Irula.—Spoken by the Irulas of the Nīlgiris, and said to be a dialect of Tamil. According to Mr. Stuart, Kasuba or Kasuva is another dialect of Tamil spoken by the sub-division of the Irulas which bears the same name.
Kurumba.—Spoken by the Kurumbas of the Nīlgiri hills, Malabar, and Mysore, and regarded as a dialect of Canarese.
Konkani.—A dialect of Marāthi, spoken almost entirely in the South Canara district by Sārasvat and Konkani Brāhmans and Roman Catholic Christians.
Marāthi.—In the Tanjore district, the descendants of the former Marātha Rājas of Tanjore speak this language. It is also spoken in the Bellary district, which was formerly under Marātha dominion, by various Marātha castes, and in the feudatory State of Sandūr.
Patnūli or Khatri.—A dialect of Gujarāti, spoken by the Patnulkarans who have settled for the most part in the town of Madura. They are immigrants from Saurāshtra in Gujarāt, who are said to have come south at the invitation of the Nāyak kings of Madura.
Lambādi.—The language of the nomad Lambādis, Brinjāris, or Sugālis. It is described by Mr. W. Francis[1] as a patois "usually based on one of the local vernaculars, and embroidered and diversified with thieves' slang and expressions borrowed from the various localities in which the tribe has sojourned. Cust thought that Lambādi was Semi-Dravidian, but the point is not clear, and it has been classed as Indo-Aryan."
Korava or Yerukala.—A dialect of Tamil spoken by the nomad caste bearing these names. Like the Lambādis, they have a thieves' slang.
- ↑ Madras Census Report, 1901.
