-South Dravidian, although the date of diversification is still debated.
The Sholaga (Soliga) language is a Dravidian language related to Kannada and Tamil, spoken by the Soliga people.
The Betta Kurumba language is a Dravidian language closely related to Kannada and Tamil, and is spoken by 32,000 people in the Nilgiri mountains and in adjoining areas in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Beṭṭa (ಬೆಟ್ಟ) means “hills” in Kannada and kurumba (ಕುರುಬ) means “shepherd”.
Brahmin Tamil is the name of a dialect of Tamil traditionally spoken by Tamil Brahmins. The dialect, largely, uses Classical Tamil along with a heavy proportion of Sanskrit derivatives.
The Northern Dravidian languages are a branch of the Dravidian languages that includes Brahui, Kurukh and Malto.. It is further divided into Kurukh–Malto and Brahui.
Kamil Václav Zvelebil was a Czech scholar in Indian literature and linguistics, notably Tamil, Sanskrit, Dravidian linguistics and literature and philology.
Manna-Dora is either a nearly extinct Dravidian language closely related to Telugu, or a dialect of Telugu. It is spoken by the eponymous Scheduled Tribe in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Waddar, or Vadari, is a Dravidian language which belongs to the Telugu branch of its South-Central family, spoken among social caste of Waddars scattered over South India, and Sri Lanka especially in Karnataka, where it has a status of Scheduled caste. 200,000 people reported their languages as 'Vadari' in the 2011 census. Ethnologue treats it as separate Dravidian language closely related to Telugu, but without clear grounds. Waddars show their close relevance to Kaikadis.
The Dravidian peoples are an ethnolinguistic supraethnicity composed of many distinct ethnolinguistic groups native to South Asia. They speak the Dravidian languages, which have a combined total of about 250 million native speakers. Dravidians form the majority of the population of South India and Northern Sri Lanka.
The Harappan language is the unknown language or languages of the Bronze Age Harappan civilization. The Harappan script has long defied attempts to read it, and therefore the language remains unknown. The language being unattested in any readable contemporary source, hypotheses regarding its nature are reduced to purported loanwords and substratum influence, the substratum in Vedic Sanskrit and a few terms recorded in Sumerian cuneiform, in conjunction with analyses of the undeciphered Indus script.
Kattunayakar or Jennu Kurumbas an indigenous community, is a designated scheduled tribe in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh. The word Kattunayakar காட்டு நாயகர் / ಕಾಡು ನಾಯಕರು means the king of the jungle in Tamil and Kannada. The Kattunayakar are one of the earliest known inhabitants of the Western Ghats, who are engaged in the collection and gathering of forest produce, mainly wild honey and wax.
Malaysian Tamil, also known as Malaya Tamil, is a local variant of the Tamil language spoken in Malaysia. It is one of the languages of education in Malaysia, along with English, Malay and Mandarin. There are many differences in vocabulary between Malaysian Tamil and Indian Tamil.
Telangana Telugu, often referred to as Hyderabadi Telugu is a dialect of the Telugu language. It has its own history, spoken mostly in the Indian state of Telangana. This dialect, which is spoken in the Hyderabad region, is highly influenced by Hyderabadi Urdu, also called Dakhani or Deccani Urdu, at least in the vocabulary.
Jenu Kurumba, also known as Jen Kurumba or Jennu Kurumba, is a Southern Dravidian language of the Tamil–Kannada subgroup spoken by the Jennu Kurumba/Kattunayakan tribe. It is often considered to constitute a dialect of Kannada; however, Ethnologue classifies it as a separate language. Jenu Kurumba speakers are situated on the Nilgiri Hills cross-border area between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Mysore and Kodagu districts of Karnataka, and Wayanad district of Kerala. The speakers of the language call it "nama basha".
References
- 1 2 Mukha-Dora at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ↑ Zvelebil (1990), p. 57.
- ↑ "List of notified Scheduled Tribes" (PDF). Census India. pp. 21–22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
