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. The Dravidian Race is the name sometimes still given to the peoples of southern and central India and northern Sri Lanka who speak Dravidian languages, the best known of which are Tamil (தமிழ்), Telugu (తెలుగు), Kannada and Malayalam. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families (families hereforth). ... A map of South India, its rivers, regions and water bodies. ... The Elamo-Dravidian languages are a hypothesised language family which includes the living Dravidian languages of India and Pakistan, in addition to the extinct Elamite language of ancient Elam, in what is now southwestern Iran. ... Elamite is an extinct language, which was spoken in the ancient Elamite Empire. ...

History

The origins of the Dravidian languages, as well as their subsequent development and the period of their differentiation, are unclear, and the situation is not helped by the lack of comparative linguistic research into the Dravidian languages. There are striking similarities between the Dravidian and Uralic and Altaic language groups, which suggest prolonged contact between the language families at some stage although a common origin appears unlikely. Inconclusive attempts have also been made to link the family with the Japonic languages, Basque, Korean, Sumerian, the Australian Aboriginal languages and the unknown language of the Indus valley civilisation. Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time, by means of examining languages which are recognizably related through similarities such as vocabulary, word formation, and syntax, as well as the surviving records of ancient languages. ... Geographical distribution of Samoyedic, Finnic, Ugric and Yukaghir languages The Uralic languages form a language family of about 30 languages spoken by approximately 20 million people. ... Altaic is a language family which includes 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and Far East. ... The Japonic languages are a language family believed to descend from a common language known as Proto-Japonic. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Sumerian language of ancient Sumer was spoken in Southern Mesopotamia from at least the 4th millennium BC. Sumerian was replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language around 2000 BC, but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial and scientific language in Mesopotamia until about 1 AD. Then, it... The Australian Aboriginal languages are a Australia, and the rest are descended linguistically from them. ... The Indus Valley Civilization existed along the Indus River and the Vedic Sarasvati River in present-day Pakistan. ...

Legends common to many Dravidian-speaking groups speak of their origin in a vast, now-sunken continent far to the south. Many linguists, however, tend to favour the theory that speakers of Dravidian languages spread southwards and eastwards through the Indian subcontinent, based on the fact that the southern Dravidian languages show some signs of contact with linguistic groups which the northern Dravidian languages do not. Proto-Dravidian is thought to have differentiated into Proto-North Dravidian, Proto-Central Dravidian and Proto-South Dravidian around 1500 BC, although some linguists have argued that the degree of differentiation between the sub-families points to an earlier split. Composite satellite image of the Indian subcontinent Map of South Asia. ... Proto-Dravidian is the proto-language of the Dravidian languages. ...

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, which was used in a 7th century text to refer to the languages of the south of India. The publication of the Dravidian etymological dictionary by T. Burrow and M. B. Emeneau was a landmark event in Dravidian linguistics. 1816 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Tamil is the first language ever to exist since human literature. ... Telugu (తెలుగు) belongs to the family of Dravidian languages and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. ... 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814 -1891) was an orientalist who pioneered the study of the Dravidian languages with his influential work Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages (1856; revised edition 1875). ... The Sanskrit language ( संस्कृता वाक्) is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family and is not only a classical language, but also an official language of India. ...

List of Dravidian languages

National languages of India are in boldface: India has a diverse list of spoken languages among different groups of people. ...

Southern

• Tamil
• Kannada
• Malayalam
• Tulu
• Toda
• Kota
• Koraga
• Badaga
• Kurumba
• Irula
• Kodava Thakk

Tamil is the first language ever to exist since human literature. ... Kannada should not be confused with the nation of Canada. ... Note: Malayalam is not the Malay language, which is spoken in Malaysia. ... Tulu is one of the Dravidian languages of India with under 2,000,000 speakers. ... Toda is a minor Dravidian language well known for its many fricatives and trills. ... The Badaga language is a southern Dravidian language (Tamil-Kannada branch) spoken by approximately 250,000 people in the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India. ... Kodava Thakk, often called Coorgi or Coorg language in English, is the original language of the south Karnataka district of Kodagu. ...

South Central

• Telugu (తెలుగు)
• Gondi
• Konda
• Manda
• Pengo
• Kui
• Kuvi

Telugu (తెలుగు) belongs to the family of Dravidian languages and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. ...

Central

• Kolami
• Naiki
• Parji
• Gadaba

Northern

• Brahui (the only Dravidian language not spoken in India or Sri Lanka; it is spoken in Baluchistan in Pakistan)
• Kurukh

The Brahui language is mainly spoken in Balochistan, Pakistan, although also in Afghanistan and Iran. ... The Oraon or Kurukh are a tribal (Adivasi) people of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, India. ...

Phonology

Dravidian languages are noted for the lack of distinction between voiced and unvoiced stops, like Finnish. While Dravidian languages (especially Malayalam, 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. The Sanskrit language ( संस्कृता वाक्) is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family and is not only a classical language, but also an official language of India. ... The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Dentals are consonants articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both. ... Alveolars are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, the internal side of the upper gums (known as the alveoles of the upper teeth). ... Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial in English yes corresponds to ). The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. ...

Reversal property

Words in Dravidian languages have the property where by reversing the consonants and applying a well defined set of transformations of the vowels, another word with a similar meaning is obtained. Over time, one form may represent the general case and the other end up representing a special case.

For example:

• Erasu (gather) and sEru (join)
• kaNu (look) and iNuku (peep)
• atta (attic) reverses to itself.

Words starting with vowels

A substantial number of words also begin and end with vowels, which helps the languages' agglutinative property.

aLu (cry), elumbu (bone), adu (that), alli (there), idu (this), illai (no, absent)

adu-idil-illai (that-this-in-absent = that is absent in this)

Sanskrit Influence

Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu have been relatively more influenced by Sanskrit and have borrowed the aspirated consonants. Sanskrit words and derivatives are common in Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu. Tamil is the least influenced and retains the closest form of the Proto-Dravidian language. Kannada - aptly described as sirigannada (known to few as Kanarese) is one of the oldest Dravidian languages and is spoken in its various dialects by roughly 45 million people. ... Malayalam (മലയാളം) is the major language of the state of Kerala, in southern India. ... Telugu belongs to the family of Dravidian languages and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. ... The Sanskrit language ( संस्कृता वाक्) is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family and is not only a classical language, but also an official language of India. ... Tamil is the first language ever to exist since human literature. ...

Theories on the derivation of Dravidian languages

The vast majority of linguists believe that the Dravidian language family is completely unrelated to any other language families. However, there exist several fringe views on the origin of Dravidian languages.

Some people claim a relationship between Dravidian and the Indo-European language family: either that both descended from a common ancestor, or that Dravidian is the common ancestor of Indo-European languages. These views are largely politically motivated. Proponents of the latter theory often use wordlists showing superficial similarities between the modern representatives of these two families. For instance: Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ...

• one'du = one
• kare = vocare (cry out) [Latin]
• ba're = scribere (write) [Latin]
• atta = attic
• hala[di] = yellow

Linguists generally dismiss such analysis as flawed, in that comparisons should be made between the earliest known examples of languages in the groups being compared, and should exhibit regular sound change (see: Comparative method). Applying such reasoning to the above list, for example, shows: The comparative method (in linguistics) is a method used to detect genetic relationships between languages and to establish a consistent relationship hypothesis by reconstructing: the common ancestor of the languages in question, a plausible sequence of regular changes by which the historically known languages can be derived from that common...

• Applying the principle of regular sound change, the reconstructed proto-Dravidian word for "one" is *oru. English "one" on the other hand can be traced back to Old Germanic *ainaz and Proto-Indo-European *oynos.
• The final -are/-ere on vocare and scribere is the Latin infinitive ending, and not a part of the word root proper. "Kare" and "voc" bear significantly less mutual resemblance.
• English "attic" comes from Greek Αττική (Attiki), the name of a region of Greece (see: Attica, Greece), which many scholars believe to have been taken into the Greek language from the non-Indo-European peoples (Pelasgians) who lived there before the Greeks arrived. In addition, it has changed meaning over the years, and it is thus pure coincidence that its present meaning and pronunciation bears resemblances to the Tamil form.
• Yellow is derived from Old English geolu, which bears little resemblance to Kannada haladi.

Based on a few typological similarities relationships between the Dravidian languages and the Finno-Ugric languages have also been proposed. But these have not been well received either. Sound change or phonetic change is a historical process of language change consisting in the replacement of one speech sound or, more generally, one phonetic feature by another in a given phonological environment. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ... This article is about Attica in Greece. ... Ancient Greek writers used the name Pelasgians (Gk. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Kannada - aptly described as sirigannada (known to few as Kanarese) is one of the oldest Dravidian languages and is spoken in its various dialects by roughly 45 million people. ... Approximate geographical distribution of areas where indigenous Finno-Ugric languages are spoken. ...

References

• The Dravidian Languages / by Bhadriraju Krishnamurti / Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0521771110
• A comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages / by Robert Caldwell. 3rd ed. rev. and edited / by J.L. Wyatt, T. Ramakrishna Pillai. New Delhi : Asian Educational Services, 1998. ISBN 8120601173
• A grammar of the Teloogoo language, commonly termed the Gentoo, peculiar to the Hindoos inhabiting the northeastern provinces of the Indian peninsula / by A.D. Campbell. 3d ed. Madras, Printed at the Hindu Press, 1849

External links

• Dravidian Etymological Dictionary. The complete dravidian etymological dictionary in a searchable online form.
• Dravidian languages page in SIL Ethnologue.
• Dravidian vs. Finnish A tract which claims to draw a relation between Dravidian and Finno-Ugric languages.
• Discovery of Dravidian as the source of Indo-European Languages. A paper claiming that Proto-Dravidian is the common ancestor of Indo-European languages.
• Dravidian from Etruscan Paper claiming a relationship between Dravidian and Etruscan.
• Dravidian origin of the Guanches. A paper claiming a Dravidian origin for the language of the Guanches.
• Tamil and Japanese
• http://www.brahui.tk A site by Shafique-Ur-Rehman, Its all about Brahui People live mostly in Balochistan, Pakistan.