Dravidian languages

The Dravidian languages (sometimes called Dravidic[2]) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan.[1] Dravidian is first attested in the 2nd century BCE, as inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi script on cave walls in the Madurai and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu.[3][lower-alpha 1]

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Dravidian
Geographic distribution	South India, north-east Sri Lanka and south-west Pakistan
Native speakers	250 million (2020)[1]
Linguistic classification	One of the world's primary language families
Proto-language	Proto-Dravidian
Subdivisions	Northern Central South-Central South
ISO 639-2 / 5	dra
Linguasphere	49= (phylozone)
Glottolog	drav1251
Distribution of the Dravidian languages

Part of a series on
Dravidian culture and history
Origin Indus Valley Civilisation Keezhadi excavation site
History History of South India Ancient history of Sri Lanka Dravidian dynasties Chola Chera Pandyan Satavahana Rashtrakuta Chalukya Pallava Kakatiya Hoysala Sangama Saluva Tuluva Aravidu Nayak Reddy Aryacakravarti Western Ganga Eastern Ganga
Culture Dravidian civilization South Indian culture Dravidian architecture Dravidian studies
Language Dravidian languages History of Dravidian languages Proto-Dravidian language Elamo-Dravidian languages
Religion Dravidian folk religion Hinduism Jainism Buddhism Śramaṇa Ājīvika Charvaka
Regions South India (Dravida) Sri Lanka South Asia
People Dravidian peoples Brahui people Gondi people Kannadigas Kodavas Malayalis Telugus Tamils Tuluvas Irulas Nagas (Extinct) Giraavarus (Extinct) Cholanaikkans Khonds Kodavas Kurukhs Paniyas Malar Soligas Koragas
Politics Kannada language rights Tulu Nadu state movement Telugu Desam Party Tamil nationalism Dravidian nationalism Dravidian parties Dravida Nadu
Portal:Dravidian civilizations
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The Dravidian languages with the 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.[4] Together with several smaller languages such as Gondi, these languages cover the southern part of India and the northeast of Sri Lanka, and account for the overwhelming majority of Dravidian speakers. Malto and Kurukh are spoken in isolated pockets in eastern India. Kurukh is also spoken in parts of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.[5] Brahui is mostly spoken in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Irani Balochistan, Afghanistan and around the Marw oasis in Turkmenistan. During the colonial period, Dravidian speakers emigrated to Southeast Asia, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji and the Caribbean.[6] There are more-recent Dravidian-speaking diaspora communities in the Middle East, Europe, North America and Oceania.

Dravidian place names along the Arabian Sea coast and Dravidian grammatical influence such as clusivity in the Indo-Aryan languages, namely, Marathi, Gujarati, Marwari, and Sindhi, suggest that Dravidian languages were spoken more widely across the Indian subcontinent before the spread of the Indo-Aryan languages.[7][8][9] 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[10][11] or even earlier,[12][13] reconstructed proto-Dravidian vocabulary suggests that the family is indigenous to India.[14][15][16][lower-alpha 2] Despite many attempts, the family has not been shown to be related to any other.[18]