Tulu Language
| Tulu | |
|---|---|
| ತುಳು | |
 |
|
| Native to | India |
| Region |
Tulu Nadu: Region of Karnataka and Kasaragod district, Kerala. Maharashtra Gulf countries |
| Ethnicity | Tuluva |
|
Native speakers
|
1.7 million (2001 census) |
|
Dravidian
|
|
|
Kannada script (Contemporary) Tigalari script (Historical-rarely used) |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | tulu1258 |
Tulu (Tulu: ತುಳು ಭಾಷೆ Tulu bāse [ˈt̪ulu ˈbɒːsæ]) is one of the five major Dravidian languages spoken by around 2 million native speakers mainly in the south west part of the Indian state of Karnataka and in the Kasaragod district of Kerala which is collectively known as Tulu Nadu. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages.
In India, circa 2 million people speak it as their native language (2011 estimation), they were 1,722,768 in 2001 increased by 10 percent over the 1991 census. According to one estimate reported in 2009, Tulu is currently spoken by three to five million native speakers in the world. Native speakers of Tulu are referred to as Tuluva or Tulu people.
Separated early from Proto-South Dravidian, Tulu has several features not found in Tamil–Kannada. For example, it has the pluperfect and the future perfect, like French or Spanish, but formed without an auxiliary verb.
Robert Caldwell, in his pioneering work A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages, called this language "peculiar and very interesting". According to him, "Tulu is one of the most highly developed languages of the Dravidian family. It looks as if it had been cultivated for its own sake." The language has a lot of written literature and a rich oral literature such as the Epic of Siri.
Tulu is the primary spoken language in Tulu Nadu, a region comprising the districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada in the west of the state of Karnataka and the Kasaragod taluk. Apart from Tulu Nadu, a significant emigrant population of Tuluva people is found in Maharashtra,Bangalore, the English-speaking world, and the Gulf countries.
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