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Dravidian languages
The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic[1]) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million
Dravidian
people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan.[2][3] Since the colonial era,
there have been small but significant immigrant communities of speakers of those languages in Mauritius, Geographic South Asia and Southeast
Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Canada, distribution Asia, mainly South India,
Germany, South Africa, and the United States. north-east Sri Lanka and
south-west Pakistan
The Dravidian languages are first attested in the 2nd century BCE, as Tamil-Brahmi script, inscribed on the
Linguistic One of the world's primary
cave walls in the Madurai and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu.[4][a] The Dravidian languages with the
classification language families
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 Proto-language Proto-Dravidian
number of Dravidian-speaking scheduled tribes, such as the Kurukh in Eastern India and Gondi in Central Subdivisions Northern
India.[6]
Central
Outside of India, Brahui is mostly spoken in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, as well as other smaller South-Central
groups of speakers in Irani Balochistan, Afghanistan and around the Marw oasis in Turkmenistan. Dhangar, South
a dialect of Kurukh is spoken in parts of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh and Tamil is spoken in north-
eastern Sri Lanka, there are also diaspora communities of Dravidians who speak it mostly in the Middle ISO 639-2 / 5 dra
East, Europe, North America and South East Asia.[7] Linguasphere 49= (phylozone)

Dravidian place names along the Arabian Sea coast and Dravidian grammatical influence such as clusivity in Glottolog drav1251 (http://glotto
the Indo-Aryan languages, namely, Marathi, Gujarati, Marwari, and Sindhi, suggest that Dravidian log.org/resource/languo
languages were spoken more widely across the Indian subcontinent before the spread of the Indo-Aryan id/id/drav1251)
languages.[8][9][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] Dravidian languages cannot easily be connected to any other language family and they could
be well indigenous to India.[10][15][16][b]

Contents
Etymology
Discovery
Classification
Distribution
Proposed relations with other families
Prehistory
Proto-Dravidian and onset of diversification Distribution of the Dravidian languages
Indus Valley Civilisation
Northern Dravidian pockets
Dravidian influence on Sanskrit
Grammar
Phonology
Proto-Dravidian
Numerals
Literature
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links

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) and 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 "*tamiḻ > *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]

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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 appeared 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
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 does not 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
Linguistic Survey of India (1906)
Dravidian umbrella and established Dravidian as one of the major language groups of the world. Caldwell coined the
map of the distribution of Dravidian
term "Dravidian" for this family of languages, based on the usage of the Sanskrit word द्रविड (Draviḍa) in the work languages
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]

South Dravidian (or South Dravidian I)[28][29]

Tamil–Kannada
Tamil languages, including Tamil
Malayalam languages, including Malayalam
Irula
Kodava
Kurumba
Toda
Kota
Kannada languages
Kannada
Badaga
Koraga
Tulu
Kudiya
South-Central Dravidian (or South Dravidian II)[28][30]
Telugu
Chenchu
Gondi-Kui
Gondi languages, including Gondi
Konda
Mukha-Dora
Manda
Pengo
Kuvi
Kui
Central Dravidian[28][30]
Kolami
Naiki
Gadaba
Ollari

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Kondekor
Duruwa
North Dravidian[28][31]
Kurukh–Malto
Kurukh (Oraon, Kisan)
Malto (Kumarbhag Paharia, Sauria Paharia)
Brahui

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 South Dravidian languages: Mala Malasar, Malasar, Thachanadan, Ullatan, Kalanadi, Kumbaran,
Kunduvadi, Kurichiya, Attapady Kurumba, Muduga, Pathiya, and Wayanad Chetti. Pattapu may also be South Dravidian.

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
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 Speakers of Dravidian
people. This branch also includes the tribal language Gondi spoken in central India. languages, by language

The second-smallest branch is the Northern branch, with around 6.3 million speakers. This is the only sub-group to have    Telugu (34.5%)
a language spoken in Pakistan — Brahui.    Tamil (29.0%)
   Kannada (15.4%)
The smallest branch is the Central branch, which has only around 200,000 speakers. These languages are mostly tribal,    Malayalam (14.4%)
and spoken in central India.    Gondi (1.2%)
   Brahui (0.9%)
Languages recognized as official languages of India appear here in boldface.
   Tulu (0.7%)
North Dravidian languages    Kurukh (0.8%)
   Beary (0.7%)
Language Number of speakers Location
   Others (2.3%)
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

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South-Central Dravidian languages

Language Number of speakers Location

Telugu 81,100,000 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and parts of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry

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

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South Dravidian languages

Number of
Language Location
speakers

Tamil Nadu, Puducherry (including Karaikal), parts of Andhra Pradesh (Chittoor, Nellore, Tirupati, Annamayya), parts of Karnataka (Bengaluru,
Bengaluru Rural, Chamarajanagar, Kolar, Mysuru, Ramanagara), parts of Kerala (Palakkad, Idukki, Thiruvananthapuram), parts of Telangana
(Hyderabad), parts of Maharashtra (Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Pune), parts of Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat), Delhi, Andaman
Tamil 75,000,000
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]

Karnataka, parts of Kerala (Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad), 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
Kannada 44,000,000
Gadwal, Narayanpet, Sangareddy, Vikarabad district), parts of Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara), United States, Australia, Germany, United
Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Netherlands

Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahe district of Puducherry, Parts of Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Kodagu, Mysore and Bangalore), parts of
Tamil Nadu (Chennai, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, and Kanyakumari), Maharashtra (Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Pune), Gujarat (Surat,
Malayalam 37,000,000 Ahmedabad), Delhi, 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]

Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada, Udupi districts) and Kerala (Kasaragod district), Across Maharashtra and Gujarat, especially in cities like Mumbai,
Tulu 1,850,000
Thane, Surat, etc. and Gulf Countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain)[45]

Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada, Udupi districts) and Kerala (Kasaragod district) and Gulf Countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,
Beary 1,500,000
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, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana

Betta Kurumba 32,000 Karnataka (Chamarajanagar district, Kodagu district, Mysore district), Kerala (Wayanad district), Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris 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
5,000 Karnataka, Kerala (Wayanad district), Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore district, The Nilgiris District, Erode district)
Chetti

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
1,370 Kerala (Palakkad district)
Kurumba

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)

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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

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 several areal features with the Indo-Aryan
languages, which have been attributed to the influence of a Dravidian substratum on Indo-Aryan.[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 Language families in South Asia
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 11th century BCE, with the other major branches splitting off at around the same time.[66] Kolipakam
et al. (2018) give a similar estimate of 2,500 BCE for Proto-Dravidian.[67]

Several geneticists have noted a strong correlation between Dravidian and the Ancestral South Indian (ASI) component of South Asian genetic
makeup.[68] Narasimhan et al. (2019) argue that the ASI component itself formed in the early 2nd millennium BCE from a mixture of a population
associated with the Indus Valley civilization and a population resident in peninsular India.[69] They conclude that one of these two groups may have been
the source of proto-Dravidian.[70] An Indus valley origin would be consistent with the location of Brahui and with attempts to interpret the Indus script as
Dravidian.[70][71] On the other hand, reconstructed Proto-Dravidian terms for flora and fauna provide support for a peninsular Indian origin.[70][72][73]

Indus Valley Civilisation

The Indus Valley civilisation (3,300–1,900 BCE), located in the Indus Valley region, is sometimes suggested to have been Dravidian.[74] Already in 1924,
when announcing the discovery of the IVC, John Marshall stated that (one of) the language(s) may have been Dravidic.[75] 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.[76][77] 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.[78][79]

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.[80] Knorozov's suggestion was preceded by the work of Henry Heras, who suggested
several readings of signs based on a proto-Dravidian assumption.[81]
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Linguist Asko Parpola writes that the Indus script and Harappan language are "most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family".[82] 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.[83]

Northern Dravidian pockets

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, Bangladesh 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.[84] The Kurukh have traditionally claimed to be from the Deccan Peninsula,[85] more specifically Karnataka. The same
tradition has existed of the Brahui,[86][87] who call themselves immigrants.[88] Holding this same view of the Brahui are many scholars[89] such as L. H.
Horace Perera and M. Ratnasabapathy.[90]

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.[91][92][93] 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.[94] Sound changes shared with Kurukh and Malto also suggest that Brahui was originally spoken near them in central
India.[95]

Dravidian influence on 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.[96] 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.[97]

Vedic Sanskrit has retroflex consonants (ṭ/ḍ, ṇ) with about 88 words in the Rigveda having unconditioned retroflexes.[98][99] 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.[98][99] The Dravidian family is a serious candidate since it is rich in retroflex phonemes
reconstructible back to the Proto-Dravidian stage.[100][101][102]

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.[103] Some linguists explain this asymmetrical borrowing by arguing
that Middle Indo-Aryan languages were built on a Dravidian substratum.[104] 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.[105] 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.[106]

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,

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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

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).[107][101][108] The five-vowel system with phonemic length is largely preserved in the descendant subgroups,[109] but there are some notable
exceptions. The Nilgiri languages (except Kota but including Kodagu) developing a series of central vowels which formed from vowels near retroflex and
alveolar consonants. The short u phonemes (mostly word finally) became ŭ/ụ and also became phonemic in Tulu and Malayalam, mostly caused by
loaning. Brahui has slightly poorer vowel system, with e and o are always pronounced long.

The following consonantal phonemes are reconstructed:[100][101][110]

Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal

Nasals *m *n *ṉ (?) *ṇ *ñ

Plosives *p *t *ṯ *ṭ *c *k

Semivowel *w *y *H

Tap/Rhotic *r [c]
*ẓ
Lateral *l *ḷ

Numerals

The numerals from 1 to 10 in various Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages (here exemplified by Indo Aryan language Sanskrit and Iranian language
Persian).[111][112]

Indo-
South South-Central Central Northern Proto- Iranian
Number Aryan
Dravidian
Tamil Malayalam Kodava Kannada Tulu Toda Beary Telugu Gondi Kolami Kurukh Brahui Sanskrit Persian

oṉṟŭ,
1 onnŭ ondï ondu onji wïd̠ onnu okaṭi 7 undi okkod 7 oṇṭa asiṭ *onṯu 1 éka yek
oṇṇŭ 6
iraṇṭŭ, eraḍŭ,
2 raṇḍŭ daṇḍï eraḍu ēḍ jend reṇḍu raṇḍ irāṭ indiŋ irāṭ *iraṇṭu 2 dvi do
reṇḍŭ 6 iraḍŭ

mūṉṟŭ,
3 mūnnŭ mūndï mūru mūji mūd̠ mūnnu mūḍu muṇḍ mūndiŋ mūnd musiṭ *mūnt̠ u tri seh
mūṇŭ 6

nāl,
*nāl,
nālku,
4 nālŭ nālï nālku nālŭ nōng nāl nālugu nāluṅg nāliŋ nāx čār (II) *nālnk(k)V, catúr cahār
nāṉkŭ,
*nānk(k)V
nālŭ 6
aintŭ, ayinŭ, saiyuṅg, pancē panč
5 añjŭ añji aidu üɀ añji ayidu ayd 3 *caymtu pañca panj
añjŭ 6 ainŭ hayuṅ (II) (II)

sāruṅg, soyyē
6 āṟŭ āṟŭ ārï āru āji ōr̠ ār āru
hāruṅg ār 3 (II)
šaš (II) *cāṯu ṣáṣ śeś

ēḍŭ,
yeḍuṅg, sattē
7 ēḻŭ ēḻŭ ë̄ ḷï ēḷu ēlŭ, öw ēl ēḍu
ēṛuṅg ēḍ 3 (II)
haft (II) *ēẓ saptá haft
ēḷŭ
enma,
enumadī aṭṭhē hašt
8 eṭṭŭ eṭṭŭ ëṭṭï eṇṭu eṇma, öṭ ett enimidi aṛmur 3 *eṇṭṭu aṣṭá haśt
(II) (II)
eḍma

oṉpatŭ oṉbadŭ, ombay ombattu ormba wïnboθ olimbō naiṃyē

9 45 tommidi unmāk tomdī 3 nōh (II) *toḷ, *toṇ náva noh
ombadŭ 5 5 5 5 5 5 (II)

dassē
10 pattŭ pattŭ pattï hattu pattŭ pot patt padi pad padī 3 (II)
dah (II) *paHtu 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 "ippattu" (ipp-hattu, double ten",
in Kannada).
3. The Kolami numbers 5 to 10 are borrowed from Telugu.
4. The word toṇṭu was also used to refer to the number nine in ancient Sangam texts but was later completely replaced by the word oṉpatu.
5. These forms are derived from "one (less than) ten". Proto-Dravidian *toḷ/*toṇ (which could mean 9 or 9/10) is still used in Tamil and Malayalam as the
basis of numbers such as 90 and 900, toṇṇūṟu (9⁄10*100 = 90) as well as the Kannada tombattu (9*10 = 90).
6. Because of shared sound changes that have happened over the years in the majority of the Tamil dialects, the numbers 1-5 have different colloquial
pronunciations, seen here to the right of their written, formal pronunciations.
7. In languages with words for one starts with ok(k)- it was taken from *okk- which originally meant "to be united" and not a numeral.

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Words indicated (II) are borrowings from Indo-Iranian languages (in Brahui's case, from Balochi).

Literature
Four Dravidian languages, viz. Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam, have lengthy literary traditions.[114] Literature
in Tulu and Kodava is more recent.[114] Recently old literature in Gondi has been discovered as well.[115]

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.[116] 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.[117] However, the report lacks the detail of a full archaeological study, and
The oldest known Tamil-Brahmi
other archaeologists have disputed whether the oldest dates obtained for the site can be assigned to these
inscription, near Mangulam in
potsherds.[118] The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, a work on Tamil grammar and poetics preserved
Madurai district[113]
in a 5th-century CE redaction, whose oldest layers could date from the late 2nd century or 1st century BCE.[119]

Kannada's earliest known inscription is the lion balustrade (Simhakatanjana) inscription excavated at the
Pranaveshwara temple complex at Talagunda near Shiralakoppa of Shivamogga district, dated to 370 CE which replaced the Halmidi inscription in
Hassan district (450 CE).[120] A 9th-century treatise on poetics, the Kavirajamarga, is the first known literary work.[121] 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.[121] The earliest
Malayalam text is the Vazhappally copper plate (9th century). The first literary work is Rāmacaritam (12th century).[4]

See also
Dravidian Linguistics Association
Dravidian peoples
Dravidian studies
Dravidianism
Elamo-Dravidian languages
Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew
Dreaming of Words

Notes
a. Earlier fragmentary finds have been claimed, e.g. at Keezhadi near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, but have not been conclusively established (see
§ Literature).
b. Renfrew and Bahn conclude that several scenarios are compatible with the data, and that "the linguistic jury is still very much out."[17]
c. may also be represented as ḻ or r̤

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86. P. 12 Origin and Spread of the Tamils By V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar
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88. P. 45 The Brahui language, an old Dravidian language spoken in parts
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90. P. 23 Ceylon & Indian History from Early Times to 1505 A.D. By L. H.
Horace Perera, M. Ratnasabapathy
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Brahui is consistent with the hypothesis that Dravidian formerly
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certain linguistic features, such as retroflex consonants, is often
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Further reading
Vishnupriya Kolipakam et al. (2018), A Bayesian phylogenetic study of the Dravidian language family (http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/
3/171504), Royal Society Open Science. doi:10.1098/rsos.171504 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsos.171504)

External links
Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/burrow/index.html). Burrow and Emeneau's A Dravidian etymological
dictionary (2nd ed., 1984) in a searchable online form.

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