Dravidian languages
The Dravidian languages are a language family spoken by the Dravidian peoples. The languages are mainly spoken in South India, western Bangladesh, northern Sri Lanka and southern Pakistan. There are about 26 languages in this family. A total of about 215 million people speak Dravidian languages.
| Dravidian | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: | South Asia, mostly South India |
| Linguistic classification: | One of the world's major language families |
| Proto-language: | Proto-Dravidian |
| Subdivisions: |
Central
Eastern
Southern
|
| Ethnologue code: | 1282-16 |
| ISO 639-2 and 639-5: | dra |
 Places where Dravidian languages are spoken | |
Dravidian languages probably used to be spoken over a larger area of the Indian subcontinent. There are several ethnic groups in India, known as "Scheduled Tribes", that still speak their own Dravidian languages. Brahui, with 2,200,000 speakers, is a Dravidian language that is spoken in the Balochistan region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Dhangar, which is a dialect of Kurukh, is spoken in parts of Nepal and Bhutan. The main Dravidian are as follows
- Telugu: 85,000,000 speakers
- Tamil: 75,000,000 speakers
- Kannada: 49,000,000 speakers
- Malayalam: 38,000,000 speakers
There are about 30 other Dravidian languages that are spoken, but they have far fewer speakers, such as Tulu and the Brahui, which is the only Dravidian language that is not spoken in India.