Dravidian languages are spoken in the south of India. These are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
Dravidian language family
Tamil
The Tamil language is the oldest among the Dravidian languages. It is clear from the literature available in it that its time is of the centuries BC. The oldest available literature of Tamil is Sangha literature. There is no definite opinion about the etymology of the word 'Tamil'. Some scholars believe that Tamil originated from Dravid. Tamil-speaking scholars believe that the word 'Tamil' came from the word Abhishtu (Tri-Amrit, Madhu, Honey). The Tamil-language region is the present-day Tamil Nadu state, formerly known as Madras Province. It is the official language of Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil language has its own script which is derived from the southern form of Brahmi. Therefore, many of the characters in it are similar to the Devanagari characters. There are no mahaprana sounds in Tamil. Therefore, the number of consonants is only 18. The Tamil language has many words from Sanskrit and Urdu, although the original Tamil words are more commonly used in the literary language of Tamil.
Malayalam
Malayalam is the official language of today's Kerala state. The history of Malayalam language is not very old. It was only in the 15th century that literature was started in it. Its origin dates to around the 13th century BCE. The Malayalam script resembles the Tamil script. But it has all the same characters as Devanagari. All the mahaprana consonants are written in it, yet the method of pronunciation is not according to Hindi. The pronunciation arrangement of both Tamil and Malayalam corresponds to the pronunciation system of the Dravidian branch.
Kannada
It is the official language of the state of Karnataka. Kannada is probably the second oldest in the Dravidian family languages. It contains inscriptions from the seventh century BCE. The Kannada language up to the medieval period of that time is called Purani Kannada (Hale Kannada), which is different from the new Kannada (Hos Kannada) in form. Literature was started in Kannada in the tenth century itself.
Telugu
Telugu is the language of present day Andhra Pradesh, its official language. Many Telugu languages are also spoken in areas like South Orissa, North Tamil Nadu, East Karnataka etc. The oldest book of Telugu language is the Mahabharata of Nannay, which is composed in 1000 AD. The script of Telugu and Kannada languages is the same, there is a difference in the sizes of only a few characters and the style of writing the volume is different. In the modern era, efforts have been made to produce a script of both the languages, but the integration has not been possible so far.
Dravidian languages have the most Sanskrit words in Telugu after Malayalam. Till the modern era, a large number of Sanskrit words were used in Telugu poetry. Sanskrit continued to be used as it was.
The description of other Dravidian languages and their location is as follows -
- Tulu: Mangalore, etc. in Karnataka region are used in areas. It is written in Kannada script.
- Kodagu or Coorg: This is the language of the Coorg region in northern Karnataka.
- Toda: It is the language of the Toda tribe of the Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu.
- Gondi: Its location is Andhra Pradesh.
- Cui: Its location is Orissa region.
- Kudukh or Oraon: Bihar and Orissa are its places.
- Malto: It is spoken in the hills.
One language of the Dravidian language family is Brahui, which is still spoken in Afghanistan. It is less likely that the Dravidians from South India may have gone to Afghanistan. The Dravidians were native to India and lived in North India.
