Most of the scholars use Roman script with diacritical marks wherever found necessary for writing these languages. It is to be noted that the foreign and Indian scholars produced good descriptive grammar of these languages and they have translates some of their songs, folk-stories, ballads, proverbs etc.
But from the linguistics point of view, spoken language certainly has a grammar. Most of the people think that spoken language has no grammar and they restrict grammar for the written language. Hence, these people learn the official language with ease. Fortunately, the official languages of these groups belong to the family of language (Dravidian) which their own languages belong. Their habitation, the Nilgiris is situated in the place where these three languages are meeting. But the peculiarity is seen with the Badaga speakers, they are surrounded by three major literary languages viz. Kodagu speakers are surrounded by Kannada, a literary language and Tulu is surrounded by two major literary languages viz. However, there is hardly any chance of them conversing in other language with their own men. Some time these people identify themselves with the speakers of official language, especially during meeting with outsiders. The official language of Tulu and Kodagu speakers is Kannada and Tamil is the official language of Badagas. Besides their home language, they speak the local official language pretty well. Most of the speakers of the minor languages are bilingual. Therefore, it is wise to utilize the service of these scholars for the development of their own languages. Indeed, this is one of the most beneficial aspects of modern linguistics. Now, linguists are able to cope up with any language in the world, whether or not it has ever been written down. The speakers of these languages should know that their language has still not attained the written form because of lack of their own enthusiasm.įortunately, these languages (Tulu, Kodagu and Badaga) are best described by linguists and others. Linguists made it clear that unlettered language is no way inferior to any lettered language. Even the speakers of a written language learn to speak long before they learn to write. The written languages were once vogue in spoken forms only. It is to be kept in mind that spoken language precedes the written language historically. If there is a priority between written and spoken language, it is the spoken form which comes first and not the written form of language. These people feel that their languages are poor versions, as they have no written forms. The need of the hour is, we should devise a mechanism that can induce these speakers to know about their own languages. Of course, their ability to talk is unquestionable. It is a matter of regret to note that most the speakers of minor languages do not know much about their own languages.
These languages themselves are interesting to study and the study of such languages is also important from the point of view of the culture, habits and the social attitudes. Sizeable speakers of these languages have migrated to the nearby places, especially cites of South India. Speakers of these minor languages are seen in urban centers in South India. (surrounded by) four hills, these groups are identified with their respective mother tongues. Badaga is spoken in the hilly Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu and the people whose mother tongue is Badaga are called Badagas.īadagas identify their living place, Nilgiris district as “naakku betta” i.e. Kodagu is spoken in the hilly region of Kodagu district of Karnataka state and the people whose mother tongue is Kodagu are called Kodagas or Kodavas. Tulu is spoken in the region called Tulu Nadu lying on the west coast of South India, comprising the major sector of the district of South Kannara situated in the Karnataka State and the people whose mother tongue is Tulu are called Tuluvas. Including these three all the minor languages of south India have no scripts of their own.
These three languages are also ancient languages of South India and important members of the Dravidian group of languages. Tulu, Kodagu and Badaga are non tribal languages but not literary. The rest tend to be spoken by rather small group (in almost all the cases less than ten thousand speakers) of tribes often in isolated areas. However, among these languages Tulu, Kodagu, and Badaga are the languages which have more number of speakers. Besides these languages Kurumba, Irula, Kasaba etc., are the minor languages spoken in South India. He mentioned very little about the Badaga language which is also a remarkable minor language of South India. He included the minor languages, Tulu and Kodagu into cultivated group. According to Dr.Caldwell, the well known Dravidian linguist, the two minor languages of the South India, Toda and Kota are uncultivated languages.
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