Paniya language

Paniya is one of the Malayalamoid languages spoken in India. It is spoken by the Paniya people, a scheduled tribe with a majority of its speakers in the state of Kerala. The language is also known as Pania, Paniyan and Panyah. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages.^[1] According to the 1981 Census, there were 63,827 speakers of Paniya which includes 56,952 in Kerala, 6,393 in Tamil Nadu, 482 in Karnataka.^[2] Most of its speakers are found in the Wayanad, Kozhikode, Kannur and Malappuram districts of Kerala, and to the west of the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu.

Paniya
Pania, Paniyan, Panyah
പണിയ
Native to	India
Region	Kerala
Ethnicity	Paniyas
Native speakers	23,000 (2011 census)[1] 23% of ethnic population[citation needed]
Language family	Dravidian Southern Southern I Tamil–Kannada Tamil–Kota Tamil–Toda Tamil–Irula Tamil–Kodava–Urali Tamil–Malayalam Malayalamoid Paniya–Ravula Paniya
Early forms	Old Tamil Middle Tamil
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pcg
Glottolog	pani1256

See also

• List of Indian languages by number of native speakers