tulu language

 

Tulu (Tulu: ತುಳು ಭಾಷೆ Tuḷu bāse is a language spoken by around 2 million native speakers mainly in the south west part of Indian state of Karnataka and a small part of northern Kerala, which is known as Tulu Nadu and North Arcot region of Tamil 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, "Tuḷu 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 Kasaragod taluk of Kerala. Apart from Tulu Nadu, a significant emigrant population of Tuluva people is found in Maharashtra, Bangalore, Anglosphere, United States, and the Gulf countries.
Non-native speakers such as the Konkani-speaking Mangalorean Catholics, Gowda Saraswath Brahmins, Karhade Brahmins, Havyaka Brahmins and Daivajnas, as well as the Beary people in Tulu Nadu are generally well-versed in the language.Apart from Kannada script, Historically Tulu Brahmins used Tigalari script mainly used to write Sanskrit, but some Tulu works are available.

History

The oldest available inscriptions in Tulu are from the period between 14th to 15th century AD. These inscriptions are in the Tigalari script and are found in areas in and around Barkur which was the capital of Tulu Nadu during the Vijayanagar period. Another group of inscriptions are found in the Ullur Subrahmanya Temple near Kundapura. Many linguists like S.U. Panniyadi and L. V. Ramaswami Iyer as well as P.S. Subrahmanya suggested that Tulu is among the oldest languages in the Dravidian family which branched independently from its Proto-Dravidian roots nearly 2,000 years ago. This assertion is based on the fact that Tulu still preserves many aspects of the Proto-Dravidian language.
This dating of Tulu is also based on the fact that region where Tulu is natively spoken was known to the ancient Tamils as Tulu Nadu and the Tamil poet Mamular who belongs to the Sangam Age (200 AD) describes Tulu Nadu and its dancing beauties in one of his poems. In the Halmidi inscriptions one finds mention of the Tulu country as the kingdom of the Alupas. The region was also known to the Greeks of the 2nd century as Tolokoyra. The history of Tulu would not be complete without the mention of the Charition mime, a Greek play belonging to 2nd century BC. The play's plot centres around the coastal Karnataka, where Tulu is mainly spoken. The play is mostly in Greek, but the Indian characters in the play are seen speaking a language different from Greek.
There is considerable ambiguity regarding the Indian language in the play, though all scholars agree the Indian language is Dravidian, but there is considerable dispute over which one. Noted German Indologist Dr. E. Hultzsch was the first to suggest that the language was Dravidian.[clarification needed] The dispute regarding the language in the play is yet to be settled, but scholars agree that the dispute arises from the fact that Old Kannada, Old Tamil and Tulu during the time when the play was written were perhaps dialectical variations of the same proto-language, and that over the years they evolved into their present forms as separate languages.[citation needed]

Dialects

Tulu language has four dialects, which are broadly similar, with slight variations.
The four dialects are:

1. Common Tulu: Spoken by the majority includes the Mogaveera, Bunts, Billava,Kottary, Devadiga, Jogi, Mera communities and others. This is the dialect of commerce, trade and entertainment and is mainly used for inter-community communication. It is further subdivided into five groups:
   1. Central Tulu: Spoken in Mangalore.
   2. Northwest Tulu: Spoken in Udupi.
   3. Northeast Tulu: Spoken in Karkala and Belthangadi.
   4. Southwest Tulu: Spoken in Manjeshwar and Kasaragod, known as Kasaragod Tulu.
   5. Southcentral Tulu: Spoken in Bantwal, Puttur.
   6. Southeast Tulu: Spoken in Sullia.
   7. Southern Tulu: Spoken in South of Kasaragod and Payaswini (Chandragiri) river, known as Thenkaayi Tulu.
2. Brahmin Tulu: Spoken by the Tulu Brahmins who are subdivided into Shivalli Brahmins, Sthanika Brahmins and Tuluva Hebbars. It is slightly influenced by Sanskrit.
3. Jain Dialect: Spoken by the Tulu Jains. It is a dialect where the initial letters 'T' and 'S' have been replaced by the letter 'H'. For example, the word Tare is pronounced as Hare, Saadi is pronounced as Haadi.
4. Girijan Dialect: Spoken by the Koraga, Mansa, other Girijans and Tribal classes.