Article: Dravidian Linguistics: An Introduction.

The Dravidian family is made up of some two dozen languages (the exact number is still unknown) spoken by probably about 150 millions of people (or is it nearly 200 millions?--the Census figures are very unsatisfactory), about one-fifth of India's population. It is probably to be ranked among the world's first half-dozen language families according to numbers of speakers (Zvelebil, henceforth Z., says it is the fifth). In spite of this type of importance, Dravidian is in general terra incognita to linguistic scholars. Typologists and seekers for 'universals' may know a handful of its general characteristics, but after one or two sentences it is easily ignored.

There ...

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