Tulu language

The Tulu language (Tuḷu Bāse, Tigalari script: 𑎡𑎻𑎳𑎻 𑎨𑎸𑎱𑏂, Kannada script: ತುಳು ಬಾಸೆ, Malayalam script: ത‍ുള‍ു ബാസെ; pronunciation in Tulu: [t̪uɭu baːsɛ]) is a Dravidian language 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.

Tulu is the primary spoken language in Tulu Nadu, consisting of the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in the western part of Karnataka and the northern part of Kasaragod district of Kerala. A significant number of native Tulu speakers are found in Kalasa and Mudigere taluks of Chikkamagaluru district and Tirthahalli, Hosanagar of Shimoga district. Non-native speakers of Tulu include those residents in the Tulu Nadu region with the Beary language, the Havyaka language Konkani and Koraga as their mother tongues. Apart from Tulu Nadu, a significant emigrant population of Tulu speakers are found in Maharashtra, Bangalore, Chennai, the English-speaking world, and the Gulf countries.

The various medieval inscriptions of Tulu from the 15th century are in the Tigalari script. Two Tulu epics named Sri Bhagavato and Kaveri from the 17th century were also written in the same script. The Tulu language is known for its oral literature in the form of epic poems called pardana. The Epic of Siri and the legend of Koti and Chennayya belong to this category of Tulu literature.

Tulu belongs to the southern branch of the family of Dravidian languages. It was the first branch to split from Proto-South Dravidian, which in turn descends from Proto-Dravidian. Tulu shares many features with the central Dravidian languages. Therefore, in earlier branchings, Tulu was sometimes grouped with them; later, it was confirmed that it is from South Dravidian and that it was the first to split from it.

The etymology of the word Tulu remains uncertain. Linguist P. Gururaja Bhat mentions in the book Tulunadu, that tuluva originated from the word turuva (ತುರುವ), where turu means 'cow' and refers to the place dominated by the yadava or cowherd - turugaḷē pradhānavāda nāḍu tuḷunāḍu (ತುರುಗಳೇ ಪ್ರಧಾನವಾದ ನಾಡು ತುಳುನಾಡು). ^{[citation needed]} Linguist Purushottama Bilimale|ಪುರುಷೋತ್ತಮ ಬಿಳಿಮಲೆ (ಪುರುಷೋತ್ತಮ ಬಿಳಿಮಲೆ) has suggested that the word tulu means 'that which is connected with water'. Tulave (jackfruit) means 'watery' in Tulu. Other water-related words in Tulu include talipu, teli, teḷi, teḷpu, tuḷipu, tulavu and tamel. In Kannada, there are words such as tuḷuku meaning 'that which has characteristics of water' and toḷe.^{[citation needed]}

Tulu is not an official language of India or any other country. Efforts are being made to include Tulu in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. In December 2009, during the First Vishwa Tulu Sammelan organized at Ujire-Dharmastala, then Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa promised to send a fresh proposal on including the Tulu language in the eighth schedule of the constitution. In August 2017, an online campaign was organized to include Tulu in 8th schedule of constitution. In October 2017, when prime minister Narendra Modi, visited Dharmasthala Temple the same demand was presented in front of him. Similarly, in 2018, a Member of Parliament from the Kasargod constituency, P. Karunakaran, also raised the same demand for inclusion of Tulu language in the 8th schedule of the constitution. On 19 February 2020, Vedavyas Kamath who is a member of the Mangaluru (south) segment of the Legislative Assembly, submitted a memorandum to chief minister B. S. Yediyurappa and to the minister for tourism, Kannada and culture, C. T. Ravi, seeking official status for the Tulu language. In February 2020, another MLA from Moodbidri Umanath Kotian urged the state government to put pressure on the union government to add the Tulu language to the eighth schedule during the assembly session. In July 2021, members of the three main parties in Karnataka politics: BJP, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), lent their support to the idea.