Badaga () is a southern Dravidian language spoken by the Badagas people of the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. The language is closely related to the Kannada language with heavy influence from the Tamil language language.[
] Of all the tribal languages spoken in Nilgiris (Badaga, Toda language, Kota language (India)), Badaga is the most spoken
language.
Origins
Badaga, like modern
Kannada, likely originates from
Old Kannada. This is suggested by the fact that Badaga shares many common features with modern
Kannada. One such feature shared by both Badaga and Kannada is initial where other Dravidian languages, and Old Kannada, have an initial , a process which began around the 13th century.
Phonology
Badaga has five vowel qualities, , where each of them may be long or short, and until the 1930s they were contrastively half and fully
R-colored vowel, for a total of 30 vowel
. Current speakers only distinguish retroflection of a few vowels.
|
+Example words |
| disease |
| scar |
| sprout |
| tiger's den |
| to spread out |
| to remove |
| seven |
| tamarind |
| bangle |
| banana |
| to strike |
| chisel |
Note on transcription: rhoticity indicates half-retroflexion; doubled it indicates full retroflexion.
| +
!colspan="2" | !Bilabial
!Alveolar
!Retroflex
!Palatal
!Velar consonant
!Glottal |
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Writing system
Several attempts have been made at constructing an orthography based on
English language,
Kannada and
Tamil language. The earliest printed book using
Kannada script was a Christian work, "Anga Kartagibba Yesu Kristana Olleya Suddiya Pustaka" by Basel Mission Press of
Mangaluru in 1890.
Badaga can also be written in the Kannada script and Tamil script.
Linguistic documentation
Badaga has been studied and documented by linguists. Several Badaga-English Dictionaries have been produced since the latter part of the nineteenth century.
A collection of proverb and other traditional sayings of the Badaga has been collated and edited by Paul Hockings.[Hockings, Paul. "Counsel from the Ancients." A study of Badaga proverbs, prayers, omens and curses. Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter (1988).] It is the result of the work of many people, collecting material over many decades.
Relevant literature
-
Hockings, Paul. Counsel from the ancients: A study of Badaga proverbs, prayers, omens, and curses. Mouton de Gruyter, 1988. Archive.org
-
Hockings, Paul, and Christiane Pilot-Raichoor. A Badaga and English dictionary — glossary and gazetteer. Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2023. ISBN
External links
