View source for Dravidian languages

{{Short description|Language family}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox language family
| name = Dravidian
| region = [[South India]], north-east and central [[Sri Lanka]] and south-west [[Pakistan]]
| familycolor = Dravidian
| family = One of the world's primary [[language families]]
| protoname = [[Proto-Dravidian language|Proto-Dravidian]]
| child1 = [[North Dravidian languages|North]]
| child2 = Central
| child3 = South-Central
| child4 = [[South Dravidian languages|South]]
| iso2 = dra
| iso5 = dra
| lingua = 49= (phylozone)
| glotto = drav1251
| ethnicity = [[Dravidian peoples]]
| speakers = 250 million
| ref = {{sfnp|Steever|2020|p=1}}
| date = 2020
| glottorefname = Dravidian
| map = Dravidian map.svg
| mapcaption = Distribution of the Dravidian languages
| ancestor = 
| glottoname = 
| notes = 
}}
{{Dravidian}}
The '''Dravidian languages''' are a [[language family|family of languages]] spoken by 250 million people, primarily in [[South India]], north-east [[Sri Lanka]], and south-west [[Pakistan]], with pockets elsewhere in [[South Asia]].{{sfnp|Steever|2020|p=1}}{{sfnp|Kolichala|2016|p=76}}

The most commonly spoken Dravidian languages are (in descending order) [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Kannada]], and [[Malayalam]], all of which [[Classical languages of India|have long literary traditions]].
Smaller literary languages are [[Tulu language|Tulu]] and [[Kodava language|Kodava]].{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=20–21}}
Together with several smaller languages such as [[Gondi language|Gondi]], these languages cover the southern part of India and the northeast of [[Sri Lanka]], and account for the overwhelming majority of speakers of Dravidian languages.
[[Malto language|Malto]] and [[Kurukh language|Kurukh]] are spoken in isolated pockets in eastern India.
Kurukh is also spoken in parts of [[Nepal]], [[Bhutan]] and [[Bangladesh]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The History of Bhutan|first=Karma|last=Phuntsho|date=23 April 2013 |publisher=Random House India|isbn=978-81-8400-411-3|page=72}}</ref> [[Brahui language|Brahui]] is mostly spoken in the [[Balochistan]] region of [[Pakistan]], [[Sistan and Baluchestan province|Iranian Balochistan]], [[Afghanistan]] and around the [[Merv|Marw oasis]] in [[Turkmenistan]]. 
During the [[British India|British colonial period]], Dravidian speakers were sent as indentured labourers to [[Southeast Asia]], [[Mauritius]], [[South Africa]], [[Fiji]], the Caribbean, and East Africa.{{sfnp|Steever|2020|pp=1, 3}} There are more-recent Dravidian-speaking diaspora communities in the [[Middle East]], [[Europe]], [[North America]] and [[Oceania]].

Dravidian is first attested in the 2nd century BCE, as inscriptions in [[Tamil-Brahmi]] script on cave walls in the [[Madurai district|Madurai]] and [[Tirunelveli district|Tirunelveli]] [[List of districts of Tamil Nadu|districts]] of [[Tamil Nadu]].{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=22}}{{efn|Earlier fragmentary finds have been claimed, e.g. at [[Keeladi|Keezhadi]] near [[Madurai]], [[Tamil Nadu]], but have not been conclusively established (see {{section link||Literature}}).}}
Dravidian place names along the [[Arabian Sea]] coast and signs of Dravidian phonological and [[grammatical]] influence (e.g. [[retroflex consonants]]) in the [[Indo-Aryan languages]] (c.1500 BCE) suggest that some form of proto-Dravidian was spoken more widely across the [[Indian subcontinent]] before the spread of the Indo-Aryan languages.{{sfnp|Erdosy|1995|p=271}}<ref>Edwin Bryant, Laurie L. Patton (2005), The Indo-Aryan controversy: evidence and inference in Indian history, p. 254</ref><ref name="steven"/> 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,<ref name="tls1963">{{Citation | title=Tamil Culture | author=Tamil Literature Society | publisher=Academy of Tamil Culture | date=1963 | volume=10 | access-date=25 November 2008 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNUgAAAAMAAJ | quote=... together with the evidence of archaeology would seem to suggest that the original Dravidian-speakers entered India from Iran in the fourth millennium BC ... | archive-date=9 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409105615/https://books.google.com/books?id=cNUgAAAAMAAJ | url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfnp|Andronov|2003|p=299}} or even earlier,<ref name="mukherjee2001" /><ref name="kumar2004" /> the reconstructed vocabulary of [[proto-Dravidian]] suggests that the family is indigenous to India.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=15}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&q=Dravidian+languages&pg=PA1118|author=Amaresh Datta|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Devraj to Jyoti, Volume 2|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|page=1118|isbn=978-81-260-1194-0|year=1988|access-date=10 November 2020|archive-date=9 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409105643/https://books.google.com/books?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&q=Dravidian+languages&pg=PA1118|url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|name=Renfrew|Renfrew and Bahn conclude that several scenarios are compatible with the data, and that "the linguistic jury is still very much out."<ref name=Heggarty_Renfrew>{{Citation|last1=Heggarty|first1=Paul|last2=Renfrew|first2=Collin|year=2014|chapter=South and Island Southeast Asia; Languages|editor-last1=Renfrew|editor-first1=Colin|editor-last2=Bahn|editor-first2=Paul|title=The Cambridge World Prehistory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWbwAwAAQBAJ|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-64775-6|access-date=1 July 2017|archive-date=9 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409105615/https://books.google.com/books?id=vWbwAwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>}} Suggestions that the [[Indus script]] records a Dravidian language remain unproven. Despite many attempts, the family has not been shown to be related to any other.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=43–47}}

== Dravidian studies ==
[[File:LSI map of Dravidian languages.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Linguistic Survey of India]]'' (1906), map of the distribution of Dravidian languages]]

{{main|Dravidian studies}}
The 14th-century Sanskrit text ''[[Lilatilakam]]'', 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 "Āndhra" (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.{{sfn|Shulman|2016|p=6}}

In 1816, [[Francis Whyte Ellis]] argued that [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Kannada]], [[Malayalam]], [[Tulu language|Tulu]] and [[Kodava language|Kodava]] descended from a common, non-[[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] ancestor.{{sfnp|Ellis|1816|p=3}}{{sfnp|Sreekumar|2009|pp=75, 90}} He supported his argument with a detailed comparison of non-Sanskrit vocabulary in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil, and also demonstrated that they shared grammatical structures.{{sfnp|Ellis|1816|pp=7–12, 23–31}}{{sfnp|Sreekumar|2009|pp=86–89}} In 1844, [[Christian Lassen]] discovered that [[Brahui language|Brahui]] was related to these languages.{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xix}} In 1856, [[Robert Caldwell]] published his ''Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages'',{{sfnp|Caldwell|1856}} which considerably expanded the Dravidian umbrella and established Dravidian as one of the major language groups of the world.{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xxiii}}

In 1961, [[T. Burrow]] and [[M. B. Emeneau]] published the ''Dravidian Etymological Dictionary'', with a major revision in 1984.{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xxv}}

==Name==
[[Robert Caldwell]] coined the term "Dravidian" for this family of languages, based on the usage of the [[Sanskrit]] word {{IAST|Draviḍa}} in the work ''Tantravārttika'' by {{IAST|[[Kumārila Bhaṭṭa]]}}:{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xx}}
{{blockquote|text=The word I have chosen is 'Dravidian', from {{IAST|Drāviḍa}}, the adjectival form of {{IAST|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.
|author=Robert Caldwell{{sfnp|Caldwell|1856|p=4}}}}

The origin of the [[Sanskrit]] word ''{{IAST|drāviḍa}}'' is the Tamil word ''{{IAST|[[Tamils|Tamiḻ]]}}''.{{sfnp|Shulman|2016|p=5}} [[Kamil Zvelebil]] cites the forms such as ''dramila'' (in {{IAST|[[Daṇḍin]]}}'s Sanskrit work ''Avantisundarīkathā'') and ''{{IAST|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 ''{{IAST |dr(a/ā)viḍa}}''" with the indigenous name of the Tamil language, the likely derivation being "*''{{IAST|tamiḻ}}'' > *''{{IAST |damiḷ}}'' > ''{{IAST|damiḷa}}''- / ''damila''- and further, with the intrusive, 'hypercorrect' (or perhaps analogical) -''r''-, into ''{{IAST|dr(a/ā)viḍa}}''. The -''m''-/-''v''- alternation is a common enough phenomenon in Dravidian phonology".{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xxi}}

[[Bhadriraju Krishnamurti]] states in his reference book ''The Dravidian languages'':{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|loc=p. 2, footnote 2}} {{blockquote|Joseph (1989: IJDL 18.2:134–42) gives extensive references to the use of the term ''{{IAST|draviḍa}}'', ''dramila'' first as the name of a people, then of a country. Sinhala BCE inscriptions cite ''{{IAST|dameḍa}}''-, ''damela''- denoting Tamil merchants. Early Buddhist and Jaina sources used ''{{IAST|damiḷa}}''- to refer to a people of south India (presumably Tamil); ''{{IAST|damilaraṭṭha}}''- was a southern non-Aryan country; ''{{IAST|dramiḷa}}''-, ''{{IAST|dramiḍa}}'', and ''{{IAST|draviḍa}}''- were used as variants to designate a country in the south (''{{IAST|Bṛhatsamhita-}}'', ''Kādambarī'', ''Daśakumāracarita-'', fourth to seventh centuries CE) (1989: 134–138). It appears that ''{{IAST|damiḷa}}''- was older than ''{{IAST|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 ''{{IAST|draviḍa}}'' itself appeared later than ''{{IAST|damiḷa}}'', since the dates for the forms with -r- are centuries later than the dates for the forms without -r- (''{{IAST|damiḷa}}'', ''{{IAST|dameḍa}}''-, ''damela''- etc.).

==Classification==
The Dravidian languages form a close-knit family. Most scholars agree on four groups:{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=19–20}}

{{tree list}}
* '''[[South Dravidian]]''' (Tamil–Tulu, or South Dravidian{{nbsp}}I){{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=21}}{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=56}}
** [[Tamil–Kannada languages|Tamil–Kannada]]
*** {{tree list/branching}}
**** {{tree list/branching}}
***** {{tree list/branching}}
****** {{tree list/branching}}
******* {{tree list/branching}}
******** [[Tamil languages]], including [[Tamil language|Tamil]]
******** [[Malayalam languages]], including [[Malayalam]]
******* [[Irula language|Irula]]
****** [[Kodava language|Kodava]]
***** [[Toda language|Toda]]
**** [[Kota language (India)|Kota]]
*** [[Kannada languages]], including [[Kannada]] and [[Badaga language|Badaga]]
** {{tree list/branching}}
*** [[Koraga language|Koraga]]
*** [[Tulu language|Tulu]]
*** [[Kudiya language|Kudiya]]
{{tree end}}

{{tree list}}
* '''South-Central Dravidian''' (Telugu-Kui, or South Dravidian{{nbsp}}II){{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=21}}{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=57}}
** {{tree list/branching}}
** [[Telugu languages]], including [[Telugu language|Telugu]]
** Gondi-Kui
*** [[Gondi languages]], including [[Gondi language|Gondi]]
*** {{tree list/branching}}
**** [[Konda language (Dravidian)|Konda]]
**** {{tree list/branching}}
***** {{tree list/branching}}
****** [[Manda language (India)|Manda]]
****** [[Pengo language|Pengo]]
***** {{tree list/branching}}
****** [[Kuvi language|Kuvi]]
****** [[Kui language (India)|Kui]]
{{tree end}}

{{tree list}}
* '''Central Dravidian''' (Kolami–Parji){{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=21}}{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=57}}
** {{tree list/branching}}
*** [[Kolami language|Kolami]]
*** [[Naiki language|Naiki]]
** {{tree list/branching}}
*** Gadaba
**** [[Ollari language|Ollari]]
**** [[Kondekor language|Kondekor]]
*** [[Duruwa language|Duruwa]] (or Parji)
{{tree end}}

{{tree list}}
* '''[[North Dravidian]]''' (Brahui-Kurukh){{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=21}}{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=58}}
** Kurukh–Malto
*** [[Kurukh language|Kurukh]] (Oraon, Kisan)
*** [[Malto language|Malto]] (Kumarbhag Paharia, Sauria Paharia)
** [[Brahui language|Brahui]]
{{tree end}}
There are different proposals regarding the relationship between these groups. Earlier classifications grouped Central and South-Central Dravidian in a single branch.{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=54}} On the other hand, Krishnamurti groups South-Central and South Dravidian together.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=21, 33–34}} There are other disagreements, including whether there is a Toda-Kota branch or whether Kota diverged first and later Toda (claimed by Krishnamurti).{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=35}}

Some authors deny that North Dravidian forms a valid subgroup, splitting it into Northeast (Kurukh–Malto) and Northwest (Brahui).{{sfnp|Ruhlen|1991|pp=138–141}} 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 {{IPA|/x/}} in Kurukh and Brahui, {{IPA|/q/}} in Malto.
* In some words, *c is retracted to {{IPA|/k/}}.
* Word-initial *v develops to {{IPA|/b/}}. This development is, however, also found in several other Dravidian languages, including Kannada, Kodagu and Tulu.
McAlpin (2003) 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 analysable as shared archaisms rather than shared innovations.<ref>{{cite journal|first=David W.|last=McAlpin|title=Velars, Uvulars and the Northern Dravidian hypothesis|year=2003|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=123 |issue=3|pages=521–546|doi=10.2307/3217749|jstor=3217749}}</ref>

In addition, ''[[Glottolog]]'' lists several unclassified Dravidian languages: [[Kumbaran language|Kumbaran]], [[Kakkala language|Kakkala]] (both of Tamil-Malayalam) and [[Khirwar language|Khirwar]].

A computational phylogenetic study of the Dravidian language family was undertaken by Kolipakam, et al. (2018).<ref name=Kolipakam>{{cite journal |last1=Kolipakam |first1=Vishnupriya |last2=Jordan |first2=Fiona M. |last3=Dunn |first3=Michael |last4=Greenhill |first4=Simon J. |last5=Bouckaert |first5=Remco |last6=Gray |first6=Russell D. |last7=Verkerk |first7=Annemarie |title=A Bayesian phylogenetic study of the Dravidian language family |journal=Royal Society Open Science |date=21 March 2018 |volume=5 |issue=3 |article-number=171504 |doi=10.1098/rsos.171504 |pmid=29657761 |pmc=5882685 |bibcode=2018RSOS....571504K }}</ref> They support 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.<ref name=Kolipakam/>

==Distribution==
{{Pie chart
|caption=Speakers of Dravidian languages, by language
|label1=[[Telugu language|Telugu]]
|value1=34.5
|label2=[[Tamil language|Tamil]]
|value2=29.0
|label3=[[Kannada]]
|value3=15.4
|label4=[[Malayalam]]
|value4=14.4
|label5=[[Gondi language|Gondi]]
|value5=1.2
|label6=[[Brahui language|Brahui]]
|value6=0.9
|label7=[[Tulu language|Tulu]]
|value7=0.7
|label8=[[Kurukh language|Kurukh]]
|value8=0.8
|label9=[[Beary language|Beary]]
|value9=0.7
|label10=Others
|value10=2.3
}}
[[File:Road_sign_Kochi.jpeg|thumb|A pentalingual highway sign in Kochi written in Malayalam, English, Hindi, Tamil and Kannada.]]

Dravidian languages are mostly located in the southern and central parts of south Asia with 2 main outliers, Brahui having speakers in Balochistan and as far north as Merv, Turkmenistan, and Kurukh to the east in Jharkhand and as far northeast as Bhutan, Nepal and Assam. Historically Maharashtra, Gujarat and Sindh also had Dravidian speaking populations from the evidence of place names (like ''-v(a)li, -koṭ'' from Dravidian ''paḷḷi, kōṭṭai''), grammatical features in Marathi, Gujarati, and Sindhi and Dravidian like kinship systems in southern Indo–Aryan languages. Proto-Dravidian could have been spoken in a wider area, perhaps into Central India or the western Deccan which may have had other forms of early Dravidian/pre-Proto-Dravidian or other branches of Dravidian which are currently unknown.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~fsouth/from_ccat/Proto-DravidianAgriculture.pdf |access-date=11 March 2024 |title=Proto-Dravidian Agriculture |first=F. C. |last=Southworth |publisher=University of Pennsylvania}}</ref>

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.{{sfnp|Steever|2020|p=3}}<ref name="Ishtiaq 1999">{{cite book |last=Ishtiaq |first=M. |title=Language Shifts Among the Scheduled Tribes in India: A Geographical Study |year=1999 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |location=Delhi |isbn=978-81-208-1617-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fkIgsfb95rAC|access-date=7 September 2012|pages=26–27}}</ref>
In the [[2001 census of India|2001 census]], they included 214 million people, about 21% of India's total population of 1.02 billion.<ref>{{cite web |title=Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues −2001 |url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.aspx |access-date=14 October 2017 |work=Census 2001 |publisher=Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India |archive-date=6 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206233628/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 language|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 language|Telugu]]. The total number of speakers of Telugu, including those whose first language is not Telugu, is around 85 million people. This branch also includes the tribal language [[Gondi language|Gondi]] spoken in central India.

The second-smallest branch is the Northern branch, with around 6.3 million speakers. This is the only sub-group to have a language spoken in [[Pakistan]] – [[Brahui language|Brahui]].

The smallest branch is the Central branch, which has only around 200,000 speakers. These languages are mostly tribal, and spoken in central India.

Languages recognized as [[List of official languages of India|official languages of India]] appear here in '''boldface'''.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ North Dravidian languages
!Language
!Number of speakers
!Location
|-
|[[Brahui language|Brahui]]
|2,430,000
|[[Balochistan, Pakistan|Balochistan]] ([[Pakistan]]), [[Helmand]] ([[Afghanistan]]), [[Sistan and Baluchestan Province|Beluchistan]], [[Kerman]] ([[Iran]])
|-
|[[Kurukh language|Kurukh]]
|2,280,000
|[[Chhattisgarh]], [[Jharkhand]], [[Odisha]], [[West Bengal]], [[Bihar]] ([[India]])
|-
|[[Malto language|Malto]]
|234,000
|[[Bihar]], [[Jharkhand]], [[West Bengal]] ([[India]])
|-
|Kurambhag Paharia
|12,500
|[[Jharkhand]], [[West Bengal]], [[Odisha]]
|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Central Dravidian languages
!Language
!Number of speakers
!Location
|-
|[[Kolami language|Kolami]]
|122,000
|[[Maharashtra]], [[Telangana]]
|-
|[[Duruwa language|Duruwa]]
|51,000
|[[Odisha]], [[Chhattisgarh]], [[Andhra Pradesh]]
|-
|[[Ollari language|Ollari]]
|15,000
|[[Odisha]], [[Andhra Pradesh]]
|-
|[[Naiki language|Naiki]]
|10,000
|[[Maharashtra]]
|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ South-Central Dravidian languages
!Language
!Number of speakers
!Location
|-
|'''[[Telugu language|Telugu]]'''
|83,000,000
|[[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Telangana]] and parts of [[Karnataka]] ([[Chikkaballapura district|Chikkaballapura]] (27.07%), [[Kolar district|Kolar]] (22.67%), [[Bangalore Urban district|Bangalore Urban]] (13.99%), [[Bangalore Rural district|Bangalore Rural]] (12.84%), [[Ballari district|Bellary]] (9.68%), [[Raichur district|Raichur]] (8.11%), [[Chitradurga district|Chitradurga]] (5.39%), [[Yadgir district|Yadgir]] (5.20%));<ref>{{Cite web |title=India – Census of India 2011 – LANGUAGE ATLAS – INDIA |url=https://censusindia.gov.in/nada/index.php/catalog/42561 |access-date=23 September 2023 |publisher=Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India}}</ref>[[Tamil Nadu]], [[Kerala]], [[Maharashtra]], [[Odisha]], [[Chhattisgarh]], [[West Bengal]], [[Gujarat]], [[Delhi]], [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]], [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]. Outside India in [[Telugu Americans|United States]], [[Indian Australians|Australia]], [[Canada]], [[United Kingdom]], [[New Zealand]], [[France]], [[Germany]], [[Italy]], [[Malaysian Telugu|Malaysia]], [[Mauritius]], [[Fiji]], [[United Arab Emirates|UAE]], [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Bahrain]], [[Kuwait]], [[Qatar]], [[Oman]], [[South Africa]].<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Oonk |first=Gijsbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BkwsMTyShi8C&dq=telugu+diaspora&pg=PA92 |title=Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory |date=2007 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-5356-035-8 |pages=92–116|access-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013130853/https://books.google.com/books?id=BkwsMTyShi8C&dq=telugu+diaspora&pg=PA92 |archive-date=13 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last1=Rajan |first1=S. Irudaya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jm21DwAAQBAJ&dq=telugu+people+gulf&pg=PA281 |title=India's Low-Skilled Migration to the Middle East: Policies, Politics and Challenges |last2=Saxena |first2=Prem |date=10 October 2019 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-981-13-9224-5|access-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013130925/https://books.google.com/books?id=jm21DwAAQBAJ&dq=telugu+people+gulf&pg=PA281 |archive-date=13 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
|[[Gondi language|Gondi]]
|2,980,000 (claimed, possibly much greater)
|[[Madhya Pradesh]], [[Maharashtra]], [[Chhattisgarh]], [[Telangana]], [[Odisha]], [[Andhra Pradesh]]
|-
|[[Kui language (India)|Kui]]
|942,000
|[[Odisha]], [[Andhra Pradesh]]
|-
|[[Koya language|Koya]]
|360,000
|[[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Telangana]], [[Chhattisgarh]]
|-
|[[Madiya language|Madiya]]
|360,000
|[[Chhattisgarh]], [[Telangana]], [[Maharashtra]]
|-
|[[Kuvi language|Kuvi]]
|155,000
|[[Odisha]], [[Andhra Pradesh]]
|-
|[[Pengo language|Pengo]]
|350,000
|[[Odisha]]
|-
|[[Pardhan language|Pardhan]]
|135,000
|[[Telangana]], [[Chhattisgarh]], [[Maharashtra]], [[Madhya Pradesh]]
|-
|[[Chenchu language|Chenchu]]
|26,000
|[[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Telangana]]
|-
|[[Konda language (Dravidian)|Konda]]
|20,000
|[[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Odisha]]
|-
|[[Muria language|Muria]]
|15,000
|[[Chhattisgarh]], [[Maharashtra]], [[Odisha]]
|-
|[[Manda language (India)|Manda]]
|4,040
|[[Odisha]]
|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ South Dravidian languages
|-
! Language !! Number of speakers !! Location
|-
| '''[[Tamil language|Tamil]]''' || 75,000,000
|[[Tamil Nadu]], [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]] (including [[Karaikal]]), parts of [[Andhra Pradesh]] ([[Chittoor district|Chittoor]], [[Nellore district|Nellore]], [[Tirupati district|Tirupati]], [[Annamayya district|Annamayya]]), parts of [[Karnataka]] ([[Bengaluru Urban district|Bengaluru]], [[Bengaluru Rural district|Bengaluru Rural]], [[Chamarajanagar district|Chamarajanagar]], [[Kolar district|Kolar]], [[Mysuru district|Mysuru]], [[Ramanagara district|Ramanagara]]), parts of [[Kerala]] ([[Palakkad district|Palakkad]], [[Idukki district|Idukki]], [[Thiruvananthapuram district|Thiruvananthapuram]]), parts of [[Telangana]] ([[Hyderabad district, India|Hyderabad]]), parts of [[Maharashtra]] ([[Mumbai City district|Mumbai]], [[Mumbai Suburban district|Mumbai Suburban]], [[Thane district|Thane]], [[Pune district|Pune]]), parts of [[Gujarat]] ([[Ahmedabad]], [[Vadodara]], [[Surat]]), [[Delhi]], [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands|Andaman 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]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tamilfunda.com/list-of-countries-where-tamil-is-an-official-language/|title=Countries where Tamil is official language தமிழ் நாடுகள்|date=1 February 2015|website=TᗩᗰIᒪᖴᑌᑎᗪᗩ|access-date=24 December 2018|archive-date=24 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224220119/https://tamilfunda.com/list-of-countries-where-tamil-is-an-official-language/|url-status=live |author1=Admin }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://murugan.org/research/sivasupramaniam.htm|title=History of the Tamil Diaspora|website=murugan.org|access-date=30 December 2017|archive-date=24 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191124235635/http://murugan.org/research/sivasupramaniam.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=March 2018}}
|-
|'''[[Kannada]]'''|| 44,000,000
|[[Karnataka]], parts of [[Kerala]] ([[Kasaragod district|Kasaragod]], [[Kannur district|Kannur]], [[Wayanad district|Wayanad]]), parts of [[Maharashtra]] ([[Kolhapur district|Kolhapur]], [[Solapur district|Solapur]], [[Sangli district|Sangli]]), parts of [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Chennai district|Chennai]], [[Coimbatore district|Coimbatore]], [[Salem district|Salem]], [[Nilgiris district|Nilgiris]], [[Krishnagiri District|Krishnagiri]]), parts of [[Andhra Pradesh]] ([[Anantapur district|Anantapur]], [[Kurnool district|Kurnool]]), parts of [[Telangana]] ([[Hyderabad district, India|Hyderabad]], [[Medak district|Medak]], [[Jogulamba Gadwal]], [[Narayanpet district|Narayanpet]], [[Sangareddy district|Sangareddy]], [[Vikarabad district]]), parts of [[Gujarat]] ([[Ahmedabad]], [[Surat]], [[Vadodara]]), [[United States]], [[Australia]], [[Germany]], [[United Kingdom]], [[United Arab Emirates]], [[Bahrain]], Netherlands
|-
| '''[[Malayalam]]''' || 37,000,000 ||[[Kerala]], [[Lakshadweep]], [[Mahe district]] of [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]], Parts of [[Karnataka]] ([[Dakshina Kannada]], [[Udupi district|Udupi]], [[Kodagu district|Kodagu]], [[Mysore]] and [[Bangalore]]), parts of [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Chennai district|Chennai]], [[Coimbatore district|Coimbatore]], [[Nilgiris District|Nilgiris]], and [[Kanyakumari district|Kanyakumari]]), [[Maharashtra]] ([[Mumbai City district|Mumbai]], [[Mumbai Suburban district|Mumbai Suburban]], [[Thane district|Thane]], [[Pune district|Pune]]), [[Gujarat]] ([[Surat]], [[Ahmedabad]]), [[Delhi]], [[United Arab Emirates]], [[United States]], [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Kuwait]], [[Oman]], [[United Kingdom]], [[Qatar]], [[Bahrain]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], [[Canada]], [[Malaysia]], [[Singapore]], [[Israel]], [[Ireland]],<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://statbank.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=E7010&PLanguage=0 | title=Irish Census 2016 | access-date=10 June 2021 | archive-date=5 August 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805083706/https://statbank.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=E7010&PLanguage=0 | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Germany]], [[Austria]]<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.viennamalayaleeassociation.com/ | title=Vienna Malayalee Association | access-date=10 June 2021 | archive-date=14 June 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614105941/http://viennamalayaleeassociation.com/ | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Finland]],<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://pxnet2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/fi/StatFin/StatFin__vrm__vaerak/statfin_vaerak_pxt_11rl.px/table/tableViewLayout1/?rxid=726cd24d-d0f1-416a-8eec-7ce9b82fd5a4 | title=Väestö 31.12. Muuttujina Maakunta, Kieli, Ikä, Sukupuoli, Vuosi ja Tiedot | access-date=10 June 2021 | archive-date=7 April 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210407133215/https://pxnet2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/fi/StatFin/StatFin__vrm__vaerak/statfin_vaerak_pxt_11rl.px/?rxid=726cd24d-d0f1-416a-8eec-7ce9b82fd5a4 }}</ref> [[Japan]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nihonkairali.com/display.aspx?v=s&id=130&hs=1|title=Welcome to Nionkairali.com – Indian Malayalees in Japan- Japan malayalees, Malayali, Keralite, Tokyo|website=nihonkairali.com|access-date=10 June 2021|archive-date=7 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507231451/http://nihonkairali.com/display.aspx?v=s&id=130&hs=1|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Pakistan]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-where-malayalees-once-held-sway-4610|title=Where Malayalees once held sway|work=Daily News and Analysis|date=5 October 2005|access-date=11 August 2015|archive-date=2 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202131437/https://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-where-malayalees-once-held-sway-4610|url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
| [[Tulu language|Tulu]] || 1,850,000 ||[[Karnataka]] ([[Dakshina Kannada]], [[Udupi district|Udupi]] districts) and [[Kerala]] ([[Kasaragod district]]), Across [[Maharashtra]] and [[Gujarat]], especially in cities like [[Mumbai]], [[Thane]], [[Surat]], etc. and [[Gulf Countries]] ([[United Arab Emirates|UAE]], [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Kuwait]], [[Oman]], [[Qatar]], [[Bahrain]])<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID=63861|title=Dr Veerendra Heggade in Dubai to Unite Tuluvas for Tulu Sammelan|access-date=12 November 2017|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191142/http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=63861&|url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
| [[Beary language|Beary]] || 1,500,000 || [[Karnataka]] ([[Dakshina Kannada]], [[Udupi district|Udupi]] districts) and [[Kerala]] ([[Kasaragod district]]) and [[Gulf Countries]] ([[United Arab Emirates|UAE]], [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Kuwait]], [[Oman]], [[Qatar]], [[Bahrain]])
|-
|[[Pattapu language|Pattapu]]
|200,000+
|[[Andhra Pradesh]]
|-
| [[Irula language|Irula]] || 200,000 || [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Nilgiris district]]), [[Karnataka]] ([[Mysore district]])
|-
| [[Kurumba language|Kurumba]] || 180,000 || [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Nilgiris district]])
|-
| [[Badaga language|Badaga]]|| 133,000 ||[[Karnataka]] ([[Mysore district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Nilgiris district]]) 
|-
| [[Kodava language|Kodava]]|| 114,000 ||[[Karnataka]] ([[Kodagu district]])
|-
|[[Jeseri]]
|65,000
|[[Lakshadweep]]
|-
|[[Yerukala language|Yerukala]]
|58,000
|[[Karnataka]], [[Kerala]], [[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Tamil Nadu]], [[Telangana]]
|-
|[[Betta Kurumba language|Betta Kurumba]]
|32,000
|[[Karnataka]] ([[Chamarajanagar district]], [[Kodagu district]], [[Mysore district]]), [[Kerala]] ([[Wayanad district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Nilgiris district|Nilgiris District]])
|-
|[[Kurichiya language|Kurichiya]]
|29,000
|[[Kerala]] ([[Kannur district]], [[Kozhikode district]], [[Wayanad district]])
|-
|[[Ravula language|Ravula]]
|27,000
|[[Karnataka]] ([[Kodagu district]]), [[Kerala]] ([[Kannur district]], [[Wayanad district]])
|-
|[[Mullu Kurumba language|Mullu Kurumba]]
|26,000
|[[Kerala]] ([[Wayanad district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[The Nilgiris District]])
|-
|[[Sholaga language|Sholaga]]
|24,000
|[[Tamil Nadu]], [[Karnataka]] ([[Mysore district]])
|-
|[[Kaikadi language|Kaikadi]]
|26,000
|[[Madhya Pradesh]] ([[Betul district]]), [[Maharashtra]] ([[Amravati district]])
|-
|[[Paniya language|Paniya]]
|22,000
|[[Karnataka]] ([[Kodagu district]]), [[Kerala]], [[Tamil Nadu]]
|-
| [[Kanikkaran language|Kanikkaran]] || 19,000 || [[Kerala]], [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Kanyakumari district]], [[Tirunelveli district]])
|-
|[[Malankuravan language|Malankuravan]]
|18,600
|[[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Kanyakumari district]]), [[Kerala]] ([[Kollam district]], [[Kottayam district]], [[Thiruvananthapuram district]])
|-
|[[Muthuvan language|Muthuvan]]
|16,800
|[[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Kerala]], [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Coimbatore district]], [[Madurai district]])
|-
| [[Koraga language|Koraga]] || 14,000 || [[Karnataka]] ([[Dakshina Kannada]], [[Udupi district|Udupi]] districts) and [[Kerala]] ([[Kasaragod district]])
|-
|[[Kumbaran language|Kumbaran]]
|10,000
|[[Kerala]] ([[Kozhikode district]], [[Malappuram district]], [[Wayanad district]])
|-
|[[Paliyan language|Paliyan]]
|9,500
|[[Kerala]] ([[Idukki district]], [[Ernakulam district]], [[Kottayam district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]], [[Karnataka]]
|-
|[[Malasar language|Malasar]]
|7,800
|[[Kerala]] ([[Palakkad district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Coimbatore district]])
|-
|[[Malapandaram language|Malapandaram]]
|5,900
|[[Kerala]] ([[Kollam district]], [[Pathanamthitta district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Coimbatore district]], [[Madurai district]], [[Viluppuram district]])
|-
|[[Eravallan language|Eravallan]]
|5,000
|[[Kerala]] ([[Palakkad district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Coimbatore district]])
|-
|[[Wayanad Chetti language|Wayanad Chetti]]
|5,000
|[[Karnataka]], [[Kerala]] ([[Wayanad district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Coimbatore district]], [[The Nilgiris District]], [[Erode district]])
|-
|[[Muduga language|Muduga]]
|3,400
|[[Kerala]] ([[Palakkad district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Coimbatore district]], [[The Nilgiris District]])
|-
|[[Thachanadan language|Thachanadan]]
|3,000
|[[Kerala]] ([[Malappuram district]], [[Wayanad district]])
|-
|[[Kadar language|Kadar]]
|2,960
|[[Kerala]] ([[Thrissur district]], [[Palakkad district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Coimbatore district]])
|-
|[[Kudiya language|Kudiya]] || 2,800 || [[Karnataka]] ([[Dakshina Kannada]], [[Udupi district|Udupi]], [[Kodagu district|Kodagu]] districts) and [[Kerala]] ([[Kasaragod district]], [[Kannur district]])
|-
| [[Toda language|Toda]] || 1,560 || [[Karnataka]] ([[Mysore district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Nilgiris district]])
|-
|[[Attapady Kurumba language|Attapady Kurumba]]
|1,370
|[[Kerala]] ([[Palakkad district]])
|-
|[[Kunduvadi language|Kunduvadi]]
|1,000
|[[Kerala]] ([[Kozhikode district]], [[Wayanad district]])
|-
|[[Mala Malasar language|Mala Malasar]]
|1,000
|[[Kerala]] ([[Palakkad district]]), [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[Coimbatore district]])
|-
|[[Pathiya language|Pathiya]]
|1,000
|[[Kerala]] ([[Wayanad district]])
|-
| [[Kota language (India)|Kota]] || 930 || [[Tamil Nadu]] ([[The Nilgiris District|Nilgiris district]])
|-
|[[Kalanadi language|Kalanadi]]
|750
|[[Kerala]] ([[Wayanad district]])
|-
|[[Holiya language|Holiya]]
|500
|[[Madhya Pradesh]] ([[Balaghat district]], [[Seoni district]]), [[Maharashtra]], [[Karnataka]]
|-
|[[Allar language|Allar]]
|350
|[[Kerala]] ([[Palakkad district]], [[Malappuram district]])
|-
|[[Aranadan language|Aranadan]]
|200
|[[Kerala]] ([[Malappuram district]])
|-
|[[Vishavan language|Vishavan]]
|150
|[[Kerala]] ([[Ernakulam district]], [[Kottayam district]], [[Thrissur district]])
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Unclassified Dravidian languages
!Language
!Number of speakers
!Location
|-
|[[Khirwar language|Khirwar]]
|26,000
|[[Chhattisgarh]] ([[Surguja district]])
|-
|[[Kumbaran language|Kumbaran]]
|10,000
|
|-
|[[Cholanaikkan language|Cholanaikkan]]
|290 
|[[Kerala]] ([[Malappuram district]])
|-
|[[Kakkala language|Kakkala]]
|
|[[Kerala]]
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Extinct Dravidian languages
!Language
!Branch
!Location
|-
|[[Malaryan language|Malaryan]]
|[[Malayalamoid]]
| [[Kerala]], [[Tamil Nadu]]
|-
|[[Nagarchal language|Nagarchal]]
|[[Gondic]]
|[[Madhya Pradesh]] (Balaghat, Chhindwara, Jabalpur, Mandla and Seoni districts)
|-
|[[Ullatan language|Ullatan]]
|[[Malayalamoid]]
|[[Kerala]]
|}

==Proposed relations with other families==
[[File:South Asian Language Families.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.25|Language families in South Asia]]

Researchers have tried but have been unable to prove a connection between the Dravidian languages with other language families, including [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], [[Hurrian]], [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]], [[Korean language|Korean]], and [[Japanese language|Japanese]]. Comparisons have been made not just with the other language families of the Indian subcontinent ([[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]], [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]], and [[Nihali language|Nihali]]), but with all typologically similar language families of the Old World.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=43–47}} Nonetheless, although there are no readily detectable genealogical connections, Dravidian shares several [[areal feature]]s with the [[Indo-Aryan languages]], which have been attributed to the influence of a Dravidian [[Substratum (linguistics)|substratum]] on Indo-Aryan.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=38–42}}

Dravidian languages display typological similarities with the [[Uralic languages|Uralic]] language group, and there have been several attempts to establish a genetic relationship in the past.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Tyler | first1 = Stephen | year = 1968 | title = Dravidian and Uralian: the lexical evidence | journal = Language | volume = 44 | issue = 4| pages = 798–812 | doi=10.2307/411899| jstor = 411899 }}</ref> This idea has been popular amongst Dravidian linguists, including [[Robert Caldwell]],<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Webb | first1 = Edward | year = 1860 | title = Evidences of the Scythian Affinities of the Dravidian Languages, Condensed and Arranged from Rev. R. Caldwell's Comparative Dravidian Grammar | journal = Journal of the American Oriental Society | volume = 7 | pages = 271–298 | doi=10.2307/592159| jstor = 592159 }}</ref> [[Thomas Burrow]],<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Burrow | first1 = T | year = 1944 | title = Dravidian Studies IV: The Body in Dravidian and Uralian | journal = Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies | volume = 11 | issue = 2| pages = 328–356 | doi=10.1017/s0041977x00072517| s2cid = 246637174 }}</ref> [[Kamil Zvelebil]],<ref name="britannicaDVD">Zvelebil, Kamil (2006). Dravidian Languages. In ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (DVD edition).</ref> and Mikhail Andronov.<ref>Andronov, Mikhail S. (1971), "Comparative Studies on the Nature of Dravidian-Uralian Parallels: A Peep into the Prehistory of Language Families". ''Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Tamil Studies'' Madras. 267–277.</ref> The hypothesis is, however, rejected by most specialists in Uralic languages,<ref>Zvelebil, Kamil (1970), ''Comparative Dravidian Phonology'' Mouton, The Hauge. at p. 22 contains a bibliography of articles supporting and opposing the theory</ref> and also in recent times by Dravidian linguists such as [[Bhadriraju Krishnamurti]].{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=43}}

In the early 1970s, the linguist [[David W. McAlpin|David McAlpin]] produced a detailed proposal of a genetic relationship between Dravidian and the extinct [[Elamite language]] of ancient [[Elam]] (present-day southwestern [[Iran]]).{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=105}} The [[Elamo-Dravidian languages|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 language|Proto-Dravidian]] was brought to India by farmers from the Iranian part of the [[Fertile Crescent]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Renfrew |first1=Colin |title=The Origins of Indo-European Languages |journal=Scientific American |date=October 1989 |volume=261 |issue=4 |pages=106–114 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1089-106 |bibcode=1989SciAm.261d.106R |jstor=24987446 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Cavalli-Sforza|2000|pp=157, 159}} (In his 2000 book, Cavalli-Sforza suggested western India, northern India and northern Iran as alternative starting points.{{sfnp|Cavalli-Sforza|2000|pp=157, 160}}) However, linguists have found McAlpin's cognates unconvincing and criticized his proposed phonological rules as ''ad hoc''.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=44–45}}{{sfnp|Steever|2020|p=39}}{{sfnp|Campbell|Poser|2008|p=286}}{{sfnp|Kolichala|2016|p=76}} Elamite is generally believed by scholars to be a [[language isolate]], and the theory has had no effect on studies of the language.<ref>{{cite book | first = Matthew W. | last = Stolper | chapter = Elamite | editor-first = Roger D. | editor-last = Woodard | title = The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2008 | pages = 47–82 | isbn = 978-0-521-68497-2 }} p. 48.</ref> In 2012, Southworth suggested a "Zagrosian family" of West Asian origin including [[Elamite]], Brahui and Dravidian as its three branches.{{sfnp|Southworth|2011|p=142}}

==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 linguistics|comparative linguistic]] research into the Dravidian languages. Some scholars have suggested that the Dravidian languages were the most widespread indigenous languages in the [[Indian subcontinent]] before the advance of the Indo-Aryan languages.<ref name="steven">{{cite book|title=History of Language|author=Steven Roger Fischer|publisher=Reaktion books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSptsIJwsasC&q=dravidian+languages&pg=PT82|quote=It is generally accepted that Dravidian – with no identifiable cognates among the world's languages – was India's most widely distributed, indigenous language family when Indo-European speakers first intruded from the north-west 3,000 years ago|isbn=978-1-86189-594-3|date=3 October 2004|access-date=10 November 2020|archive-date=9 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409105615/https://books.google.com/books?id=TSptsIJwsasC&q=dravidian+languages&pg=PT82|url-status=live}}</ref> 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<ref name="tls1963"/>{{sfnp|Andronov|2003|p=299}} or even earlier,<ref name="mukherjee2001">{{Citation | title=High-resolution analysis of Y-chromosomal polymorphisms reveals signatures of population movements from central Asia and West Asia into India |author1=Namita Mukherjee |author2=Almut Nebel |author3=Ariella Oppenheim |author4=Partha P. Majumder | journal=Journal of Genetics | publisher=Springer India | date=December 2001 |volume=80 |issue=3 |doi=10.1007/BF02717908| quote=... More recently, about 15,000–10,000 years before present (ybp), when agriculture developed in the Fertile Crescent region that extends from Israel through northern Syria to western Iran, there was another eastward wave of human migration (Cavalli-Sforza et al., 1994; Renfrew 1987), a part of which also appears to have entered India. This wave has been postulated to have brought the Dravidian languages into India (Renfrew 1987). Subsequently, the Indo-European (Aryan) language family was introduced into India about 4,000 ybp ... | pmid=11988631 | pages=125–35|s2cid=13267463 }}</ref><ref name="kumar2004">{{Citation | title=Genetic Disorders of the Indian Subcontinent | author=Dhavendra Kumar | publisher=Springer | year=2004 | access-date=25 November 2008 | isbn=1-4020-1215-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bpl0LXKj13QC | quote=... The analysis of two Y chromosome variants, Hgr9 and Hgr3 provides interesting data (Quintan-Murci et al., 2001). Microsatellite variation of Hgr9 among Iranians, Pakistanis and Indians indicate an expansion of populations to around 9000 YBP in Iran and then to 6,000 YBP in India. This migration originated in what was historically termed Elam in south-west Iran to the Indus valley, and may have been associated with the spread of Dravidian languages from south-west Iran (Quintan-Murci et al., 2001). ... | archive-date=9 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409105646/https://books.google.com/books?id=bpl0LXKj13QC | url-status=live }}</ref> reconstructed proto-Dravidian vocabulary suggests that the family is indigenous to India.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=15}}{{sfnp|Avari|2007|p=13}}{{efn|name=Renfrew}}

===Proto-Dravidian and onset of diversification===
As a [[proto-language]], the [[Proto-Dravidian language|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.<ref name=department>[https://books.google.com/books?id=chvjAAAAMAAJ&q=the+proto-+Dravidian+linguistic+community+disintegrated+at+the+beginning+of+the+4th+millennium+B.+C History and Archaeology, Volume 1, Issues 1–2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409105710/https://books.google.com/books?id=chvjAAAAMAAJ&q=the+proto-+Dravidian+linguistic+community+disintegrated+at+the+beginning+of+the+4th+millennium+B.+C |date=9 April 2023 }} p.234, Department of Ancient History, Culture, and Archaeology, University of Allahabad</ref> According to [[Bhadriraju Krishnamurti|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."{{sfn|Krishnamurti|2003|p=501}} 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.{{sfn|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=501–502}} Kolipakam et al. (2018) give a similar estimate of 2,500 BCE for Proto-Dravidian.<ref name=sciendaily>{{Cite news|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180321090953.htm|title=Dravidian language family is approximately 4,500 years old, new linguistic analysis finds|work=ScienceDaily|access-date=17 May 2018|archive-date=18 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180518195847/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180321090953.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>
Southworth proposes to identify the proto-Dravidian-speaking population with the Southern [[Neolithic]] complex, which expanded from the [[Andhra Pradesh|Andhra]]-[[Karnataka]] border region in the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE.{{sfnp|Southworth|2005|pp=245–250}}

Historically, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Sindh may also have had Dravidian-speaking populations, based on the evidence of place names (like ''-v(a)li, -koṭ'' from Dravidian ''paḷḷi, kōṭṭai''), grammatical features in Marathi, Gujarati, and Sindhi, and Dravidian-like kinship systems in southern Indo–Aryan languages. Proto-Dravidian could have been spoken in a wider area, perhaps into Central India or the western Deccan which may have had other forms of early Dravidian/pre-Proto-Dravidian or other branches of Dravidian which are currently unknown.<ref name="auto"/>

Several geneticists have noted a strong correlation between Dravidian and the Ancestral South Indian (ASI) component of [[genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia|South Asian genetic makeup]].{{sfnp|Reich|Thangaraj|Patterson|Price|2009|p=493}} 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.{{sfnp|Narasimhan|Patterson|Moorjani|Rohland|2019|p=11}} They conclude that one of these two groups may have been the source of proto-Dravidian.{{sfnp|Narasimhan|Patterson|Moorjani|Rohland|2019|p=15}} An Indus valley origin would be consistent with the location of Brahui and with attempts to interpret the [[Indus script]] as Dravidian.{{sfnp|Narasimhan|Patterson|Moorjani|Rohland|2019|p=15}}{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=5}} However, many scholars believe that Brahui arrived in the northwest much later. Also, reconstructed Proto-Dravidian terms for flora and fauna provide support for a peninsular Indian origin.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=15}}{{sfnp|Narasimhan|Patterson|Moorjani|Rohland|2019|p=15}}{{sfnp|Southworth|2005|pp=255–256}}

===Indus Valley Civilisation===
The [[Indus Valley civilisation]] (3300–1900 BCE), located in the [[Indus Valley]] region, is sometimes suggested to have been Dravidian.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.harappa.com/arrow/stone_celt_indus_signs.html |title=Stone celts in Harappa |last=Mahadevan |first=Iravatham |date=6 May 2006 |website=Harappa |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060904034700/http://www.harappa.com/arrow/stone_celt_indus_signs.html |archive-date=4 September 2006}}</ref> Already in 1924, after discovering the Indus Valley Civilisation, [[John Marshall (archaeologist)|John Marshall]] stated that one or more of the languages may have been Dravidic.<ref>M.T. Saju (5 October 2018), [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/tracking-indian-communities/pot-route-could-have-linked-indus-vaigai/ ''Pot route could have linked Indus & Vaigai''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124507/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/tracking-indian-communities/pot-route-could-have-linked-indus-vaigai/ |date=9 February 2019 }}, Times of India</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | last = Rahman | first = Tariq | title = Peoples and languages in pre-Islamic Indus valley | url=http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/subject/peoplesandlanguages.html| quote =most scholars have taken the 'Dravidian hypothesis' seriously | access-date = 20 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509053921/http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/subject/peoplesandlanguages.html |archive-date=9 May 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Cole |first=Jennifer |date=2006 |chapter=The Sindhi language |chapter-url=http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/jscole/Sindhi_Elsevier_encyl.pdf |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=K. |title=Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd Edition |volume=11 |publisher=Elsevier |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106015921/http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/jscole/Sindhi_Elsevier_encyl.pdf |archive-date=6 January 2007 |quote=Harappan language...prevailing theory indicates Dravidian origins }}</ref> The discovery in [[Tamil Nadu]] of a late Neolithic (early 2nd millennium BCE, i.e. post-dating Harappan decline) stone [[celt (tool)|celt]] allegedly marked with Indus signs has been considered by some to be significant for the Dravidian identification.<ref>Subramanium 2006; see also [http://www.harappa.com/arrow/stone_celt_indus_signs.html A Note on the Muruku Sign of the Indus Script in light of the Mayiladuthurai Stone Axe Discovery] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060904034700/http://www.harappa.com/arrow/stone_celt_indus_signs.html |date=4 September 2006 }} by I. Mahadevan (2006)</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Subramanian |first=T.S. |date=1 May 2006 |title=Significance of Mayiladuthurai find |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/05/01/stories/2006050101992000.htm |newspaper=The Hindu |access-date=27 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430214654/http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/05/01/stories/2006050101992000.htm |archive-date=30 April 2008 }}</ref>

[[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.<ref>{{harvnb|Knorozov|1965|p=117}}</ref> Knorozov's suggestion was preceded by the work of Henry Heras, who suggested several readings of signs based on a proto-Dravidian assumption.<ref>{{harvnb|Heras|1953|p=138}}</ref>

Linguist Asko Parpola writes that the Indus script and Harappan language are "most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate|page=183|author=Edwin Bryant|publisher=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-516947-8|year=2003}}</ref> 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''.<ref>{{harvnb|Parpola|1994}}</ref>

===Northern Dravidian pockets===
{{See also|Kurukh language|Malto language|Brahui language}}

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 {{Circa|1500 BCE}}, and the establishment of the [[Kuru Kingdom|Kuru kingdom]] {{Circa|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 people|Kurukh]] and [[Malto people|Malto]] are pockets of Dravidian languages in North Eastern India. They have myths about external origins.<ref>P. 83 ''The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration'' Debate by Edwin Bryant</ref> The Kurukh have traditionally claimed to be from the [[Deccan Peninsula]],<ref>P. 18 ''The Orāons of Chōtā Nāgpur: their history, economic life, and social organization.'' by Sarat Chandra Roy, Rai Bahadur; Alfred C Haddon</ref> more specifically [[Karnataka]]. The same tradition has existed of the Brahui,<ref>P. 12 ''Origin and Spread of the Tamils By V. R.'' Ramachandra Dikshitar</ref><ref name = "uszfyu">P. 32 ''Ideology and status of Sanskrit : contributions to the history of the Sanskrit language'' by Jan E M Houben</ref> who call themselves immigrants.<ref>P. 45 ''The Brahui language, an old Dravidian language spoken in parts of Baluchistan and Sind'' by [[Denys Bray|Sir Denys Bray]]</ref> Holding this same view of the Brahui are many scholars<ref>''Ancient India; Culture and Thought'' By M. L. Bhagi</ref> such as L.{{nbsp}}H. Horace Perera and M.{{nbsp}}Ratnasabapathy.<ref>P. 23 ''Ceylon & Indian History from Early Times to 1505 A.D.'' By L. H. Horace Perera, M. Ratnasabapathy</ref>

The [[Brahui people|Brahui]] population of Pakistan's [[Balochistan, Pakistan|Balochistan province]] has been taken by some as the linguistic equivalent of a [[Relict (biology)|relict]] population, perhaps indicating that Dravidian languages were formerly much more widespread and were supplanted by the incoming [[Indo-Aryan languages]].{{sfnp|Mallory|1989|p=44}}{{sfnp|Elst|1999|p=146}}{{sfnp|Trask|2000|p=97|ps="It is widely suspected that the extinct and undeciphered Indus Valley language was a Dravidian language, but no confirmation is available. The existence of the isolated northern outlier ''Brahui'' is consistent with the hypothesis that Dravidian formerly occupied much of North India but was displaced by the invading Indo-Aryan languages, and the presence in the Indo-Aryan languages of certain linguistic features, such as retroflex consonants, is often attributed to Dravidian substrate influence."}} However, Brahui lacks any [[Old Iranian]] loanwords, with most of its Iranian vocabulary coming from [[Balochi language|Balochi]], a [[Western Iranian language]] that arrived in the area from the west only around 1000 CE.{{sfnp|Kolichala|2016|p=105}} Sound changes shared with Kurukh and Malto also suggest that Brahui was originally spoken near them in central India.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=27, 142}}

===Dravidian influence on Sanskrit===
{{main|Substratum in Vedic Sanskrit}}

Dravidian languages show extensive lexical (vocabulary) borrowing, but only a few traits of structural (either [[phonology|phonological]] or grammatical) borrowing from Indo-Aryan, whereas Indo-Aryan shows more structural than lexical borrowings from the Dravidian languages.<ref name="britannicaOnline">"[http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9109791 Dravidian languages.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409105643/https://academic.eb.com/ |date=9 April 2023 }}" [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 30 June 2008</ref> Many of these features are already present in the oldest known [[Indo-Aryan language]], the language of the ''[[Rigveda]]'' (c.{{nbsp}}1500 BCE), which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=6}}

[[Vedic Sanskrit]] has [[retroflex consonant]]s ({{IAST|ṭ}}/{{IAST|ḍ}}, {{IAST|ṇ}}) with about 88 words in the ''Rigveda'' having unconditioned retroflexes.{{sfnp|Kuiper|1991}}{{sfnp|Witzel|1999}} Some sample words are ''{{IAST|Iṭanta}}'', ''{{IAST|Kaṇva}}'', ''{{IAST|śakaṭī}}'', ''{{IAST|kevaṭa}}'', ''{{IAST|puṇya}}'' and ''{{IAST|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.{{sfnp|Kuiper|1991}}{{sfnp|Witzel|1999}} The Dravidian family is a serious candidate since it is rich in retroflex phonemes reconstructible back to the [[Proto-Dravidian language|Proto-Dravidian stage]].{{sfnp|Subrahmanyam|1983|p=40}}{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990}}{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=36}}

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.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=36–37}} Some linguists explain this asymmetrical borrowing by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan languages were built on a Dravidian substratum.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=40–41}} 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 [[Minoritarianism|elite dominance]].{{sfnp|Erdosy|1995|p=18}} 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.{{sfnp|Thomason|Kaufman|1988|pp=141–144}}

==Phonology==
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2017}}
Proto-Dravidian, unlike [[Sanskrit]] and other [[Indo-Iranian languages]] languages of South Asia, lacked both an [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspiration]] and [[Voice (phonetics)|voicing]] contrast. The situation varies considerably amongst its daughter languages and often also between [[Register (sociolinguistics)|registers]] of any single language. The vast majority of modern Dravidian languages generally have some voicing distinctions amongst stops; as for aspiration, it appears in at least the formal varieties of the so-called "literary" Dravidian languages (except Tamil) today, but may be rare or entirely absent in less formal registers, as well as in the many "non-literary" Dravidian languages.

At one extreme, [[Tamil language|Tamil]], like Proto-Dravidian, does not phonemically distinguish between voiced and voiceless or unaspirated and aspirated sounds, even in formal speech; in fact, the [[Tamil alphabet]] lacks symbols for voiced and aspirated stops. At the other end, Brahui is exceptional among the Dravidian languages in possessing and commonly employing the entire inventory of aspirates employed in neighboring [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]]. While aspirates are particularly concentrated in the Indo-Aryan element of the lexicon, some Brahui words with Dravidian roots have developed aspiration as well.<ref name="brahuigrammar">{{cite Q|Q56805610|page=7–9}}</ref>

Most languages lie in between. Voicing contrasts are quite common in all registers of speech in most Dravidian languages. Aspiration contrasts are less common, but relatively well-established in the phonologies of the higher or more formal registers, as well as in the standard [[orthography|orthographies]], of the "literary" languages (other than Tamil): Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. However, in colloquial or non-standard speech, aspiration often appears inconsistently or not at all, even if it occurs in the standard spelling of the word.

In the languages in which aspirates are found, they primarily occur in the large numbers of [[loanword]]s from [[Sanskrit]] and other [[Indo-Iranian languages]], though some are found in etymologically native words as well, often as the result of plosive + laryngeal clusters being reanalysed as aspirates (e.g. Telugu {{lang|te|నలభై}} {{tlit|te|ISO|nalabhai}}, Kannada {{lang|kn|ಎಂಬತ್ತು}}/{{lang|kn|ಎಂಭತ್ತು}} {{tlit|kn|ISO|emb(h)attu}}, Adilabad Gondi {{tlit|wsg|ISO|phōṛd}}).{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=56}}

Dravidian languages are also historically characterized by a three-way distinction between [[Dental consonant|dental]], [[Alveolar consonant|alveolar]], and [[retroflex]] places of articulation as well as large numbers of [[Liquid consonant|liquids]]. Currently the three-way coronal distinction is only found in Malayalam, Sri Lankan Tamil, and the various languages of the [[Nilgiri Mountains]], all of which belong to the Tamil–Kannada branch of the family.

All other Dravidian languages maintain only a two-way distinction between dentals and retroflexes, largely the result of merging the alveolars with the dentals or retroflexes, or via [[Rhotacism|rhotacization]]. The latter is found primarily among the South and South Central languages, where many languages merged the singular proto-Dravidian alveolar plosive ''*ṯ'' with the alveolar trill {{IPA|/r/}}; subsequently, in some of these languages, the trill evolved into the alveolar tap {{IPA|/ɾ/}} or underwent other sound changes (Tulu has {{IPA|/d͡ʒ, d̪, ɾ/}} as reflexes, Manda-Kui has {{IPA|/d͡ʒ/}}, and Hill-Maria Gondi has {{IPA|/ʁ/}}).

===Proto-Dravidian===
{{main|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'').{{sfnp|Subrahmanyam|1983}}{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|pp=2, 6}}{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=90}}
The five-vowel system with phonemic length is largely preserved in the descendant subgroups,{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=48}} 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'' phoneme (mostly word finally) became ''ŭ/ụ'' /ɯ~ɨ~ə/ and also became phonemic in Tulu and Malayalam, mostly caused by loaning words with rounded /u/. Brahui has a slightly poorer vowel system, where short ''e'' and ''o'' merged with other vowels due to the influence of neighbouring Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages, leaving only long counterparts.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=118 }}

The following consonantal phonemes are reconstructed:{{sfnp|Subrahmanyam|1983|p=40}}{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=7}}{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=91}}
{| class="wikitable Unicode" border="1"
|-
! !![[Labial consonant|Labial]]!![[Dental consonant|Dental]]!![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]!![[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]!![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]!![[Velar consonant|Velar]]!![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
![[Stop consonant|Plosives]]
| *p || *t || *ṯ || *ṭ || *c || *k ||
|-
![[Nasal consonant|Nasals]]
| *m || *n || (*ṉ){{efn|reconstructed by [[P. S. Subrahmanyam]]}} || *ṇ || *ñ || ||
|-
![[Lateral consonant|Laterals]]
| || || *l || *ḷ || || ||
|-
![[Rhotic consonant|Rhotics]]
| || || *r || *ẓ{{efn|may also be represented as ḻ or r̤}} || || ||
|-
![[Semivowels]]
| *w || || || || *y || || *H
|}

* The *ṯ developed into a trill (with *r being a tap) in South and South Central Dravidian.
* All non-Tamil-Malayalam languages (including modern spoken Tamil) developed a voicing distinction for plosives. If loans are included, all of them have a voicing distinction.

==Grammar==
The most characteristic grammatical features of Dravidian languages are:<ref name="britannicaDVD"/>
* Dravidian languages are [[Agglutination|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, [[clitic|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]].

===Nominal morphology===
====Number and gender====
The Dravidian languages have two numbers, singular and plural. The singular is unmarked, the plural is expressed by a suffix. The plural suffixes are ''-(n)k(k)a'' (cf. Kui {{tlit|uki|kōḍi-ŋga}} 'cows', Brahui {{tlit|brh|bā-k}} 'mouths'), *-ḷ (cf. Telugu {{tlit|te|mrānu-lu}} 'trees', Ollari {{tlit|adb|ki-l}} 'hands') and the combination of these two *-(n)k(k)aḷ common in SD (cf. Tamil {{tlit|ta|maraṅ-kaḷ}} 'trees', Kannada {{tlit|kn|mara-gaḷu}} 'trees').{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=213–215}}

The individual Dravidian languages have different gender systems. What they have in common is that the grammatical gender (genus) always corresponds to the natural gender of the word. In addition to individual special developments, there are three main types in which the categories "male" or "non-male" as well as "human" and "non-human" play a central role:{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=207–210}}

# The South Dravidian languages distinguish between masculine (human, masculine), feminine (human, non-masculine) and neuter (non-human) in the singular, and only between human and non-human in the plural.
# The Central Dravidian and many South Central Dravidian languages distinguish only between masculine and non-masculine in both singular and plural.
# Telugu and the North Dravidian languages distinguish between masculine and non-masculine in the singular, and between human and non-human in the plural.
The three types are illustrated by the forms of the third-person demonstrative pronouns of the three languages:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+Gender system types illustrated with third-person demonstrative pronouns{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=208}}
|-
! !! m. Sg. !! f. Sg. !! n. Sg. !! m. Pl. !! f. Pl. !! n. Pl.
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | Type 1: Tamil (South Dravidian){{efn|Tamil also has different forms for honorific pronouns: {{tlit|ta|avar}} (human singular) and {{tlit|ta|avarkaḷ}} (human plural).}}
| {{tlit|ta|avaṉ}}
| {{tlit|ta|avaḷ}}
| {{tlit|ta|atu}}
| colspan="2" | {{tlit|ta|avar}}
| {{tlit|ta|avai}}
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | Type 2: Telugu (South Central Dravidian)
| {{tlit|te|vāḍu}}
| colspan="2" | {{tlit|te|adi}}
| colspan="2" | {{tlit|te|vāru}}
| {{tlit|te|avi}}
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | Type 3: Kolami (Central Dravidian)
| {{tlit|kfb|am}}
| colspan="2" | {{tlit|kfb|ad}}
| {{tlit|kfb|avr}}
| colspan="2" | {{tlit|kfb|adav}}
|}

There is no consensus as to which of these three types is the original.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=210–212}}

The gender is not explicitly marked for all nouns. Thus in Telugu {{tlit|te|anna}} 'elder brother' is masculine and {{tlit|te|amma}} 'mother' non-masculine, without this being apparent from the pure form of the word. However, many nouns are formed with certain suffixes that express gender and number. For Proto-Dravidian, the suffixes *-an and *-anṯ could be used for the masculine singular (cf. Tamil {{tlit|ta|mak-aṉ}} 'son', Telugu {{tlit|te|tammu-ṇḍu}} 'younger brother'), *-aḷ and *-i for the singular feminine (cf. Kannada {{tlit|kn|mag-aḷ}} 'daughter', Malto {{tlit|kmj|maq-i}} 'girl') and *-ar for human plurals (cf. Malayalam {{tlit|ml|iru-var}} 'two persons', Kurukh {{tlit|kru|āl-ar}} 'men').{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=215–217}}

====Case====
Case is expressed by suffixes and more loosely connected postpositions.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=217}}{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=22}} The number of cases varies between four (Telugu) and eleven (Brahui).

The nominative is always the unmarked base form of the word. The other cases, collectively called oblique, are formed by adding suffixes to a stem that can either be identical to the nominative or formed by certain suffixes (e.g. Tamil {{tlit|ta|maram}} 'tree', oblique {{tlit|ta|mara-tt-}}).{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=218}} Several oblique suffixes can be reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian, which are composed of the minimal components *-i- , *-a- , *-n- and *-tt-.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=218–226}} In many languages, the oblique is identical to the genitive.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=218}}

Proto-Dravidian case suffixes can be reconstructed for the three cases accusative, dative and genitive. Other case suffixes only occur in individual branches of Dravidian.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=227}}

* Accusative: *-ay (Tamil {{tlit|ta|yāṉaiy-ai}} 'elephant', Malayalam {{tlit|ml|avan-e}} 'him', Brahui {{tlit|brh|dā shar-e}} 'this village'); *-Vn (Telugu {{tlit|te|bhārya-nu}} 'wife', Gondi {{tlit|gon|kōndat-ūn}} 'ox', Ollari {{tlit|gdb|ḍurka-n}} 'panther'){{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=227–230}}
* Dative: *-(n)k(k)- (Tamil {{tlit|ta|uṅkaḷ-ukku}} 'you'; Telugu {{tlit|te|pani-ki}} 'for work', Kolami {{tlit|kfb|ella-ŋ}} 'to the house'){{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=230–233}}
* Genitive: -*a/ā (Kannada {{tlit|kn|avar-ā}} 'to be', Gondi {{tlit|gon|kallē-n-ā}} 'of the thief', Brahui {{tlit|brh|xarās-t-ā}} 'of the bull'); *-in (Tamil {{tlit|ta|aracan-iṉ}} 'of the king', Toda {{tlit|tcx|ok-n}} 'of the elder sister', Ollari {{tlit|gdb|sēpal-in}} 'of the girl'){{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=233–235}}

====Pronouns====
Personal pronouns occur in the 1st and 2nd person. In the 1st person plural there is an inclusive and exclusive form, that is, a distinction is made as to whether the person addressed is included. There is also a reflexive pronoun that refers to the subject of the sentence and is constructed in the same way as personal pronouns. The personal and reflexive pronouns reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian are listed in the table below. In addition, there are special developments in some languages: The south and south-central Dravidian languages have transferred the *ñ initial sound of the 1st person plural inclusive to the 1st person singular (cf. Malayalam ''ñān'', but oblique ''en'' < *yan). The differences between the forms for the inclusive and exclusive we are partly blurred; Kannada has completely abandoned this distinction. The languages of the Tamil-Kodagu group have formed a new exclusive 'we' by adding the plural suffix (cf. Tamil ''nām'' 'we (incl.)', ''nāṅ-kaḷ'' 'we (excl.)').{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=244–253}}

{| class="wikitable"
|- class="hintergrundfarbe8"
! !! Nom. !! Obl. !! Meaning
|-
! align="left" class="hintergrundfarbe8"| 1. Sg.
| ''*yĀn'' || ''*yAn'' || I
|-
! align="left" class="hintergrundfarbe8"| 1. Pl. excl.
| ''*yĀm'' || ''*yAm'' ||we (excl.)
|-
! align="left" class="hintergrundfarbe8"| 1. Pl. incl.
| ''*ñām'' || ''*ñam'' || we (incl.)
|-
! align="left" class="hintergrundfarbe8"| 2. Sg.
| ''*nīn'' || ''*nin'' || you
|-
! align="left" class="hintergrundfarbe8"| 2. Pl
| ''*nīm'' || ''*nim'' || you all
|-
! align="left" class="hintergrundfarbe8"| Refl. Sg.
| ''*tān'' || ''*tan'' || (he/she/it) himself
|-
! align="left" class="hintergrundfarbe8"| Refl. Pl.
| ''*tām'' || ''*tam'' || themselves
|}

The demonstrative pronouns also serve as personal pronouns of the 3rd person. They consist of an initial vowel expressing the distance and a suffix expressing number and gender. There are three levels of distance: the far distance is formed with the initial vowel *a-, the middle distance with *u- and the near distance with *i-. The same deictic elements also occur in local ('here', 'there') and temporal adverbs ('now', 'then'). The original threefold distinction of the distance (e.g. Kota ''avn'' 'he, that one', ''ūn'' 'he, this one', ''ivn'' 'he, this one') has only survived in a few languages spoken today, the yonder distance u- has mostly become obsolete instead a- and i- are used. Interrogative pronouns are formed analogously to the demonstrative pronouns and are characterized by the initial syllable *ya- (e.g. Kota ''evn'' 'which').{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=253–258}}

Tamil-Telugu made another word ''*ñān'' for the 1SG pronoun back formed from 1P inclusive ''*ñām'', in parallel to *yān; some languages like Tamil retain both forms, ''yāṉ, nāṉ''.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=260–265}}

====Verbal morphology====
The Dravidian verb is formed by adding tense, mood and personal suffixes to the root of the word. Thus the Tamil word ''varukiṟēṉ'' 'I come' is composed of the verb stem ''varu-'', the present suffix ''-kiṟ'' and the suffix of the 1st person singular ''-ēṉ''.

In Proto-Dravidian there are only two tenses, past and not past, while many daughter languages have developed a more complex tense system.

The negation is expressed synthetically by a special negative verb form (cf. Konda ''kitan'' 'he made', ''kiʔetan'' 'he did not').

The verb stem can be modified by stem-forming suffixes in many Dravidian languages. Thus Malto derives from the stem ''nud-'' 'to hide' the reflexive verb stem ''nudɣr-'' 'to hide'.

Infinite verb forms depend on either a following verb or a following noun. They serve to form more complex syntactic constructions.

Verbal compounds can be formed in Dravidian, for example the Tamil ''konṭuvara'' 'to bring' is composed of an infinite form of the verb ''koḷḷa'' 'to hold' and the verb ''vara'' 'to come'.

====Syntax====
Characteristic of the Dravidian languages is a fixed [[subject–object–verb word order]] (SOV). Accordingly, the subject comes first in the sentence (it can at most be preceded by circumstantial determinations of time and place) and the predicate always at the end of the sentence. As is characteristic of SOV languages, in the Dravidian languages, attributes always come before their noun, subordinate clauses before main clauses, main verbs before auxiliary verbs, and postpositions are used instead of prepositions. Only in the North Dravidian languages has the rigid SOV word order been relaxed.

A simple sentence consists of a subject and a predicate, which can be either a verb or a noun. There is no copula in Dravidian. The subject is usually in the nominative case, but in many Dravidian languages, in a sentence expressing a feeling, perception or possession, the subject is also in the dative case. In all Dravidian languages except Malayalam, a verbal predicate agrees with a nominative subject. Kui and Kuwi developed a system of congruence between object and verb. In some Dravidian languages (Old Tamil, Gondi) even a nominal predicate takes personal endings. Examples of simple sentences from Tamil:

: ''avar eṉṉaik kēṭṭār.'' (he me asked) 'He asked me.' (subject in nominative, verbal predicate)
: ''avar eṉ appā.'' (he my father) 'He is my father.' (subject in nominative, nominal predicate)
: ''avarukku kōpam vantatu.'' (to-him anger it-came) 'He became angry.' (subject in dative, verbal predicate)
: ''avarukku oru makaṉ.'' (to-him a son) 'He has a son.' (subject in dative, nominal predicate)

Complex sentences consist of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses. In general, a sentence can contain only one finite verb. The Dravidian languages have no conjunctions; subordinate clauses are formed just like [[parataxis|parataxes]] by infinite verb forms. These include the infinitive, the verbal participle, which expresses a sequence of actions, and the conditional, which expresses a conditionality. Relative clauses correspond to constructions with the so-called adnominal participles. Examples from Tamil:

: ''avarai varac col.'' (him to-come tell) 'Tell him to come.' (infinitive)
: ''kaṭaikku pōyi muṭṭaikaḷ koṇṭuvā.'' (to-the-shop go-then eggs get-come) 'Go to the shop and bring eggs.' (verb participle)
: ''avaṉ poy coṉṉāl ammā aṭippāḷ.'' (he lie if-saying mother will-beat) 'If he lies, mother will beat him.' (Conditional)
: ''avaṉ coṉṉatu uṇmai.'' (he said truth) 'What he says is true.' (adnominal participle)

These constructions are not possible for subordinate clauses with a nominal predicate, since no infinite forms can be formed for a noun. Here one gets by with the so-called [[quotative verb]] (usually an infinite form of 'to say'), through which the nominal subordinate clause is embedded in the sentence structure. Example from Tamil:

: ''nāṉ avaṉ nallavaṉ eṉṟu niṉaikkiṟēṉ.'' (I he [good-man]-like-that thinking) 'I think he's a good man.'

==Vocabulary==

Word roots seem to have been monosyllabic in Proto-Dravidian as a rule. Proto-Dravidian words could be simple, derived, or compound. Iterative compounds could be formed by doubling a word, cf. Tamil ''avar'' "he" and ''avaravar'' "everyone" or ''vantu'' "coming" and ''vantu vantu'' "always coming". A special form of reduplicated compounds are the so-called echo words, in which the first syllable of the second word is replaced by ''ki'', cf. Tamil ''pustakam'' "book" and ''pustakam-kistakam'' "books and the like".

Today's Dravidian languages have, in addition to the inherited Dravidian vocabulary, a large number of words from Sanskrit or later Indo-Aryan languages. In Tamil, they make up a relatively small proportion, not least because of [[Tanittamil Iyakkam|targeted linguistic puristic tendencies]] in the early 20th century, while in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam the number of Indo-Aryan loanwords is large. In Brahui, which was strongly influenced by its neighboring languages due to its distance from the other Dravidian languages, only a tenth of the vocabulary is of Dravidian origin. [16]<!-- whence was this copied? --> More recently, like all the languages of India, the Dravidian languages also have words borrowed from English on a large scale; less numerous are the loanwords from Portuguese.

Dravidian words that have found their way into English are "orange" (via Sanskrit ''nāraṅga'', cf. Tamil ''nāraṅkа̄y'' < ''nāram-kа̄y''), "catamaran" (Tamil ''kaṭṭumaram'' "[boat made of] bound logs"), "mango" (Tamil ''māṅkāy'', Malayalam ''māṅṅa'', via Portuguese ''manga''), "mongoose" (Telugu ''muṅgisa'', Kannada ''muṅgisi'') and "curry" (Tamil ''kaṟi'').

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Some Dravidian word equations
|- class="hintergrundfarbe8"
!Word
!Fish
!I
!Under
!Come
!One
|-
|Proto-Dravidian || *mīn || *yān || *kīẓ ~ kiẓ || *waru ~ wā|| *onṯu, *oru, *on
|-
|Tamil || mīṉ || yāṉ, (nāṉ) || kīẓ || varu, vā- || oṉṟu, oru, ōr
|-
|Malayalam || mīn || ēṉ, (ñāṉ) || kīẓ, kiẓu || varu, vā- || onnŭ, oru, ōr
|-
|Irula || || (nā(nu)) || kiye || varu || ondu, or-
|-
|Kota || mīn || ān || kī, kīṛm || vār-, va- || oḏ,ōr, o
|-
|Toda || mīn || ōn || kī || pōr-, pa- || wïd, wïr, oš
|-
|Badaga || mīnu || (nā(nu)) || kīe || bā-, bar || ondu
|-
|Kannada || mīn || (nānu) || kīẓ, keḷa || ba-, bāru- || ondu, or, ōr
|-
|Kodagu || mīnï || (nānï) || kï;, kïlï || bār-, ba- || ondï, orï, ōr, onï
|-
|Tulu || mīnɯ || yānu, yēnu ||kīḷɯ || barpini || oñji, or, oru
|-
|Telugu || mīnu || ēnu, (nēnu) || kri, k(r)inda || vaccu, rā- || oṇḍu
|-
|Gondi || mīn|| anā, (nanna) || || vaya || undi, or-
|-
|Konda || mīn || (nān(u)) || || vā-, ra- || unṟi, or-
|-
|Kui || mīnu || ānu, (nānu) || || vāva || ro-
|-
|Kuwi || mīnu || (nānu) || || vā- || ro-
|-
|Manda || || ān || || vā- || ru-
|-
|Pengo || mīn || ān, āneŋ || || vā- || ro-
|-
|Kolami || || ān || || var-, vā ||
|-
|Parji || mīni || ān || kiṛi || ver- ||
|-
|Gadaba || mīn || ān || || var- ||
|-
|Malto || mīnu || ēn || || bare || ort-, -ond
|-
|Kurukh || || ēn || kiyyā || barnā- || oṇḍ, ort-, on
|-
|Brahui || || ī || ki-, kē- || bar-, ba- || asi(ṭ), on-
|-
|}

* Tamil-Telugu made another word ''*ñān'' for the 1SG pronoun back formed from 1P inclusive ''*ñām'', in parallel to *yān; some languages like Tamil retain both forms, ''yāṉ, nāṉ''.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=260–265}}

===Numerals===
{{main|wikt:Appendix:Cognate sets for Dravidian languages#Numerals}}
The numerals from 1 to 10 in various Dravidian and [[Indo-Iranian languages]] (here exemplified by [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] language [[Sanskrit]] and Iranian language [[Persian language|Persian]]).{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=260–265}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Asher |first1=R. E. |title=Colloquial Tamil: the complete course for beginners |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-18788-5 |page=45}}</ref>
 
{| class="wikitable Unicode"
|-
! rowspan="2" | Number
! colspan="7" | South
! colspan="2" | South-Central
! Central
! colspan="2" | Northern
! rowspan="2" | [[Proto-Dravidian language|Proto-Dravidian]]
! Indo-Aryan
! Iranian
|-
! [[Tamil language|Tamil]]
! [[Malayalam]]
! [[Kodava language|Kodava]]
! [[Kannada]]
! [[Tulu language|Tulu]]
! [[Toda language|Toda]]
! [[Beary language|Beary]]
! [[Telugu language|Telugu]]
! [[Gondi language|Gondi]]
! [[Kolami language|Kolami]]
! [[Kurukh language|Kurukh]]
! [[Brahui language|Brahui]]
! [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]]
! [[Persian language|Persian]]
|-
| 1
| oṉṟŭ, oṇṇŭ <sup>6</sup>
| onnŭ
| ondï
| ondu
| onji
| wïd̠
| onnu
| okaṭi <sup>7</sup>, 
oṇḍu
| undi
| okkod <sup>7</sup>
| oṇḍ
| asiṭ
| *onṯu <sup>1</sup>
| éka
| yek
|-
| 2
| iraṇṭŭ, reṇḍŭ <sup>6</sup>
| raṇḍŭ
| daṇḍï 
| eraḍu
| eraḍŭ, iraḍŭ
| ēḍ
| jend
| reṇḍu
| raṇḍ
| irāṭ
| eṇṛ
| irāṭ
| *iraṇṭu <sup>2</sup>
| dvi
| do
|-
| 3
| mūṉṟŭ, mūṇŭ <sup>6</sup>
| mūnnŭ
| mūndï 
| mūru
| mūji
| mūd̠
| mūnnu
| mū̃ḍu
| muṇḍ
| mūndiŋ
| mūnd
| musiṭ
| *mūnt̠u
| tri
| seh
|-
| 4
| nāl, nālku, nāṉkŭ, nālŭ <sup>6</sup>
| nālu
| nālï
| nālku
| nālŭ
| nōng
| nāl
| nālugu
| nāluṅg
| nāliŋ
| nāx
| čār (II)
| *nāl, *nālnk(k)V, *nānk(k)V
| catúr
| cahār
|-
| 5
| aintŭ, añjŭ <sup>6</sup>
| añjŭ
| añji
| aidu
| ayinŭ, ainŭ
| üɀ
| añji
| ayidu,
ēnu
| saiyuṅg, hayuṅ
| ayd <sup>3</sup>
| pancē (II)
| panč (II)
| *caymtu
| pañca
| panj
|-
| 6
| āṟŭ
| āṟŭ
| ārï
| āru
| āji
| ōr̠
| ār
| āṟu
| sāruṅg, hāruṅg
| ār <sup>3</sup>
| soy (II)
| šaš (II)
| *cāṯu
| ṣáṣ
| śeś
|-
| 7
| ēḻŭ, yēḷŭ<sup>6</sup>
| ēḻŭ
| ë̄ḷï
| ēḷu
| ēḍŭ, ēlŭ, ēḷŭ
| öw
| ēl
| ēḍu
| yeḍuṅg, ēṛuṅg
| ēḍ <sup>3</sup>
| say (II)
| haft (II)
| *ēẓ
| saptá
| haft
|-
| 8
| eṭṭŭ
| eṭṭŭ
| ëṭṭï
| eṇṭu
| enma, eṇma, eḍma
| öṭ
| ett
| enimidi
| aṛmur
| enumadī <sup>3</sup>
| āx (II)
| hašt (II)
| *eṇṭṭu
| aṣṭá
| haśt
|-
| 9
| oṉpatŭ <sup>4</sup> <sup>5</sup> ombadŭ<sup>6</sup>
| oṉbadŭ, <br /> ombadŭ <sup>5</sup>
| ombay <sup>5</sup>
| ombattu <sup>5</sup>
| ormba <sup>5</sup>
| wïnboθ <sup>5</sup>
| olimbō <sup>5</sup>
| tommidi
| unmāk
| tomdī <sup>3</sup>
| nāy (II)
| nōh (II)
| *toḷ, *toṇ
| náva
| noh
|-
| 10
| pathŭ
| pattŭ
| pattï
| hattu
| pattŭ
| pot
| patt
| padi
| pad
| padī <sup>3</sup>
| doy (II)
| dah (II)
| *paHtu
| dáśa
| dah
|}
# This is the same as the word for another form of the number one in [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and [[Malayalam]], used as the [[indefinite article]] ("a") and when the number is an [[Grammatical modifier|attribute]] preceding a noun (as in "one person"), as opposed to when it is a noun (as in "How many are there?" "One").
# The stem *īr is still found in compound words, and has taken on a meaning of "double" in [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Telugu language|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).
# The Kolami numbers 5 to 10 are borrowed from Telugu.
# The word ''toṇṭu'' was also used to refer to the number nine in ancient [[Sangam literature|Sangam]] texts but was later completely replaced by the word ''oṉpatu''.
# 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'' ({{frac|9|10}}*100 = 90) as well as the Kannada ''tombattu'' (9*10 = 90).
# 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.
# 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.
* Words indicated '''(II)''' are borrowings from [[Indo-Iranian languages]] (in Brahui's case, from [[Balochi language|Balochi]]).

==Literature==
[[File:S-TN-36 Ovamalai Kallvettu Hill Mangulam Madurai.jpg|thumb|right|The oldest known Tamil-Brahmi inscription, near Mangulam in Madurai district{{sfnp|Mahadevan|2003|pp=5–7}}]]
Four Dravidian languages, viz. [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Kannada]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]] and [[Malayalam]], have lengthy literary traditions.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=20}} Literature in [[Tulu language|Tulu]] and [[Kodava language|Kodava]] is more recent.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=20}} Historical literature in [[Gondi language|Gondi]] has also been discovered recently.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Singh|first=S. Harpal|date=20 January 2014|title=Gondi manuscript translation to reveal Gondwana history|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/gondi-manuscript-translation-to-reveal-gondwana-history/article5594658.ece|access-date=9 May 2020|issn=0971-751X|archive-date=9 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709061859/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/gondi-manuscript-translation-to-reveal-gondwana-history/article5594658.ece|url-status=live}}</ref>

The earliest known Dravidian inscriptions are 76 [[Old Tamil]] inscriptions on cave walls in [[Madurai district|Madurai]] and [[Tirunelveli district|Tirunelveli]] districts in [[Tamil Nadu]], dating from the 2nd century BCE.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=22}} These inscriptions are written in a variant of the [[Brahmi script]] called [[Tamil Brahmi]].{{sfnp|Mahadevan|2003|pp=90–95}} In 2019, the [[Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department]] released a report on excavations at [[Keezhadi|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.<ref>{{cite report
| title=Keeladi: an Urban Settlement of Sangam Age on the Banks of the River Vaigai
| editor1-first=R. | editor1-last=Sivanantham | editor2-first=M. | editor2-last=Seran
| location=Chennai | publisher=Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu | year=2019
| pages=8–9, 14
}}</ref> However, the report lacks the detail of a full archaeological study, and other archaeologists have disputed whether the oldest dates obtained for the site can be assigned to these potsherds.<ref>{{cite journal
| title = Experts Question Dates of Script in Tamil Nadu's Keeladi Excavation Report
| given = Sukanya
| surname = Charuchandra
| journal = The Wire
| date = 17 October 2019
| url = https://thewire.in/the-sciences/keeladi-settlement-tamil-nadu-department-of-archaeology-tamil-brahmi-script-indus-valley-civilisation
| access-date = 29 January 2020
| archive-date = 29 January 2020
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200129093847/https://thewire.in/the-sciences/keeladi-settlement-tamil-nadu-department-of-archaeology-tamil-brahmi-script-indus-valley-civilisation
| url-status = live
}}</ref> The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the ''[[Tolkāppiyam]]'', a work on Tamil grammar and poetics preserved in a 5th-century CE redaction, whose oldest layers could date from the late 2nd century or 1st century BCE.{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1973|p=147}}

Kannada's earliest known inscription is the lion balustrade (''Simhakatanjana'') inscription excavated at the Pranaveshwara temple complex at [[Talagunda]] near [[Shiralakoppa]] of [[Shimoga district|Shivamogga district]], dated to 370 CE which replaced the [[Halmidi inscription]] in [[Hassan district]] (450 CE).<ref>{{Cite news |title=Kannada inscription at Talagunda of 370 CE may replace Halmidi inscription as the oldest |work=Deccan Herald |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/content/591046/kannada-inscription-talagunda-may-replace.html |access-date=1 May 2022 |archive-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109014803/https://www.deccanherald.com/content/591046/kannada-inscription-talagunda-may-replace.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A 9th-century treatise on poetics, the ''[[Kavirajamarga]]'', is the first known literary work.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=23}} 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]]''.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=23}} The earliest Malayalam text is the [[Vazhappally copper plate]] (9th century). The first literary work is ''Rāmacaritam'' (12th century).{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=22}}

==See also==
* [[Dravidian Linguistics Association]]
* [[Dravidian peoples]]
* [[Dravidian nationalism]]
* [[Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew]]
* ''[[Dreaming of Words]]''

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==

{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{citation |last=Andronov |first=Mikhail Sergeevich |title=A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages |year=2003 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz |isbn=978-3-447-04455-4 | postscript = . }}
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{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Vishnupriya Kolipakam et al. (2018), [http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/3/171504 ''A Bayesian phylogenetic study of the Dravidian language family''], Royal Society Open Science. {{doi|10.1098/rsos.171504}}

==External links==
{{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=[[Wiktionary]] has word lists at '''''[[Wiktionary:Appendix:Dravidian word lists|Appendix:Dravidian word lists]]'''''}}
{{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=[[Wiktionary]] has '''''[[Wiktionary:Appendix:Swadesh lists for Dravidian languages|Swadesh lists for Dravidian languages]]'''''}}
* [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/burrow/index.html Dravidian Etymological Dictionary]. Burrow and Emeneau's ''A Dravidian etymological dictionary'' (2nd ed., 1984) in a searchable online form.

{{Languages of South Asia}}
{{Dravidian languages}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dravidian Languages}}
[[Category:Dravidian languages| ]]
[[Category:Language families]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Pre-Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Languages of South Asia]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of Asia]]