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Tulu language

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Tulu
ತುಳು tuḷu

Spoken in: India

Region: Tulu Nadu mainly west coast of Karnataka also spread through Kerala

Total speakers: less than 2 million

Language family: Dravidian
Dravidian
South-Dravidian
Tulu

Language codes

ISO 639-1: none

ISO 639-2: dra

ISO/FDIS 639-3: tcy

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Tulu ( ತುಳು tuḷu) is a Dravidian language of India with fewer than two million speakers. Most of its speakers are in the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in the west of the state of Karnataka. Its also spoken in most part of Kasargod district of Kerala. The original written script of the language, similar to Malayalam script, is rarely used today. It is normally written in the Kannada script.

There is a controversy whether Tulu script originated from Malayalam script or vice versa. However inscriptions available both of Tulu and Malayalam says Tulu is much older language than Malayalam^{[citation needed]}. 19th century German missionaries used the Kannada script to transcribe Tulu works, and it soon fell out of use due to the fact that Tulu was a minority language in the princely state of Mysore. Tulu is generally spoken as the local language by the Mangaloreans. Daily use of the language has propelled its popularity in Mangalore to higher than that of Kannada, the state language. The local population relates closely to any Tulu speaker and this fact has its own far reaching consequences and it is now a recognized language in the southern districts of Karnataka.

'Bhagavata' (a purana katha) has been half-written in Tulu script by a Brahmin^{[citation needed]} belonging to Udyavara, Udupi, Karnataka. 'Mandara Ramayana' has also been written in Tulu.

Some inscriptions in Tulu languages are found in and around the village of Barkur. The ruins and inscriptions are need to be preserved.

1 Geographic distribution
2 The language
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Geographic distribution

There were references in few Malayalam works that the region stretching from Chandragiri river, now part of Kasaragod district of Kerala, to Gokarna, now part of Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, was called Tulu Nadu. However, the present day Tulu linguistic boundary is confined to Dakshina Kannada & Udupi district. Northern Kasaragod, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district(except Kundapur) are the major Tulu cultural regions.

Tuluvas have a saying, "Oorudu nanjaanda paarad badkodu". A loose translation would be, "If it's tough at home; run away and survive". Tuluvas are true to this character and have migrated to other places in great numbers. Mumbai and Thane in Maharastra state has a sizeable population of Tuluvas ( Tulu speaking people ).

[edit] The language

Lack of literary works has rendered the precise dating of the origin of this language very difficult. A claim that it predates Tamil is controversial.

The spoken Tulu changes as we move from South to North. There is a common perception that there are only two kinds of Tulu dialects, namely Shivalli and Common. But a study of the language and pronunciation suggests there are four distinct dialects of this language. They are the Shivalli dialect, the Jain dialect, the Common dialect and the Tribal dialect.

The Shivalli Dialect - This is spoken by Tulu Brahmins also known as Shivallis.

The Jain Dialect - this is spoken by the Jains in the northern part of Tulu nadu.

The Common Dialect - this is spoken by the majority of people of Tulu Nadu, and is the dialect of commerce, entertainment and art.

The Tribal Dialect - this is spoken by the tribal people. It closely resemble the Common dialect.

Tulu is not taught in schools and Schedule 8B of the Constitution of India does not recognize it as an official language.

[edit] Trivia

One of the most famous Bollywood actresses, Aishwarya Rai, is a native speaker of Tulu
Shilpa Shetty, Shamita Shetty, Sneha Ullal, Sunil Shetty, Prakash Raj (Kannada, Tamil, Telugu movie actor), and Vinod Alva are also Tulu speakers.
Kannada film industry has Jayamala , Vadiraja, Harini, Leelavathi, Vinodraj who also speak Tulu.
Pawan Shetty, Sohan Ullal and Gagan Shetty are film makers noted for making Tulu-language movies, e.g. Yenchino Awasthe, Koti Chennai, etc.
Music directors Gurukiran and Sandeep Chowta also speak Tulu.
Famous doctors: Dr Devi Prasad Shetty (heart surgeon), Dr B M Hegde (Medicine specialist), Dr Sudarshan Ballal (Kidney specialist), Dr Arun L Naik (Neurosurgeon).

[edit] See also

v • d • e</div> South Indian Society
Languages	Kannada - Kodava Takk - Malayalam - Tamil - Telugu - Tulu
Script	Kannada script - Malayalam script - Tamil script - Telugu script - Tulu script
Literature	Kannada literature - Malayalam literature - Tamil literature - Telugu literature - Tulu literature
People	Kannada people - Kodava people - Malayali people - Tamil people - Telugu people - Tulu people
Music	Carnatic Music - Ancient Tamil music
States	Andhra Pradesh - Karnataka - Kerala - Tamil Nadu
Related	South India - South Indian culture - Self-respect movement