Which is the first Dravidian language?
Tamil
Of the four literary languages in the Dravidian family, Tamil is the oldest, with examples dating to the early Common Era. In the early 21st century, Tamil was spoken by more than 66 million people, mostly residing in India, northern Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji, and Myanmar (Burma).
How did Dravidian language originated?
It is thought that Dravidian languages were native to the Indian subcontinent and were originally spread across all of India. The Indo-Aryan languages were introduced by Aryan invaders from the north. They pushed speakers of the original Dravidian languages out of the northern portion into the southern part of India.
Which is the Dravidian language?
The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are (in descending order of number of speakers) Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are Tulu and Kodava.
Who gave the name Dravidian?
Robert A. Caldwell
The actual term Dravidian was first employed by Robert A. Caldwell, who introduced the Sanskrit word dravida (which, in a 7th-century text, obviously meant Tamil) into his epoch-making A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages (1856).
How many languages are there in the Dravidian family?
In the world today, there are currently around 70 languages belonging to the Dravidian family. The most widely used are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. (Fun fact — Malayalam is the only language in the world whose name is a palindrome!)
Which is the oldest Dravidian language in India?
Four Dravidian languages, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu, have lengthy literary traditions. Literature in Tulu and Kodava is more recent. The earliest known Dravidian inscriptions are 76 Old Tamil inscriptions on cave walls in Madurai and Tirunelveli districts in Tamil Nadu, dating from the 2nd century BCE.
What is the origin of the word Dravidian?
Interestingly, the name “Dravidian” is not a Dravidian word. It actually comes from Sanskrit, the Indo-European language from which the majority of other modern Indian languages are descended. The Sanskrit word is drāviḍa, which is most likely a corruption of the Tamil word damiḷa.
Which Dravidian language has the highest number of speakers?
The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are (in descending order of number of speakers) Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are Tulu and Kodava.