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The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 26 languages that are mainly spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, and eastern and central India.Dravidian languages are spoken by more than 200 million people, and they appear to be unrelated to languages of other known families. A few scholars include the Dravidian languages in a larger Elamo-Dravidian language family, which includes the ancient Elamite language of what is now southwestern Iran; but this is not accepted by most of the Dravidianists.
1 History
The existence of the Dravidian language family was first suggested in 1816 by Alexander D. Campbell in his Grammar of the Teloogoo Language, in which he and Francis W. Ellis argued that Tamil and Telugu were descended from a common, non-Indo-European ancestor. However, it was not until 1856 that Robert Caldwell published his Comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages, which considerably expanded the Dravidian umbrella and established it as one of the major language groups of the world. Caldwell coined the term "Dravidian" from the Sanskrit drāvida, meaning "south". The publication of the Dravidian etymological dictionary by T. Burrow and M. B. Emeneau was a landmark event in dravidian linguistics.
2 List of Dravidian Languages
National languages of IndiaIndia has a diverse list of spoken languages among different groups of people. At least 30 different languages and around 2000 dialects have been identified. The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two languages o are strongly emphasized:
2.1 Southern
- Tamil
- Kannada
- Malayalam
- TuluTulu is a Dravidian language, and is one of the minor languages of India with under 2,000,000 speakers. Most of its speakers are in the west of the state of Karnataka. The original written script of the language is rarely used today. It is normally writte
- Toda
- KotaKota is a translation of city in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language). Moreover kota is also used as a government unit above kecamatan, below province. Kota is also considered equal to kabupaten.
- Koraga
- BadagaTribal language spoken by the Badagas, modeled on dialects of Kannada. See also Badagas Dravidian languages.
- Kurumba
- Irula
2.2 South Central
- Telugu
- GondiGondi refers to a people and their language in Central India. The Gondi people are spread over the states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. The Gondis (also called Gonds) are the largest tribe in Central India. The Gondi la
- Konda
- Manda
- Pengo
- Kui
- Kuvi
2.3 Central
- Kolami
- Naiki
- Parji
- Gadaba
2.4 Northern
- Brahui (the only Dravidian langauge not spoken in India; it is spoken in Baluchistan in Pakistan)
- Kurukh
- Malto
3 Phonology
Dravidian languages are noted for the lack of distinction between voiced and unvoiced stops, like Finnish. While Dravidian languages (especially Kannada and Telugu) have large numbers of loan words from Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages which do make distinctions in voice and aspiration, the words are often mispronounced by monolingual Dravidian speakers. In fact, the Tamil alphabet lacks symbols for voiced and aspirated stops. Dravidian languages are also characterized by a three-way distinction between dental, alveolar, and retroflex places of articulation as well as large numbers of liquids.
