Dravidian languages
Southern Indian tongues
Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken primarily in southern India and Sri Lanka, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.
The family predates the arrival of Indo-European languages on the subcontinent.
About 250 million people speak Dravidian languages today.
Tamil is one of the oldest Dravidian languages still in use.
South Indian language
Subcontinent's southern states
- Tamil NaduSouth Indian state
- KarnatakaSouth Indian state
- KeralaCoastal Indian state
- Sri LankaIsland nation near India
Morphemes chained, roots intact
- phonologyScience of language sounds
- morphologyStudy of structural forms
- syntaxRules for arranging words
- diglossiaCoexisting language varieties, distinct roles
inflection · sociolinguistics · bilingualism · endangered languages · fieldwork
Blade from tropical tree
- ThirukkuralTamil moral poetry collection
- epigraphyStudy of ancient inscriptions
- classical textsFoundational ancient literature
- dramaturgyArt of theatrical structure
Ancient South Asian river culture
- Bronze AgeEarly metalworking civilization period
- prehistoricBefore documented civilization
- undecipheredNot yet interpreted
- scriptWritten words for performance
seals · archaeology · excavation · megalithic · artifacts · settlements · Neolithic · migration
Tamil
South Indian language
South India
Subcontinent's southern states
- Tamil NaduSouth Indian state
- KarnatakaSouth Indian state
- KeralaCoastal Indian state
Sri Lanka · Balochistan · diaspora · Pakistan
agglutinative
Morphemes chained, roots intact
- phonologyScience of language sounds
- morphologyStudy of structural forms
- syntaxRules for arranging words
diglossia · inflection · sociolinguistics · bilingualism · endangered languages · fieldwork
palm-leaf
Blade from tropical tree
- ThirukkuralTamil moral poetry collection
- epigraphyStudy of ancient inscriptions
- classical textsFoundational ancient literature
Indus Valley
Ancient South Asian river culture
- Bronze AgeEarly metalworking civilization period
- prehistoricBefore documented civilization
- undecipheredNot yet interpreted
script · seals · archaeology · excavation · megalithic · artifacts · settlements · Neolithic · migration
- Indian languagesHindi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali
- South IndiaTamil Nadu, Madras, Chennai, Salem, Bangalore
- IndologySanskrit, Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharata, Ramayana
- SanskritPanini, Sanskrit, om, Vedas, root words
- Language familiesIndo-European, Afro-Asiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Turkic
- Asian languagesMandarin, Thai, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Hindi