Where are Dravidian languages spoken?
India
Dravidian languages, family of some 70 languages spoken primarily in South Asia. The Dravidian languages are spoken by more than 215 million people in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Are North Indian languages mutually intelligible?
Hindi is mutually intelligible with languages like Bhojpuri, Marwari to a large extent. Most of the languages coming under ‘Hindi belt’ are closely related and it won’t be a wonder if these languages disappear in the near future due to the dominance of Hindi.
Where do the Dravidian languages come from?
The Dravidian languages, spoken mostly in southern India, are somewhat of a mystery to linguists. Experts have long asked the question, “Where do these languages come from?” Regardless of their origins, one thing is clear: The Dravidian languages are important to the culture of South Asia, where they have a significant number of speakers.
Which is the smallest branch of the Dravidian languages?
The smallest branch of the Dravidian languages is the Central branch, which has only around 200,000 speakers. These languages are mostly tribal, and spoken in central India. The second-smallest branch is the Northern branch, with around 6.3 million speakers.
Which Dravidian language has the most speakers in India?
The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. There are also small groups of Dravidian-speaking scheduled tribes, who live outside Dravidian-speaking areas, such as the Kurukh in Eastern India and Gondi in Central India.
What is the origin of the Tamil word ‘dravidha’?
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.