North Dravidian is a branch (Zvelebil 1990:56) of the Dravidian languages that includes Brahui, Kurux and Malto. (There have been slight differences in the way the Dravidian languages are grouped by various Dravidian linguists: See Subrahmanyam 1983, Zvelebil 1990, Krishnamurthi 2003). It is further divided into Kurux-Malto and Brahui.
It has been suggested that this article be merged into Dravidian languages#Classification. (Discuss) Proposed since May 2022. |
| Northern Dravidian | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Balochistan and Eastern India |
| Linguistic classification | Dravidian
|
Northern Dravidian is characterized by the retraction of Proto Dravidian *k to /q/ before vowels other than /i(:)/ and later spirantizing in Brahui and Kurux, in return the *c also retracted to /k/ in the same environment.[1]
Initial *w's became b likely due to influence from eastern Indo Aryan languages. Brahui also has a voiceless lateral which formed after the merge of *ḷ to *l as there are words from both of them but the conditions of the split are not clear.[1]
Major languages of South Asia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Languages of |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Contemporary languages |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scripts |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activism |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| South-Central |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Central |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| North |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unclassified |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Proto-languages |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Italics indicate extinct languages (no surviving native speakers and no spoken descendant) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Primary language families | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa |
| ||||
| Eurasia (Europe and Asia) |
| ||||
| New Guinea and the Pacific |
| ||||
| Australia |
| ||||
| North America |
| ||||
| Mesoamerica |
| ||||
| South America |
| ||||
| Sign languages |
| ||||
| See also |
| ||||
| |||||
Language families of Eurasia | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe |
| ||||||
| West Asia |
| ||||||
| Caucasus | |||||||
| South Asia |
| ||||||
| East Asia |
| ||||||
| Indian Ocean rim | |||||||
| North Asia |
| ||||||
| Proposed groupings |
| ||||||
| Substrata |
| ||||||
| |||||||