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Dravidian languages
| Dravidian | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | South Asia, mostly South India |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's major language families |
| Proto-language | Proto-Dravidian |
| Subdivisions |
|
| ISO 639-2 / 5 | dra |
 Places where Dravidian languages are spoken | |
The Dravidian languages are a language family spoken by Dravidian peoples. The languages are mainly spoken in South India, western Bangladesh, northern Sri Lanka and southern Pakistan. There are about 26 languages in this family. A total of about 215 million people speak Dravidian languages.
Dravidian languages were probably spoken over a larger area of the Indian subcontinent in the past. There are several ethnic groups in India known as "Scheduled Tribes" who still speak their own Dravidian languages. Brahui, with 2,200,000 speakers, is a Dravidian language spoken in the Balochistan region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Dhangar, which is a dialect of Kurukh, is spoken in parts of Nepal and Bhutan.
Main Dravidian languages[edit]
- Telugu language 85,000,000 speakers
- Tamil language 75,000,000 speakers
- Kannada language 49,000,000 speakers
- Malayalam language 38,000,000 speakers
There are about 30 more Dravidian languages spoken, with far fewer speakers. examples of Dravidian languages with fewer speakers include Tulu language and the Brahui language (the only Dravidian language not spoken in India)
