TULU

June 16, 2021

Various organisations initiated a Twitter campaign demanding official language status to Tulu in Karnataka and Kerala and include it in the eighth schedule to the Constitution.

About

  • Tulu is a Dravidian language spoken mainly in two coastal districts Dakshina Kannada and Udupi of Karnataka and 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 report of 2011 reported a total of 1,846,427 native Tulu speakers in India. The 2001 census had reported a total of 1,722,768 native speakers.

  • Features: Separated early from Proto-South Dravidian, Tulu has several features not found in Tamil–Kannada. For example, it has the past perfect and the future perfect, like French or Spanish, but formed without an auxiliary verb.

  • Status: At present, Tulu is not an official language in the country. Efforts are being made to include Tulu in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.

  • Tulu art, culture and cinema: Tulu has a rich oral literature tradition with folk-song forms like paddana, and traditional folk theatre yakshagana. Tulu also has an active tradition of cinema with around 5 to 7 Tulu language movies produced a year.