Dravidian languages

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, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of Afghanistan and Iran. 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 linguists.

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. Certain scholars have suggested areal or even genetic connections to the Uralic and Altaic language groups, but these hypotheses have been rejected by the majority of specialists of these languages. Inconclusive attempts have also been made to link the family with the Elamo-Dravidian languages, Japonic languages, Basque, Korean, Sumerian, the Australian Aboriginal languages and the unknown language of the Indus Valley civilisation.

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, Proto South-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.

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.

List of Dravidian languages

National languages of India are in boldface:

Southern

South Central

Central

Northern

Brahui (the only Dravidian language spoken in Pakistan; in the Balochistan province)
Kurukh
Malto

Grammar

Dravidian languages are agglutinative and exhibit the inclusive and exclusive we feature.

Phonology

Dravidian languages are noted for the lack of distinction between aspirated and unaspirated stops. While some Dravidian languages (especially Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu) have large numbers of loan words from Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages, in which the orthography shows distinctions in voice and aspiration, the words are pronounced in Dravidian according to different rules of phonology and phonotactics: voicing is allophonic and aspiration of plosives is generally absent, regardless of the spelling of the word. This is not a universal phaenomenon and is generally avoided in formal or careful speech, especially when reciting.

For instance, Tamil, like Finnish, does not distinguish between voiced and unvoiced 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.

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)

Numbers

The numbers from 1 to 10 in various Dravidian languages.

Number	Tamil	Telugu	Kannada	Tulu	Malayalam	Kurukh	Kolami	Brahui	Proto-Dravidian
1	onru	okai	ondu	onji	onnu	oa	okkod	asi	*oru(1)
2	irandu	reu	erau	rāu	rau	e	indi	irā	*iru(2)
3	mūnru	mūu	mūru	mūji	mūnnu	mūnd	mūndi	musi	*muC
4	nānku	nālugu	nālaku	nālu	nālu	nākh	nāli	čār (IE)	*nāl
5	aintu	ayidu	aydu	ainu	añcu	pancē (IE)	ayd(3)	panč (IE)	*cayN
6	āru	āru	āru	āji	āru	soyyē (IE)	ār(3)	šaš (IE)	*caru
7	ēlu	ēu	ēu	ēlu	ēlu	sattē (IE)	ē(3)	haft (IE)	*eu
8	ettu	enimidi	eu	ēma	eu	ahē (IE)	enumadī (3)	hašt (IE)	*eu
9	onpatu	tommidi	ombattu	ormba	onbatu	naiyē (IE)	tomdī (3)	nōh (IE)	*to
10	pattu	padi	hattu	pattu	pattu	dassē (IE)	padī (3)	dah (IE)	*pat(tu)

This is the same as another word meaning "one" in another sense in Tamil and Malayalam - the distinction is as between Spanish "un" and "uno".
This is still found in compound words, and has taken on a meaning of "double" in Malayalam. For example, irupatu (20, literally meaning "double-ten") or "irai" ("double").
Kolami numbers 5-10 are borrowed from Telugu

Sanskrit influence

Of the literate languages, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu have been relatively more influenced by the Indo-European Sanskrit and have borrowed the aspirated consonants. Sanskrit words and derivatives are common in Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu. Tamil is the least influenced. Most tribal languages too are least influenced by Sanskrit.

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.
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.

Agglutinative languages | Dravidian languages | Languages of Asia

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