Tulu Script
Encyclopedia
The Tulu script is a Dravidian language spoken by 1.95 million native speakers mainly in the southwest part of Indian state Karnataka known as Tulu Nadu. In India, 1.72 million people speak it as their mother tongue , increased by 10 percent over the 1991 census...
: —written in Tulu script, is the original script of the Tulu language
Tulu language
The Tulu language |?]]]) is a Dravidian language spoken by 1.95 million native speakers mainly in the southwest part of Indian state Karnataka known as Tulu Nadu. In India, 1.72 million people speak it as their mother tongue , increased by 10 percent over the 1991 census...
. It evolved from the Grantha script. It bears partial similarity to the Malayalam script
Malayalam script
The Malayalam script is a Brahmic script used commonly to write the Malayalam language—which is the principal language of the Indian state of Kerala, spoken by 36 million people in the world. Like many other Indic scripts, it is an abugida, or a writing system that is partially “alphabetic” and...
, which also evolved from the Grantha.
It was primarily used by Tulu-speaking Brahmins like Shivalli Brahmins to write Vedic
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
mantras as also translate Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
works into Tulu. The oldest piece of literature written using this script is the Tulu translation of Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
called Tulu Mahabharato. It is currently not used to write the Tulu language as it uses the Kannada script
Kannada script
The Kannada script is an alphasyllabary of the Brahmic family, used primarily to write the Kannada language, one of the Dravidian languages of southern India and also Sanskrit in the past. The Telugu script is derived from Old Kannada, and resembles Kannada script...
for documentation.
Literature in the script
Compared to other South IndiaSouth India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
n languages, Tulu doesn't possess a vast array of literary works. Tulu Mahabharato is the earliest piece of literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, from the 15th century written in Tulu script. Other manuscripts like Devi Mahatme, from the 15th century and two epic poems written in 17th century, namely Sri Bhagavata and Kaveri have also been found.
Decline
There are various reasons for the decline of the Tulu script. Linguistically, Tulu was a minority language in the erstwhile Madras PresidencyMadras Presidency
The Madras Presidency , officially the Presidency of Fort St. George and also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India...
under the British. As such, it was never given due attention by the rulers. Secondly, the establishment of a printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
by German missionaries, who used Kannada script instead of Tulu, led to further decrease in use of the original Tulu script.
Today
TuluTulu language
The Tulu language |?]]]) is a Dravidian language spoken by 1.95 million native speakers mainly in the southwest part of Indian state Karnataka known as Tulu Nadu. In India, 1.72 million people speak it as their mother tongue , increased by 10 percent over the 1991 census...
as a language continues to thrive in coastal Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
and Kasargod
Kasaragod taluk
Kasaragod, is a taluk which along with Hosdurg taluk constitute the Kasaragod district, Kerala, India.- External links :* *...
in Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
. It has mainly survived due to the love of the Tuluva
Tuluva
The Tuluva -Geographic Distribution :Though most of the Tuluva population is found in the Tulu Nadu region, migrant poplulations are found the world over. In recent times, the first period of migration started at the beginning of the 20th century to places such as Mumbai and Chennai and other...
s towards their language. Tulu Sahitya Academy has introduce Tulu as a language in schools around coastal Karnataka namely Alva's High School, Moodbidri; Dattanjaneya High School, Odiyoor; Ramakunjeshwara English-medium High School, Ramakunja; and Vani Composite Pre-University College, Belthangady. It is planning to add more schools awaiting government permission. Tulu is also taught as a language in postgraduate level in Mangalore University
Mangalore University
Mangalore University is a public university located in Konaje, Karnataka State of India. Ranked with a four star by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council in June 2000, this young university offers higher education and conducts research in various fields...
and also there is a dedicated department for Tulu studies and research at Dravidian University
Dravidian University
The Dravidian University, Kuppam, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, India was founded on October 20, 1997 by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, with the initial support extended by the governments of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala for an integrated development of Dravidian...
in Kuppam Andhra Pradesh.
The Govinda Pai Research Centre at MGM College, Udupi started an 18-year Tulu lexicon project in the year 1979. Different dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s, special vocabularies used for different occupational activities, rituals, and folk literature in the forms of Paād-danāas were included in this project. The Centre has also released a six-volume, trilingual, modestly priced Tulu-Kannada-English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
lexicon. The Tulu lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
was awarded the Gundert Award for the best dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
in the country in 1996.
Malayalam Script Resemblance
The Tulu script and the Malayalam script partially resemble each other. The Tulu script does not have a few letters that the Malayalam script has, but it is more similar to the Malayalam script than the Tamil scriptTamil script
The Tamil script is a script that is used to write the Tamil language as well as other minority languages such as Badaga, Irulas, and Paniya...
is, in the sense that, unlike Tamil, both scripts have a separate letter for each varga consonant. One source states that there was a variant of the Grantha script called the Tulu-Malayalam script, dating from the 8th or 9th century,
possibly from which both the Tulu script and the Malayalam script evolved. Some others believe that the Tulu script is older and the Malayalam script evolved from it or was influenced by it,
though the oldest written Tulu document available, Tulu Mahabharato (Tulu
Tulu language
The Tulu language |?]]]) is a Dravidian language spoken by 1.95 million native speakers mainly in the southwest part of Indian state Karnataka known as Tulu Nadu. In India, 1.72 million people speak it as their mother tongue , increased by 10 percent over the 1991 census...
: ), is from around 1500 CE,
relatively new compared to the history of the Malayalam writing system, which dates back to 10th century CE.
Characters
Expected Unicode character names are:- TULU LETTER A, AA, I, II, U, UU, VOCALIC R, E, AI, O
- AU, KA, KHA, GA, GHA, NGA, CA, CHA, JA, JHA
- NYA, TTA, TTHA, DDA, DDHA, NNA, TA, THA, DA, DHA
- NA, PA, PHA, BA, BHA, MA, YA, RA, LA, VA
- SHA, SSA, SA, HA, LLA, LLLA, TULU VOWEL SIGN A, I, II
- TULU VOWEL SIGN U, UU, VOCALIC R, E, AI, O, AU, TULU VIRAMA, TULU SIGN ANUSVARAAnusvaraAnusvara is the diacritic used to mark a type of nasalization used in a number of Indic languages. Depending on the location of the anusvara in the word and the language within which it is used, its exact pronunciation can vary greatly....
, TULU SIGN VISARGAVisargaVisarga is a Sanskrit word meaning "sending forth, discharge". In Sanskrit phonology , is the name of a phone, , written as IAST , Harvard-Kyoto , Devanagari . Visarga is an allophone of and in pausa... - TULU DIGIT 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Comparison of the Grantha script, the Malayalam script, and the Tulu script (ka, kha, ga, gha):
Consonant-vowel glyphs
The following table shows how consonant-vowel glyphs look like in the Tulu script. For example, the row labeled k shows ka, kā, ki, kī, ku, kū, , ke, kai, ko, kau, , and . The distinction between short e and long ē, and between short o and long ō, is not made in the Tulu script.See also
- TuluTulu languageThe Tulu language |?]]]) is a Dravidian language spoken by 1.95 million native speakers mainly in the southwest part of Indian state Karnataka known as Tulu Nadu. In India, 1.72 million people speak it as their mother tongue , increased by 10 percent over the 1991 census...
- TuluvaTuluvaThe Tuluva -Geographic Distribution :Though most of the Tuluva population is found in the Tulu Nadu region, migrant poplulations are found the world over. In recent times, the first period of migration started at the beginning of the 20th century to places such as Mumbai and Chennai and other...
- Bhuta Kola
- NagaradhaneNagaradhaneNagaradhane is a form of snake worship which, along with Bhuta Kola, is one of the unique traditions prevalent in coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada , Udupi and Kasaragod alternatively known as Tulu Nadu- Origin of Nagaradhane :...
- Paād-danāas
- Grantha script
- Tamil ScriptTamil scriptThe Tamil script is a script that is used to write the Tamil language as well as other minority languages such as Badaga, Irulas, and Paniya...
- Malayalam ScriptMalayalam scriptThe Malayalam script is a Brahmic script used commonly to write the Malayalam language—which is the principal language of the Indian state of Kerala, spoken by 36 million people in the world. Like many other Indic scripts, it is an abugida, or a writing system that is partially “alphabetic” and...
External links
- Images of the Tulu script
- http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/USR.html#n103
- http://tulu-research.blogspot.com/2007/04/14-tulu-script-origin-and-revival.html
- Tulu Language: Its Script and Dialects by Neria Harish Hebbar
- The Tulu Language by Dr. K Padmanabha Kekunnaya
- Tulu lexicon project
- Tulu in schools
- Tulu department in dravidian university
- Tulu studies mangalore university