Languages of South Asia

Languages of South Asia Main articles Languages of India (list by number of speakers - scheduled) · Languages of Pakistan · Languages of Bangladesh · Languages of Nepal · Languages of Sri Lanka Historic languages Linguistic history of India • Sanskrit: Vedic Sanskrit · Classical Sanskrit · Prakrit: Dramatic Prakrit · Jain Prakrit · Pāli • Others: Middle Indic Contemporary languages Austronesian: Sri Lanka Malay • Dravidian: Brahui · Kannada · Malayalam · Tamil · Telugu · Tulu • Indo-Aryan: Angika · Assamese · Bhojpuri · Bengali · Dhivehi · Dogri · Gujarati · Hindi ·Hindko · Kashmiri · Konkani · Magahi · Mahal · Maithili · Marathi · Nepali · Oriya · Punjabi · Saraiki · Sindhi · Sinhala · Urdu • Iranian: Balochi · Pashto · Persian · Wakhi • Isolates:Great Andamanese · Burushaski · Nihali · Kusunda • Mon-Khmer: Khasi · Nicobarese • Munda: Ho · Korku · Mundari · Santali · Sora • Ongan: Önge · Jarawa • Tibeto-Burman: Ao ·Bodo · Garo · Kokborok · Meitei · Mizo · Nepal Bhasa · Sikkimese · Tenyidie · Tibetan • European influence: English · French · Portuguese Scripts Indus · Brahmi • Brahmic family: Devanagari · Sinhala · Telugu · Tamil · Tulu · Gurmukhi · Bengali · Ranjana · Oriya · Malayalam · Kannada · Gujarati • Arabic: Arwi · Nasta'liq · Shahmukhi Language activism Hela Havula · Bengali Language Movement · Sanskrit revival · Pure Tamil movement · Nepal Bhasa movement · Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 · Urdu movement

[hide] v • d • e Dravidian languages Southern Allar · Badaga · Bellary · Irula · Kanikkaran · Kannada · Kodava Takk · Kota · Kurumba  · Malayalam · Paliyan · Tamil · Toda · Tulu South-Central Abujmaria · Gondi · Kui · Kuvi · Konda (Koṇḍa) · Koya · Manda · Pengo · Sugali · Telugu Central Kolami · Naiki · Parji · Ollari · Gadaba North Brahui · Kurukh · Malto Italics indicate extinct languages (no surviving native speakers and no spoken descendant)

Dravidian languages

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_languages


The Dravidian family of languages  mainly spoken in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in northeastern Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, and overseas in other countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. Among them Tamil,Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are the members with the most speakers, which have also a long recorded written history.

Dravidian

Southern   Tamil-Kannada   Tamil-Kodagu  Tamil languages (incl. Tamil) Malayalam Kodagu (Kodava) Kota Toda  Kannada  Kannada Badaga  Tulu  Koraga Tulu  Central   Telugu-Kui   Telugu  Telugu Savara Chenchu  Gondi-Kui   Gondi  Gondi Maria Pardhan Nagarchal Konda Kui Kuvi Koya Manda Pengo  Kolami-Parji  Naiki Kolami Ollari (Gadaba) Parji  Northern   Kurukh-Malto  Kurukh (Oraon)  Malto  Kumarbhag Paharia Sauria Paharia Brahui Vowels: Proto-Dravidian had ten vowels: a, ā, e, ē, u, ū, i, ī, o, ō. There was contrast between short and long vowels. There were no diphthongs. ai and au are treated as *ay and *av (or *aw) (Subrahmanyam 1983, Zvelebil 1990, Krishnamurti 2003). Consonants: Proto-Dravidian is reconstructible with the following consonantal phonemes (Subrahmanyam 1983:p40, Zvelebil 1990, Krishnamurti 2003) : Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive p t ṯ ṭ c k Nasal m n ṉ (??) ṇ ñ Flap r Fricative ḻ (ṛ, r̤) (H) Lateral l ḷ Approximant v y

NumberTamilKannadaTeluguTuluMalayalamKurukhKolamiBrahuiProto-Dravidian
1onruonduokaṭionjionnuoṇṭaokkodasiṭ*oru(1)
2iraṇṭueraḍurenḍuraḍḍraṇṭuindiŋirāṭirāṭ*iru(2)
3mūnrumūrumūḍumūjimūnnumūndmūndiŋmusiṭ*muC
4nālu, nālku, nānkunālkunālugunālnālunākhnāliŋčār (II)*nān
5aintuaiduayiduayNañcupancē (II)ayd ³panč (II)*cayN
6āruāruāruājiārusoyyē (II)ār ³šaš (II)*caru
7ēẓuēluēḍuyēlēẓusattē (II)ēḍ ³haft (II)*eẓu
8eṭṭueṇṭuenimidiedmaeṭṭuaṭṭhē (II)enumadī ³hašt (II)*eṭṭu
9onpatuombattutommidiormbaonpatunaiṃyē (II)tomdī ³nōh (II)*toḷ
10pattuhattupadipattpattudassē (II)padī ³dah (II)*pat(tu)