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'''Dravidian languages''' (or sometimes Dravidic<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of Dravidic {{!}} Dictionary.com |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dravidic |website=www.dictionary.com |language=en}}</ref> languages) are a [[language family|family of languages]] spoken by 250 million people, mainly in [[South India|southern India]] and north-east [[Sri Lanka]], with pockets elsewhere in [[South Asia]].{{sfnp|Steever|2020|p=1}}<ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopedia|title= Overview of Dravidian languages |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=4 July 2018}}</ref> Since the [[colonial era]], there have been small but significant immigrant communities outside the [[Indian subcontinent]] in [[Mauritius]], [[Myanmar]], [[Singapore]], [[Malaysia]], [[Indonesia]], [[Philippines]], [[United Kingdom]], [[Australia]], [[France]], [[Canada]], [[Germany]], [[South Africa]], and the [[United States]].
'''Dravidian languages''' (or sometimes Dravidic<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of Dravidic {{!}} Dictionary.com |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dravidic |website=www.dictionary.com |language=en}}</ref> languages) are a [[language family|family of languages]] spoken by 250 million people, mainly in [[South India|southern India]], [[Pakistan]], and north-east [[Sri Lanka]], with pockets elsewhere in [[South Asia]].{{sfnp|Steever|2020|p=1}}<ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopedia|title= Overview of Dravidian languages |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=4 July 2018}}</ref> Since the [[colonial era]], there have been small but significant immigrant communities outside the [[Indian subcontinent]] in [[Mauritius]], [[Myanmar]], [[Singapore]], [[Malaysia]], [[Indonesia]], [[Philippines]], [[United Kingdom]], [[Australia]], [[France]], [[Canada]], [[Germany]], [[South Africa]], and the [[United States]].


The Dravidian languages are first attested in the 2nd century BCE as [[Tamil-Brahmi]] script inscribed on the cave walls in the [[Madurai]] and [[Tirunelveli]] districts of [[Tamil Nadu]].{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=22}}{{efn|Earlier fragmentary finds have been claimed, e.g. at [[Keeladi|Keezhadi]] near [[Madurai]], [[Tamil Nadu]], but have not been conclusively established (see {{section link||Literature}}).}} The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are (in descending order of number of speakers) [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Kannada]] and [[Malayalam]], all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are [[Tulu language|Tulu]] and [[Kodava language|Kodava]].{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=20–21}} There are also a number of Dravidian-speaking [[List of Scheduled Tribes in India|scheduled tribes]], such as the [[Kurukh people|Kurukh]] in Eastern India and [[Gondi people|Gondi]] in Central India.<ref name="West2009">{{cite book|last=West|first=Barbara A.|title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=PA713|date=1 January 2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-1913-7|page=713}}</ref>
The Dravidian languages are first attested in the 2nd century BCE as [[Tamil-Brahmi]] script inscribed on the cave walls in the [[Madurai]] and [[Tirunelveli]] districts of [[Tamil Nadu]].{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=22}}{{efn|Earlier fragmentary finds have been claimed, e.g. at [[Keeladi|Keezhadi]] near [[Madurai]], [[Tamil Nadu]], but have not been conclusively established (see {{section link||Literature}}).}} The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are (in descending order of number of speakers) [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Kannada]] and [[Malayalam]], all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are [[Tulu language|Tulu]] and [[Kodava language|Kodava]].{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=20–21}} There are also a number of Dravidian-speaking [[List of Scheduled Tribes in India|scheduled tribes]], such as the [[Kurukh people|Kurukh]] in Eastern India and [[Gondi people|Gondi]] in Central India.<ref name="West2009">{{cite book|last=West|first=Barbara A.|title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=PA713|date=1 January 2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-1913-7|page=713}}</ref>

Revision as of 16:44, 23 March 2022

Dravidian
Geographic
distribution		South Asia and Southeast Asia, mainly South India and north-east Sri Lanka
Linguistic classificationOne of the world's primary language families
Proto-languageProto-Dravidian
Subdivisions
  • Northern
  • Central
  • South-Central
  • Southern
Language codes
ISO 639-2 / 5dra
Linguasphere49= (phylozone)
Glottologdrav1251
Distribution of the Dravidian languages
Part of a series on
Dravidian culture and history
Origin
Indus Valley Civilisation Keezhadi excavation site
History
Dravidian dynasties
Culture
Language
Religion
Regions
People
Politics

Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic[1] languages) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, Pakistan, and north-east Sri Lanka, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia.[2][3] Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant immigrant communities outside the Indian subcontinent in Mauritius, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, South Africa, and the United States.

The Dravidian languages are first attested in the 2nd century BCE as Tamil-Brahmi script inscribed on the cave walls in the Madurai and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu.[4][a] The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are (in descending order of number of speakers) Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are Tulu and Kodava.[5] There are also a number of Dravidian-speaking scheduled tribes, such as the Kurukh in Eastern India and Gondi in Central India.[6]

Only two Dravidian languages are spoken exclusively outside the post-1947 state of India: Brahui in the Balochistan region of Pakistan and Afghanistan; and Dhangar, a dialect of Kurukh, in parts of Nepal and Bhutan.[7] Dravidian place names along the Arabian Sea coasts and Dravidian grammatical influence such as clusivity in the Indo-Aryan languages, namely, Marathi, Gujarati, Marwari, and Sindhi, suggest that Dravidian languages were once spoken more widely across the Indian subcontinent.[8][9]

It is thought that the Dravidian languages were the most widespread indigenous languages in the Indian subcontinent before the advance of the Indo-Aryan languages.[10] Though some scholars have argued that the Dravidian languages may have been brought to India by migrations from the Iranian plateau in the fourth or third millennium BCE[11][12] or even earlier,[13][14] the Dravidian languages cannot easily be connected to any other language family and could well be indigenous to India.[15][10][16][b]

Etymology

The origin of the Sanskrit word drāviḍa is the word Tamiḻ.[18] Kamil Zvelebil cites the forms such as dramila (in Daṇḍin's Sanskrit work Avantisundarīkathā) damiḷa (found in the Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) chronicle Mahavamsa) and then goes on to say, "The forms damiḷa/damila almost certainly provide a connection of dr(a/ā)viḍa " with the indigenous name of the Tamil language, the likely derivation being "*tamiṟ > *damiḷ > damiḷa- / damila- and further, with the intrusive, 'hypercorrect' (or perhaps analogical) -r-, into dr(a/ā)viḍa. The -m-/-v- alternation is a common enough phenomenon in Dravidian phonology".[19]

Bhadriraju Krishnamurti states in his reference book The Dravidian languages:[20]

Joseph (1989: IJDL 18.2:134-42) gives extensive references to the use of the term draviḍa, dramila first as the name of a people, then of a country. Sinhala BCE inscriptions cite dameḍa-, damela- denoting Tamil merchants. Early Buddhist and Jaina sources used damiḷa- to refer to a people of south India (presumably Tamil); damilaraṭṭha- was a southern non-Aryan country; dramiḷa-, dramiḍa, and draviḍa- were used as variants to designate a country in the south (Bṛhatsamhita-, Kādambarī, Daśakumāracarita-, fourth to seventh centuries CE) (1989: 134–138). It appears that damiḷa- was older than draviḍa- which could be its Sanskritization.

Based on what Krishnamurti states (referring to a scholarly paper published in the International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics), the Sanskrit word draviḍa itself is later than damiḷa since the dates for the forms with -r- are centuries later than the dates for the forms without -r- (damiḷa, dameḍa-, damela- etc.).

Discovery

Linguistic Survey of India (1906) map of the distribution of Dravidian languages

The 14th century Sanskrit text Lilatilakam, which is a grammar of Manipravalam, states that the spoken languages of present-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu were similar, terming them as "Dramiḍa". The author doesn't consider the "Karṇṇāṭa" (Kannada) and the "Andhra" (Telugu) languages as "Dramiḍa", because they were very different from the language of the "Tamil Veda" (Tiruvaymoli), but states that some people would include them in the "Dramiḍa" category.[21]

In 1816, Alexander D. Campbell suggested the existence of a Dravidian language family in his Grammar of the Teloogoo Language,[22] in which he and Francis W. Ellis argued that Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu and Kodava descended from a common, non-Indo-European ancestor.[23] In 1856 Robert Caldwell published his Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages,[24] which considerably expanded the Dravidian umbrella and established Dravidian as one of the major language groups of the world. Caldwell coined the term "Dravidian" for this family of languages, based on the usage of the Sanskrit word द्रविदा (Dravidā) in the work Tantravārttika by Kumārila Bhaṭṭa.[25] In his own words, Caldwell says,

The word I have chosen is 'Dravidian', from Drāviḍa, the adjectival form of Draviḍa. This term, it is true, has sometimes been used, and is still sometimes used, in almost as restricted a sense as that of Tamil itself, so that though on the whole it is the best term I can find, I admit it is not perfectly free from ambiguity. It is a term which has already been used more or less distinctively by Sanskrit philologists, as a generic appellation for the South Indian people and their languages, and it is the only single term they ever seem to have used in this manner. I have, therefore, no doubt of the propriety of adopting it.[26]

The 1961 publication of the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary by T. Burrow and M. B. Emeneau proved a notable event in the study of Dravidian linguistics.[27]

Classification

The Dravidian languages form a close-knit family. Most scholars agree on four groups: South (or South Dravidian I), South-Central (or South Dravidian II), Central, and North Dravidian, but there are different proposals regarding the relationship between these groups. Earlier classifications grouped Central and South-Central Dravidian in a single branch. On the other hand, Krishnamurti groups South-Central and South Dravidian together.[28]

Some authors deny that North Dravidian forms a valid subgroup, splitting it into Northeast (Kurukh–Malto) and Northwest (Brahui).[32] Their affiliation has been proposed based primarily on a small number of common phonetic developments, including:

  • In some words, *k is retracted or spirantized, shifting to /x/ in Kurukh and Brahui, /q/ in Malto.
  • In some words, *c is retracted to /k/.
  • Word-initial *v develops to /b/. This development is, however, also found in several other Dravidian languages, including Kannada, Kodagu and Tulu.

McAlpin (2003)[33] notes that no exact conditioning can be established for the first two changes, and proposes that distinct Proto-Dravidian *q and *kʲ should be reconstructed behind these correspondences, and that Brahui, Kurukh-Malto, and the rest of Dravidian may be three coordinate branches, possibly with Brahui being the earliest language to split off. A few morphological parallels between Brahui and Kurukh-Malto are also known, but according to McAlpin they are analyzable as shared archaisms rather than shared innovations.

In addition, Ethnologue lists several unclassified Dravidian languages: Allar, Bazigar, Bharia, Malankuravan (possibly a dialect of Malayalam), and Vishavan. Ethnologue also lists several unclassified Southern Dravidian languages: Mala Malasar, Malasar, Thachanadan, Ullatan, Kalanadi, Kumbaran, Kunduvadi, Kurichiya, Attapady Kurumba, Muduga, Pathiya, and Wayanad Chetti. Pattapu may also be Southern.

A computational phylogenetic study of the Dravidian language family was undertaken by Kolipakam, et al. (2018).[34] Kolipakam, et al. (2018) supports the internal coherence of the four Dravidian branches South (or South Dravidian I), South-Central (or South Dravidian II), Central, and North, but is uncertain about the precise relationships of these four branches to each other. The date of Dravidian is estimated to be 4,500 years old.[34]

Distribution

Speakers of Dravidian languages, by language

  Telugu (30.5%)
  Tamil (26%)
  Kannada (22.4%)
  Malayalam (14.4%)
  Gondi (1.2%)
  Brahui (0.9%)
  Tulu (0.7%)
  Kurukh (0.8%)
  Beary (0.7%)
  Others (2.3%)

Since 1981, the Census of India has reported only languages with more than 10,000 speakers, including 17 Dravidian languages. In 1981, these accounted for approximately 24% of India's population.[35][36]

In the 2001 census, they included 214 million people, about 21% of India's total population of 1.02 billion.[37] In addition, the largest Dravidian-speaking group outside India, Tamil speakers in Sri Lanka, number around 4.7 million. The total number of speakers of Dravidian languages is around 227 million people, around 13% of the population of the Indian subcontinent.

The largest group of the Dravidian languages is South Dravidian, with almost 150 million speakers. Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam make up around 98% of the speakers, with 75 million, 44 million and 37 million native speakers, respectively.

The next-largest is the South-Central branch, which has 78 million native speakers, the vast majority of whom speak Telugu. The total number of speakers of Telugu, including those whose first language is not Telugu, is around 84 million people. This branch also includes the tribal language Gondi spoken in central India.

The second-smallest branch is the Northern branch, with around 6.3 million speakers. This is the only sub-group to have a language spoken in Pakistan — Brahui.

The smallest branch is the Central branch, which has only around 200,000 speakers. These languages are mostly tribal, and spoken in central India.

Languages recognized as official languages of India appear here in boldface.

North Dravidian languages
Language Number of speakers Location
Brahui 2,430,000 Balochistan (Pakistan), Helmand (Afghanistan), Beluchistan. Kerman (Iran)
Kurukh 2,280,000 Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar (India)
Malto 234,000 Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal (India)
Kurambhag Paharia 12,500 Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha
Central Dravidian languages
Language Number of speakers Location
Kolami 122,000 Maharashtra, Telangana
Duruwa 51,000 Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh
Ollari 15,000 Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
Naiki 10,000 Maharashtra
South-Central Dravidian languages
Language Number of speakers Location
Telugu 81,100,000 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and parts of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, United States, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Mauritius, Australia, South Africa, Canada, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Myanmar, France, Singapore and Réunion.
Gondi 2,980,000 Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
Kui 942,000 Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
Koya 360,000 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh
Madiya 360,000 Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Maharashtra
Kuvi 155,000 Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
Pengo 350,000 Odisha
Pardhan 135,000 Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh
Khirwar 36,400 Chhattisgarh (Surguja district)
Chenchu 26,000 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana
Konda 20,000 Andhra Pradesh, Odisha
Muria 15,000 Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha
Manda 4,040 Odisha
South Dravidian languages
Language Number of speakers Location
Tamil 75,000,000 Tamil Nadu, Puducherry (including Karaikal), parts of Andhra Pradesh (Chittoor, Nellore), parts of Karnataka (Bangalore, Bangalore Rural, Chamarajanagar, Kolar, Mysore, Ramanagara), parts of Kerala (Palakkad, Idukki), Thiruvananthapuram), parts of Telangana (Hyderabad), parts of Maharashtra (Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Pune), Andaman and Nicobar, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, China, Saudi Arabia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Réunion and Seychelles[38][39][unreliable source?]
Kannada 44,000,000 Karnataka, parts of Kerala (Kasaragod), Kozhikode), Kannur), Wayanad), Malappuram), parts of Maharashtra (Kolhapur, Solapur, Sangli), parts of Tamil Nadu (Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem, Nilgiris, Krishnagiri), parts of Andhra Pradesh (Anantapur, Kurnool), parts of Telangana (Hyderabad, Medak, Jogulamba Gadwal, Narayanpet, Sangareddy, Vikarabad district), United States, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Netherlands
Malayalam 37,000,000 Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahe district of Puducherry, Parts of Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Kodagu, Mysore and Bangalore), parts of Tamil Nadu (Chennai, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Nagercoil, and Kanyakumari), Maharashtra (Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Pune), United Arab Emirates, United States, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, United Kingdom, Qatar, Bahrain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Israel, Ireland,[40] Germany, Austria[41] Finland, [42] Japan,[43] Pakistan[44]
Tulu 1,850,000 Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada, Udupi districts) and Kerala (Kasaragod district), Across Maharashtra especially in cities like Mumbai, Thane and Gulf Countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain)[45]
Beary 1,500,000 Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada, Udupi districts) and Kerala (Kasaragod district) and Gulf Countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain)
Irula 200,000 Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris district), Karnataka (Mysore district)
Kurumba 180,000 Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris district)
Badaga 133,000 Karnataka (Mysore district), Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris district)
Kodava 114,000 Karnataka (Kodagu district)
Jeseri 65,000 Lakshadweep
Yerukala 58,000 Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana
Betta Kurumba 32,000 Karnataka (Chamarajanagar district, Kodagu district, Mysore district), Kerala (Wayanad district), Tamil Nadu (Nilgiri District)
Kurichiya 29,000 Kerala (Kannur district, Kozhikode district, Wayanad district)
Ravula 27,000 Karnataka (Kodagu district), Kerala (Kannur district, Wayanad district)
Mullu Kurumba 26,000 Kerala (Wayanad district), Tamil Nadu (The Nilgiris District)
Sholaga 24,000 Tamil Nadu, Karnataka (Mysore district)
Kaikadi 26,000 Madhya Pradesh (Betul district), Maharashtra (Amravati district)
Paniya 22,000 Karnataka (Kodagu district), Kerala, Tamil Nadu
Kanikkaran 19,000 Kerala, Tamil Nadu (Kanyakumari district, Tirunelveli district)
Malankuravan 18,600 Tamil Nadu (Kanyakumari district), Kerala (Kollam district, Kottayam district, Thiruvananthapuram district)
Muthuvan 16,800 Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore district, Madurai district)
Koraga 14,000 Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada, Udupi districts) and Kerala (Kasaragod district)
Kumbaran 10,000 Kerala (Kozhikode district, Malappuram district, Wayanad district)
Paliyan 9,500 Kerala (Idukki district, Ernakulam district, Kottayam district), Tamil Nadu, Karnataka
Malasar 7,800 Kerala (Palakkad district), Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore district)
Malapandaram 5,900 Kerala (Kollam district, Pathanamthitta district), Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore district, Madurai district, Viluppuram district)
Eravallan 5,000 Kerala (Palakkad district), Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore district)
Wayanad Chetti 5,000 Karnataka, Kerala (Wayanad district), Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore district, The Nilgiris District, Erode district)
Muduga 3,400 Kerala (Palakkad district), Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore district, The Nilgiris District)
Thachanadan 3,000 Kerala (Malappuram district, Wayanad district)
Kadar 2,960 Kerala (Thrissur district, Palakkad district), Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore district)
Toda 1,560 Karnataka (Mysore district), Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris district)
Attapady Kurumba 1,370 Kerala (Palakkad district)
Kunduvadi 1,000 Kerala (Kozhikode district, Wayanad district)
Mala Malasar 1,000 Kerala (Palakkad district), Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore district)
Pathiya 1,000 Kerala (Wayanad district)
Kota 930 Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris district)
Kalanadi 750 Kerala (Wayanad district)
Holiya 500 Madhya Pradesh (Balaghat district, Seoni district), Maharashtra, Karnataka
Aranadan 200 Kerala (Malappuram district)
Unclassified Dravidian languages
Language Number of speakers Location
Pattapu 200,000+ Andhra Pradesh
Bharia 197,000 Chhattisgarh (Bilaspur district, Durg district, Surguja district), Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar
Allar 350 Kerala (Palakkad district, Malappuram district)
Vishavan 150 Kerala (Ernakulam district, Kottayam district, Thrissur district)

Proposed relations with other families

Language families in South Asia

The Dravidian family has defied all of the attempts to show a connection with other languages, including Indo-European, Hurrian, Basque, Sumerian, Korean and Japanese. Comparisons have been made not just with the other language families of the Indian subcontinent (Indo-European, Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, and Nihali), but with all typologically similar language families of the Old World. Nonetheless, although there are no readily detectable genealogical connections, Dravidian shares strong areal features with the Indo-Aryan languages, which have been attributed to a substratum influence from Dravidian.[46]

Dravidian languages display typological similarities with the Uralic language group, and there have been several attempts to establish a genetic relationship in the past.[47] This idea has been popular amongst Dravidian linguists, including Robert Caldwell,[48] Thomas Burrow,[49] Kamil Zvelebil,[50] and Mikhail Andronov,[51] The hypothesis is, however, rejected by most specialists in Uralic languages,[52] and also in recent times by Dravidian linguists such as Bhadriraju Krishnamurti.[53]

In the early 1970s, the linguist David McAlpin produced a detailed proposal of a genetic relationship between Dravidian and the extinct Elamite language of ancient Elam (present-day southwestern Iran).[54] The Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis was supported in the late 1980s by the archaeologist Colin Renfrew and the geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, who suggested that Proto-Dravidian was brought to India by farmers from the Iranian part of the Fertile Crescent.[55][56] (In his 2000 book, Cavalli-Sforza suggested western India, northern India and northern Iran as alternative starting points.[57]) However, linguists have found McAlpin's cognates unconvincing and criticized his proposed phonological rules as ad hoc.[58][59][60] Elamite is generally believed by scholars to be a language isolate, and the theory has had no effect on studies of the language.[61] In 2012, Southworth suggested a "Zagrosian family" of West Asian origin including Elamite, Brahui and Dravidian as its three branches.[62]

Dravidian is one of the primary language families in the Nostratic proposal, which would link most languages in North Africa, Europe and Western Asia into a family with its origins in the Fertile Crescent sometime between the Last Glacial Period and the emergence of Proto-Indo-European 4,000–6,000 BCE. However, the general consensus is that such deep connections are not, or not yet, demonstrable.[63]

Prehistory

The origins of the Dravidian languages, as well as their subsequent development and the period of their differentiation are unclear, partially due to the lack of comparative linguistic research into the Dravidian languages. It is thought that the Dravidian languages were the most widespread indigenous languages in the Indian subcontinent before the advance of the Indo-Aryan languages.[10] Though some scholars have argued that the Dravidian languages may have been brought to India by migrations from the Iranian plateau in the fourth or third millennium BCE[11][12] or even earlier,[13][14] the Dravidian languages cannot easily be connected to any other language, and they could well be indigenous to India.[15][b]

Proto-Dravidian and onset of diversification

As a proto-language, the Proto-Dravidian language is not itself attested in the historical record. Its modern conception is based solely on reconstruction. It was suggested in the 1980s that the language was spoken in the 4th millennium BCE, and started disintegrating into various branches around the 3rd millennium BCE.[64] According to Krishnamurti, Proto-Dravidian may have been spoken in the Indus civilization, suggesting a "tentative date of Proto-Dravidian around the early part of the third millennium."[65] Krishnamurti further states that South Dravidian I (including pre-Tamil) and South Dravidian II (including Pre-Telugu) split around the eleventh century BCE, with the other major branches splitting off at around the same time.[66] Kolipakam et al. (2018) estimate the Dravidian language family to be approximately 4,500 years old.[67]

Several geneticists have noted a strong correlation between Dravidian and the Ancestral South Indian (ASI) component of South Asian genetic makeup. Narasimhan et al. (2018) argue that the ASI component itself resulted from a mixture of Iranian-related agriculturalists, moving southeast after the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization (early 2nd millennium BCE), and hunter-gatherers native to southern India. They conclude that one of these two groups may have been the source of proto-Dravidian.[68] Introduction from the northwest would be consistent with the location of Brahui and with attempts to interpret the Indus script as Dravidian.[69] On the other hand, reconstructed Proto-Dravidian terms for flora and fauna provide some support for an Indian origin.[70]

Indus Valley Civilisation

The Indus Valley civilisation (3,300–1,900 BCE), located in Northwestern Indian subcontinent, is sometimes suggested to have been Dravidian.[71] Already in 1924, when announcing the discovery of the IVC, John Marshall stated that (one of) the language(s) may have been Dravidic.[72] Cultural and linguistic similarities have been cited by researchers Henry Heras, Kamil Zvelebil, Asko Parpola and Iravatham Mahadevan as being strong evidence for a proto-Dravidian origin of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation.[73][74] The discovery in Tamil Nadu of a late Neolithic (early 2nd millennium BCE, i.e. post-dating Harappan decline) stone celt allegedly marked with Indus signs has been considered by some to be significant for the Dravidian identification.[75][76]

Yuri Knorozov surmised that the symbols represent a logosyllabic script and suggested, based on computer analysis, an underlying agglutinative Dravidian language as the most likely candidate for the underlying language.[77] Knorozov's suggestion was preceded by the work of Henry Heras, who suggested several readings of signs based on a proto-Dravidian assumption.[78]

Linguist Asko Parpola writes that the Indus script and Harappan language are "most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family".[79] Parpola led a Finnish team in investigating the inscriptions using computer analysis. Based on a proto-Dravidian assumption, they proposed readings of many signs, some agreeing with the suggested readings of Heras and Knorozov (such as equating the "fish" sign with the Dravidian word for fish, "min") but disagreeing on several other readings. A comprehensive description of Parpola's work until 1994 is given in his book Deciphering the Indus Script.[80]

Northern Dravidian pockets

See also: Kurukh people, Malto people, and Brahui language

Although in modern times speakers of the various Dravidian languages have mainly occupied the southern portion of India, in earlier times they probably were spoken in a larger area. After the Indo-Aryan migrations into north-western India, starting ca. 1500 BCE, and the establishment of the Kuru kingdom ca. 1100 BCE, a process of Sanskritisation of the masses started, which resulted in a language shift in northern India. Southern India has remained majority Dravidian, but pockets of Dravidian can be found in central India, Pakistan and Nepal.

The Kurukh and Malto are pockets of Dravidian languages in central India, spoken by people who may have migrated from south India. They do have myths about external origins.[81] The Kurukh have traditionally claimed to be from the Deccan Peninsula,[82] more specifically Karnataka. The same tradition has existed of the Brahui,[83][84] who call themselves immigrants.[85] Holding this same view of the Brahui are many scholars[86] such as L. H. Horace Perera and M. Ratnasabapathy.[87]

The Brahui population of Pakistan's Balochistan province has been taken by some as the linguistic equivalent of a relict population, perhaps indicating that Dravidian languages were formerly much more widespread and were supplanted by the incoming Indo-Aryan languages.[88][89][90] However, it has been argued that the absence of any Old Iranian (Avestan) loanwords in Brahui suggests that the Brahui migrated to Balochistan from central India less than 1,000 years ago. The main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary, Balochi, is a western Iranian language like Kurdish, and arrived in the area from the west only around 1000 CE.[91] Sound changes shared with Kurukh and Malto also suggest that Brahui was originally spoken near them in central India.[92]

Dravidian influence on Sanskrit

Main article: Substratum in Vedic Sanskrit

Dravidian languages show extensive lexical (vocabulary) borrowing, but only a few traits of structural (either phonological or grammatical) borrowing from Indo-Aryan, whereas Indo-Aryan shows more structural than lexical borrowings from the Dravidian languages.[93] Many of these features are already present in the oldest known Indo-Aryan language, the language of the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE), which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian.[94]

Vedic Sanskrit has retroflex consonants (ṭ/ḍ, ṇ) with about 88 words in the Rigveda having unconditioned retroflexes.[95][96] Some sample words are Iṭanta, Kaṇva, śakaṭī, kevaṭa, puṇya and maṇḍūka. Since other Indo-European languages, including other Indo-Iranian languages, lack retroflex consonants, their presence in Indo-Aryan is often cited as evidence of substrate influence from close contact of the Vedic speakers with speakers of a foreign language family rich in retroflex consonants.[95][96] The Dravidian family is a serious candidate since it is rich in retroflex phonemes reconstructible back to the Proto-Dravidian stage.[97][98][99]

In addition, a number of grammatical features of Vedic Sanskrit not found in its sister Avestan language appear to have been borrowed from Dravidian languages. These include the gerund, which has the same function as in Dravidian.[100] Some linguists explain this asymmetrical borrowing by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan languages were built on a Dravidian substratum.[101] These scholars argue that the most plausible explanation for the presence of Dravidian structural features in Indic is language shift, that is, native Dravidian speakers learning and adopting Indic languages due to elite dominance.[102] Although each of the innovative traits in Indic could be accounted for by internal explanations, early Dravidian influence is the only explanation that can account for all of the innovations at once; moreover, it accounts for several of the innovative traits in Indic better than any internal explanation that has been proposed.[103]

Grammar

The most characteristic grammatical features of Dravidian languages are:[50]

  • Dravidian languages are agglutinative.
  • Word order is subject–object–verb (SOV).
  • Most Dravidian languages have a clusivity distinction.
  • The major word classes are nouns (substantives, numerals, pronouns), adjectives, verbs, and indeclinables (particles, enclitics, adverbs, interjections, onomatopoetic words, echo words).
  • Proto-Dravidian used only suffixes, never prefixes or infixes, in the construction of inflected forms. Hence, the roots of words always occurred at the beginning. Nouns, verbs, and indeclinable words constituted the original word classes.
  • There are two numbers and four different gender systems, the ancestral system probably having "male:non-male" in the singular and "person:non-person" in the plural.
  • In a sentence, however complex, only one finite verb occurs, normally at the end, preceded if necessary by a number of gerunds.
  • Word order follows certain basic rules but is relatively free.
  • The main (and probably original) dichotomy in tense is past:non-past. Present tense developed later and independently in each language or subgroup.
  • Verbs are intransitive, transitive, and causative; there are also active and passive forms.
  • All of the positive verb forms have their corresponding negative counterparts, negative verbs.

Phonology

Dravidian languages are noted for the lack of distinction between aspirated and unaspirated stops. While some Dravidian languages have accepted large numbers of loanwords from Sanskrit and other Indo-Iranian languages in addition to their already vast vocabulary, in which the orthography shows distinctions in voice and aspiration, the words are pronounced in Dravidian according to different rules of phonology and phonotactics: aspiration of plosives is generally absent, regardless of the spelling of the word. This is not a universal phenomenon and is generally avoided in formal or careful speech, especially when reciting. For instance, Tamil does not distinguish between voiced and voiceless stops. 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.

Proto-Dravidian

Main article: Proto-Dravidian

Proto-Dravidian had five short and long vowels: *a, *ā, *i, *ī, *u, *ū, *e, *ē, *o, *ō. There were no diphthongs; ai and au are treated as *ay and *av (or *aw).[104][98][105] The five-vowel system is largely preserved in the descendent subgroups.[106]

The following consonantal phonemes are reconstructed:[97][98][107]

Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosives *p *t *ṯ *ṭ *c *k
Nasals *m *n *ṉ (??) *ṇ *ñ
Fricatives (*H)
Flap/rhotic *r *ẓ (ḻ, r̤)
Lateral *l *ḷ
Glides *w [v] *y

Numerals

See also: List of numbers in various languages

The numerals from 1 to 10 in various Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages (here exemplified by Indo Aryan language Sanskrit and Iranian language Persian).[108]

Number Southern South-Central Central Northern Proto-Dravidian Indo-Aryan Iranian
Tamil Kannada Malayalam Kodava Tulu Beary Telugu Gondi Kolami Kurukh Brahui Sanskrit Persian
1 oṉṟu ondu onnu ond onji onnu okaṭi undi okkod oṇṭa asiṭ *onṯu 1 éka yek
2 iraṇṭu eraḍu raṇḍu danḍ raḍḍ jend renḍu raṇḍ irāṭ indiŋ irāṭ *iraṇṭu 2 dvi do
3 mūṉṟu mūṟu mūnnu mūṉd mūji mūnnu mūḍu muṇḍ mūndiŋ mūnd musiṭ *muH- tri seh
4 nāṉku nālku nālu nāl nāl nāl nālugu nāluṇg nāliŋ nāx čār (II) *nāl catúr cahār
5 aintu aidu añcu añji ayN añji ayidu saiyuṇg ayd 3 pancē (II) panč (II) *cay-m- pañca panj
6 āru āṟu āṟu ār āji ār āṟu sāruṇg ār 3 soyyē (II) šaš (II) *cāṯu ṣáṣ śeś
7 ēẓu ēḷu ēẓu ēḷ yēl ēl ēḍu yeḍuṇg ēḍ 3 sattē (II) haft (II) *ēẓ saptá haft
8 eṭṭu eṇṭu eṭṭu eṭṭ enma ett enimidi armur enumadī 3 aṭṭhē (II) hašt (II) *eṇṭṭu aṣṭá haśt
9 oṉpatu 4 5 ombattu onpatu 5 oiymbad ormba olimbō tommidi unmāk tomdī 3 naiṃyē (II) nōh (II) *toḷ/*toṇ náva noh
10 pattu hattu patthu patt patt patt padi pad padī 3 dassē (II) dah (II) *paH(tu) dáśa dah
  1. This is the same as the word for another form of the number one in Tamil and Malayalam, used as the indefinite article ("a") and when the number is an attribute preceding a noun (as in "one person"), as opposed to when it is a noun (as in "How many are there?" "One").
  2. The stem *īr is still found in compound words, and has taken on a meaning of "double" in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. For example, irupatu (20, literally meaning "double-ten"), iravai (20 in Telugu), "iraṭṭi" ("double") or iruvar ("two people", in Tamil) and "ippatthu" (ipp-hatthu, double ten", in Kannada).
  3. The Kolami numbers 5 to 10 are borrowed from Telugu.
  4. The word tondu was also used to refer to the number nine in ancient Sangam texts but was later completely replaced by the word onpadu.
  5. These forms are derived from "one (less than) ten". Proto-Dravidian *toḷ is still used in Tamil and Malayalam as the basis of numbers such as 90, thonnooru as well as the Kannada tombattu.

Literature

The oldest known Tamil-Brahmi inscription, near Mangulam in Madurai district[109]

Four Dravidian languages, viz. Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam, have lengthy literary traditions.[110] Literature in Tulu and Kodava is more recent.[110] Recently old literature in Gondi has been discovered as well.[111]

The earliest known Dravidian inscriptions are 76 Old Tamil inscriptions on cave walls in Madurai and Tirunelveli districts in Tamil Nadu, dating from the 2nd century BCE.[4] These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil Brahmi.[112] In 2019, the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department released a report on excavations at Keeladi, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, including a description of potsherds dated to the 6th century BCE inscribed with personal names in the Tamil-Brahmi script.[113] However, the report lacks the detail of a full archaeological study, and other archaeologists have disputed whether the oldest dates obtained for the site can be assigned to these potsherds.[114] The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, a work on Tamil grammar and poetics preserved in a 5th-century CE redaction, whose oldest layers could date from the late 2nd century or 1st century BCE.[115]

Kannada is first known from the Halmidi inscription (450 CE). A 9th-century treatise on poetics, the Kavirajamarga, is the first literary work.[116] The earliest Telugu inscription, from Erragudipadu in Kadapa district, is dated 575. The first literary work is an 11th-century translation of part of the Mahābhārata.[116] The earliest Malayalam text is the Vazhappally copper plate (9th century). The first literary work is Rāmacaritam (12th century).[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Earlier fragmentary finds have been claimed, e.g. at Keezhadi near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, but have not been conclusively established (see § Literature).
  2. ^ a b Renfrew and Bahn conclude that several scenarios are compatible with the data, and that "the linguistic jury is still very much out."[17]

References

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  5. ^ Krishnamurti (2003), pp. 20–21.
  6. ^ West, Barbara A. (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 713. ISBN 978-1-4381-1913-7.
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  11. ^ a b Tamil Literature Society (1963), Tamil Culture, vol. 10, Academy of Tamil Culture, retrieved 25 November 2008, ... together with the evidence of archaeology would seem to suggest that the original Dravidian-speakers entered India from Iran in the fourth millennium BC ...
  12. ^ a b Andronov (2003), p. 299.
  13. ^ a b Namita Mukherjee; Almut Nebel; Ariella Oppenheim; Partha P. Majumder (December 2001), "High-resolution analysis of Y-chromosomal polymorphisms reveals signatures of population movements from central Asia and West Asia into India", Journal of Genetics, 80 (3), Springer India: 125–35, doi:10.1007/BF02717908, PMID 11988631, S2CID 13267463, ... More recently, about 15,000–10,000 years before present (ybp), when agriculture developed in the Fertile Crescent region that extends from Israel through northern Syria to western Iran, there was another eastward wave of human migration (Cavalli-Sforza et al., 1994; Renfrew 1987), a part of which also appears to have entered India. This wave has been postulated to have brought the Dravidian languages into India (Renfrew 1987). Subsequently, the Indo-European (Aryan) language family was introduced into India about 4,000 ybp ...
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Bibliography

Further reading

Wiktionary has word lists at Appendix:Dravidian word lists
Wiktionary has Swadesh lists for Dravidian languages
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Dravidian_languages&oldid=1078842989"