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Tulu

ತುಳು

Tulu is a Dravidian language spoken in India, by about 2 million people. Glottolog rates it threatened.

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Tulu · 12.8°N 75.3°E

The Tulu language (Tuḷu Bāse, Tigalari script: 𑎡𑎻𑎳𑎻 𑎨𑎸𑎱𑏂, Kannada script: ತುಳು ಬಾಸೆ, Malayalam script: തുളു ഭാഷെ; pronunciation in Tulu: [t̪uɭu baːsɛ]) is a Dravidian language and the second additional administrative language alongside Kannada in the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka, whose speakers are concentrated in Dakshina Kannada and in the southern part of Udupi of Karnataka in south-western India and also in the northern parts of the Kasaragod district of Kerala. The native speakers of Tulu are referred to as Tuluva or Tulu people and the geographical area is unofficially called Tulu Nadu.

The Indian census of 2011 reported a total of 1,846,427 native Tulu speakers in India while the 2001 census had reported a total of 1,722,768 native speakers. There is some difficulty in counting Tulu speakers who have migrated from their native region as they are often counted as Kannada speakers in Indian census reports.

Separated early from Proto-South Dravidian, Tulu has several features not found in Tamil–Kannada. For example, it has the pluperfect and the future perfect, like French or Spanish, but formed without an auxiliary verb.

From Wikipedia · Tulu language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Words in Tulu

MeaningWordRomanization
tongueಜಿಹ್ವೆjihve
waterನೀರ್nīrŭ
fireತೂtū
windಗಾಳಿgāḷi
riverಸುದೆsude
leafಅಡಿಪಿರೆaḍipire
dogನಾಯಿnāyi
catಪುಚ್ಚೆpucce
fishಮೀನ್mīnŭ
birdಪಕ್ಕಿpakki
pigಪಂಜಿpañji
milkಪೇರ್pērŭ

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Vocabulary

Grammar

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

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Glottolog · tulu1258 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · tcy