The Place of Tulu in the Dravidian Family of Languages
By U. Venkatakrishna Rao
Summary
This linguistic study situates Tulu within the Dravidian language family. Spoken along India’s southwest coast, Tulu retains archaic consonant clusters, retroflex vowels and rich verbal morphology. Comparing Tulu with Kannada and Malayalam, the author highlights shared innovations and unique preservations, including distinctive pronominal forms and causative constructions. Epigraphic and literary evidence suggests that Tulu branched early from Proto‑Dravidian yet developed independently. The article notes that bilingualism and lack of official patronage have limited Tulu’s literary development. It calls for more comprehensive documentation and comparative analysis to clarify Tulu’s contribution to Dravidian reconstruction and to support the cultural identity of its speakers.
Conclusion
Tulu represents a significant, though understudied, branch of the Dravidian family. Its unique features provide valuable data for linguistic reconstruction, and documenting the language is important both for scholarship and for preserving cultural heritage.