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Language Lineage

North Dravidian

Proto-Dravidian *k became x before non-front vowels: *kaṇ 'eye' is Kurukh xann and Brahui xan, against Tamil kaṇ.

c. 2nd millennium BCE – presentJharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal in eastern India; Brahui in Balochistan (Pakistan and Afghanistan)
On this page
  1. Origins
  2. The Brahui Question
  3. Where it's spoken
  4. Turning points

01

Origins

North Dravidian includes Kurukh (Oraon) and Malto, spoken by Adivasi communities in the hills of eastern India, and Brahui, spoken by two to three million people in Balochistan, far to the west in Pakistan. All three changed *k to a fricative x before back vowels, so 'eye' is Kurukh xann and Brahui xan, against Tamil kaṇ. The same change happened, entirely independently, in the Ugric branch of Uralic.

Brahui has been heavily influenced by Balochi and other Iranian languages. Only a small share of its vocabulary is Dravidian, although its grammar and many basic words clearly are.

02

The Brahui Question

Why is a Dravidian language spoken in Balochistan? One view is that Brahui is a relic of a time when Dravidian languages were spoken across the northwest, perhaps even in the Indus Valley. The other, argued by Josef Elfenbein, is that the Brahui migrated there from central India, relatively recently, after 1000 CE. Their language lacks old Iranian loans that a long residence should have left, and it is close to Kurukh and Malto. The question matters because it is often cited in the Indus debate.

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Pakistanc. 2.8 million
  2. Indiac. 2.2 million
  3. Afghanistan

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Sound lawc. 1st millennium BCE

    *k becomes x

    *k → x / _ non-front V (*kaṇ → Kurukh xann, Brahui xan)

    Before non-front vowels, *k becomes x: *kaṇ 'eye' → Kurukh xann, Brahui xan. It is the main sound change uniting the North Dravidian languages, and it parallels Ugric *kala → xul on the Uralic tree.

    Compare with other consonant shifts across families →

    Sources (1)
    • Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju. 2003. The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. SplitBefore c. 1000 CE, or much earlierContested

    Brahui in Balochistan

    Brahui ends up in Balochistan, separated from Kurukh and Malto by 1,500 kilometres. Whether it is an ancient relic or a medieval migrant is disputed.

    Sources (1)
    • Elfenbein, Josef. 1987. A periplus of the 'Brahui problem'. Studia Iranica 16.
  3. Contact2nd millennium CE

    Brahui among Balochi speakers

    Widespread bilingualism with Balochi, and contact with Persian, Pashto and Sindhi, replaces most Brahui vocabulary and much of its sound system, while the Dravidian grammatical core remains.

    Sources (1)
    • Elfenbein, Josef. 1987. A periplus of the 'Brahui problem'. Studia Iranica 16.
  4. Writing1990s onward

    A script for Kurukh

    Kurukh activists introduce Tolong Siki, a new script designed for the language, as an alternative to Devanagari, and it is taught in some community schools in Jharkhand.

    Sources (1)
    • Steever, Sanford B., ed. 2020. The Dravidian Languages, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.