From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tulu ತುಳು
Spoken in:	India
Region:	Coastal Karnataka and parts of northern Kerala. (historically known as Tulu Nadu)
Total speakers:	1,949,000 (1997 survey)[1]
Language family:	Dravidian  Southern   Tulu
Writing system:	Kannada script, Tigalari
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	dra
ISO 639-3:	tcy
This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Tulu (ತುಳು) is a Dravidian language of India with fewer than two million speakers, known as Tuluvas. Most Tuluvas live in the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in the west of the state of Karnataka. It is also spoken in the Kasaragod taluk 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 now.

Contents 1 Geographic distribution 2 Script 3 Important works 4 Tulu Films 5 The language 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

There are indications in a few Malayalam works that the region stretching from the Chandragiri river, now part of the Kasaragod district of Kerala, to Gokarna, now part of Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, was called Tulu Nadu.^{[citation needed]} However, the present day Tulu linguistic boundary is confined to Dakshina Kannada and the Udupi district. Northern Kasaragod, Dakshina Kannada and the 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 sizable population of Tuluvas. Tulu is widely spoken in the Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts of Karnataka state. Efforts are also being made to get Tulu included in the list of national languages of India^[2].

19th century German missionaries used the Kannada script to transcribe Tulu works, but it soon fell out of use. Tulu is mostly written in the Kannada script since most people study Kannada in Schools.. Attempts are being made to revive the original script Tulu Script. Unicode is an organization which codes the Tulu in Unicode.^{[citation needed]} Tulu Script is similar to Malayalam script

The 'Bhagavata' (a purana katha) was partially written in Tulu script by a Brahmin^{[citation needed]} belonging to Udyavara, Udupi, Karnataka. 'Mandara Ramayana' is a modern epic written in Tulu by Mandara Keshav Bhat.

Some inscriptions in Tulu languages are found in and around the village of Barkur.

Tulu has small film industry, with an average of about One Tulu film being released in a year. These movies are played in movie theatre all around South Canara and Udupi Districts. The first Tulu film was Yenna Thangadi (My Sister) released in 1971. The latest Tulu flick is Kadala Mage (Son of the sea) released 2006. Some of the famous films released are Koti Chennaye, Bollidota, Bisatti Babu, Adrushtavanthedi, Bangaar Patleru, Satya Volundu amongst others.

The paucity of literary works has rendered the precise dating of the origin of this language very difficult. It is considered to be the oldest Dravidian language by some scolars.

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

Shivalli dialect

Spoken by Tulu Brahmins (also known as Shivallis).

Jain dialect

Spoken by the Jains in the northern part of Tulu Nadu.

Common dialect

Spoken by the majority of people of Tulu Nadu; the dialect of commerce, entertainment and art.

Tribal dialect

Spoken by tribal people; closely resembles the Common dialect.

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

1. ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tcy Ethnologue
2. ^ http://www.yakshagana.com/tulu-recog.htm

• Languages of India
• Madhava
• Kanakana kindi
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• Tuluva
• Kasaragod Tulu
• Kannadiga
• Vellalar - Tuluvas are a sub sect of the social group in Tamil Nadu state.
• Beary bashe

• The Tulu Script
• Tulu Language: Its Script and Dialects