Dravidisch

Dravidisch refers to the Dravidian language family, a large group of about 70 languages spoken primarily in southern India and nearby regions, with communities in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and diaspora populations around the world. The best known Dravidian languages are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, each with extensive literary traditions and official status in various Indian states.

The Dravidian languages are believed to have originated on the Indian subcontinent and have interacted for millennia with Indo-Aryan languages and other language groups. They are characterized by agglutinative morphology, where words expand through affixes, and a typical subject–object–verb sentence order. They commonly use postpositions rather than prepositions and feature a range of consonant sounds, including retroflex consonants, across the family.

Major languages within the family include Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, spoken by tens of millions of people. Other Dravidian languages include Tulu, Kodava, Gondi, Kolami, and Kui, among others, many of which have smaller speaker communities and regional dialects. Each language typically has its own writing system derived from Brahmi scripts: Tamil uses the Tamil script; Telugu and Kannada use the Telugu and Kannada scripts respectively; Malayalam uses the Malayalam script. Some Dravidian languages have alternative scripts or have been transliterated into other writing systems.

Historically, Dravidian languages have a long literary and cultural tradition, with Tamil literature dating to the Sangam period (roughly 3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE). In contemporary times, Dravidian languages continue to play a central role in regional identities, education, media, and governance in southern India and beyond.