Coorg Languages
Kodava Language
Kodava Takk or Kodava takka,is the original language of the south Karnataka district of Kodagu. In English it is often called Kodava or Coorg language. It is primary spoken by the Kodavas,but a other communities and tribes in Kodagu also use Kodava Takk.It belongs to the Dravidian language family,and is influenced by Tulu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil. Several words are derived from Kodava Takk and Beary bashe, a dialect which is a fusion of Tulu and Malayalam spoken by the Beary and Belchada community.
Linguistically, it is different from other Dravidian languages. For example, most Dravidian languages have 5 short and 5 long vowels. Even having distinct flavour and quite popular among the scholars of 16th century, the Kodava is not considered an independent language.It was in the beginning of 20 the century, Kodava was accorded the status of independent language by the philologists and linguists.
Apart from being the language of the Kodavas and the Amma-Kodavas, it is also the mother tongue of some other communities such as Airi, Male-Kudiya, Meda, Kembatti, Kapal, Maringi, Heggade, Kavadi, Kolla, Thatta, Kodava Nair, Koleya, Koyava, Malay and several other. Many of these communities have migrated into Kodagu from the Malabar region during the period of Haleri Dynasty. There is no research done so far to find out the variation in Kodava language in terms of these communities.
