Q. Consider the following statements regarding Dravidian languages
1. These are a family of some 70 languages spoken primarily in South Asia.
2. The Dravidian language with the most speakers at present is Tamil
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
Answer: A
Notes:
A new research paper published in the journal ‘Nature’ has provided some interesting new insight into the linguistic culture of the Indus Valley Civilization. The paper said, Ancestral Dravidian languages were possibly spoken by a significant population in the Indus Valley civilization.
About the Dravidian Languages
- Dravidian languages, a family of some 70 languages spoken primarily in South Asia. They are spoken by more than 215 million people in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
- The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are (in descending order of number of speakers) Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are Tulu and Kodava.
- There are also a number of Dravidian-speaking Scheduled Tribes, such as the Kurukh in Eastern India and Gondi in Central India.
Read more: An ancient Dravidian language link with the Indus Valley civilisation
