The most widely spoken language in Tulu Nadu is the Tulu language, which belongs to the Dravidian family of languages, and whose native speakers are referred to as Tuluva. The number of Tulu speakers was estimated to be about 1.7 million in 2001, although some sources quote as many as 3 million. The other languages spoken in Tulu Nadu include Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Malayalam, Koraga, and Beary.
The Tulu alphabet, also known as the Tigalari script, bears partial similarity to the Malayalam script. It was used by Tuluvas for centuries, before it was eventually replaced by the Kannada script. Most Tulu classics are in Tulu script, with a few in other scripts. This script was used by Brahmins.
Tulu alphabet
The Tulu script (Tulu: Tuḷu lipi—written in Tulu script) is the original script of the Tulu language.It also known as the Tigalari script. It evolved from the Grantha script. It bears partial similarity to the Malayalam script, which also evolved from the Grantha. It was primarily used by Tulu-speaking Brahmins like Shivalli Brahmins and Havyaka Kannada people to write Vedic mantras and translate Sanskrit works into Tulu. The oldest piece of literature written using this script is the Tulu translation of Mahabharata called Tulu Mahabharato. It is currently not used to write the Tulu language as it uses the Kannada script for documentation.
Tulu (IPA: [ˈt̪uɭu]; Tulu: , Tuḷu bāse, [ˈt̪uɭu ˈbɒːsæ] ) is a language spoken by around 2 million native speakers mainly in the southwest part of Indian state of Karnataka and a small part of northern Kerala, which is known as Tulu Nadu. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages.
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