Kodava language

The Kodava (Kodava takk, meaning 'speech of Kodavas', in the Kodava language, alternate name: Codava, Coorgi, Kodagu) is an endangered Dravidian language and it is spoken in Kodagu district in Southern Karnataka, India. The term Kodava has two related usages. Firstly, it is the name of the Kodava language and culture followed by a number of communities from Kodagu. Secondly, within the Kodava-speaking communities and region (Kodagu), it is a demonym for the dominant Kodava people. Hence, the Kodava language is not only the primary language of the Kodavas but also of many other castes and tribes in Kodagu. The language has two dialects: Mendele (spoken in Northern and Central Kodagu, i.e. outside Kodagu's Kiggat naadu) and Kiggat (spoken in Kiggat naadu, in Southern Kodagu). Historically, it has been referred to as a dialect of Centmil, in some Tamil texts the Kodagu language is referred to as Kudakan Tamil. However it has been re-analysed as a language by early 20th century academics. Now it is considered as an intermediate language between Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Tulu in comparative linguistics. It is traditionally written using the thirke script which is an abugida. The 2011 Census of India reports 96,918 persons who returned Kodava as their mother tongue and 16,939 who returned Coorgi/Kodagu, for a total of 113,857 persons coming under the parent group which is again identified as Coorgi/Kodagu (another name for Kodava) as the mother tongue. In Kannada, the region was called Kodagu and the people Kodaga. Natively, the people were called Kodava and the land was called Kodavu in the folksongs. Comparative Dravidian studies show that the Kodava language belongs to the South Dravidian language group. The grammar of Kodagu has been systematically studied and documented since at least around 1867 when Captain R.A. Cole published the seminal work An Elementary Grammar of the Coorg Language. Dravidian vowel systems contain five vowel qualities i.e. those usually corresponding to a, e, i, o and u.