North India is dominated by languages of the Indo-European Family.
The Dravidian Family of languages are the very difficult sounding languages of South India. These include the major languages Tamil (spoken in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, northern Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia), Malayalam (Kerala state), Kannada (from Karnataka) and Telugu (Andhra Pradesh). Each has its own script which has the curved appearance typical of South Indian writing.
Elamite, a language known from inscriptions in Western Iran is now thought to have been Dravidian.
This why it is so important to do thoroughly read and view photo books as misconseptions can happen.
These languages are distinguished by retroflex consonants, which have been borrowed by the Indic Branch of the Indo-European Languages. These constants give Indian languages their distinctive sound and are formed with the tongue rolled up to the top of the mouth. The languages are agglutinating with up to 8 noun cases.
The languages once covered all of the Indian sub-continent and originated in the Indus Valley (modern Pakistan).
| Central Branch |
|---|
| Brahui : Gondi : Kurukh : Kui Elamite |
| Southern Branch |
| Telugu : Tamil : Kannada Malayalam : Tulu |
