Irula. — Spoken by the Irulas of the Nilgiris, 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 Nilgiri hills, Malabar, and Mysore, and regarded as a dialect of Canarese.
Konkani. — A dialect of Marathi, spoken almost entirely in the South Canara district by Sarasvat and Konkani Brahmans and Roman Catholic Christians.
Marathi. — In the Tanjore district, the descendants of the former Maratha Rajas of Tanjore speak this language. It is also spoken in the Bellary district, which was formerly under Maratha dominion, by various Maratha castes, and in the feudatory State of Sandur.
Patniili or Khatri. — A dialect of Gujarati, spoken by the Patnulkarans who have settled for the most part in the town of Madura. They are immigrants from Saurashtra in Gujarat, who are said to have come south at the invitation of the Nayak kings of Madura.
Lambadi. — The language of the nomad Lambadis, Brinjaris, or Sugalis. 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 Lambadi 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 Lambadis, they have a thieves' slang.
- ↑
- Madras Census Report, 1901.