Canarese, properly the Kannadi or Karnataka tongue, is bordered by the Tamil and the Telugu on the east. It is spoken throughout the plateau of Mysore, and in the south-western districts of the Hyderabad territory as far north as the village of Murkundah, about 30 miles west of Beder. Also it is much spoken in the ancient Tuluva country on the Malabar coast, now long designated a* Canara, a name which it acquired from having been subjected for centuries to the rule of Canarese princes. But, in Qattara, the Malealam, the Kon kani, and the Tuluva are also spoken, though less extensively than the Canarese. The Canarese writing characters differ slightly from the Telugu, from which it has been borrowed, but the cha racters used for Tamil, 3falealam, and Telugu are quite distinct from each other. The ancient Canarese character, however, entirely differs front that of the modern Telugu, and the Canarese language differs even more widely from the Telugu than it does from the Tamil. There is an ancient dialect of the Canarese language current, a.s well as modern, the latter differing from the former by the use of different inflexional terminations. The ancient Canarese dialect, however, has no connection with the Sanskrit character to which that name has been given, in which, viz. the Hala Kannada, many very ancient inscriptions in the 3Iahratta country as well as Mysore are found. The Imperial Gazetteer gives nine millions as the number speaking Canarese, but this number seems to be excessive. In the Hyderabad country, Canarese, Mahrati, and Telugu aro spoken. The Urdu or Hindustani language used there is merely known as a lingua franca to the 3fahomedans, to the Hindus and Kayasths from Northern India, and to the resident population.
The Coorg or Kodaga language is spoken in the small principality of this name, lying on the 1Vestern Ghats, and has hitherto been regarded as Canarese, modified by the Tulu. But Mr. 3fiftling states that it is more nearly allied to tho Tamil and 3falealam than to the Canarese.
31alcalam or Malearma is spoken along the Malabar coast on the western side of the Ghata or 3Ialealam mountains, from Cape Comorin to the Chandagiri river, or, more strictly, perhaps to Nileshwar (Nileswara),where a Nair mja, conquered by Hyder, formerly ruled ; front the vicinity of 3fangalore, where it supersedes tho Canarese and the Tulu, to Trivandrum, where it begins to be superseded by the Tamil. The people speaking it in the states of Travancore and Cochin, and in the provinces of Malabar and Canara, were estimated by Dr. Caldwell at two and a half millions. The language, however, on the Malabar coast is rapidly being driven out by the Tamil. The people who speak it are, of all the Dravidian races, the most exclu.sive and superstitious, and shrink with most sensitiveness from contact with foreign ers, though their coast, more than any part of India, has been in all ages visited by the traders of other lands,—by Phcenicians, Greeks, Jews, Syrian Christians, aud Arabs, and the three last even formed permanent settlements amongst them.
They shrink even from their own people, retreat ing from the great roads, cities, and bazars as eagerly as the Tamil flocks to them ; and the Malealam-spealling race are to be found isolated with their families in their high-walled parambu, even in parts where the lines and centres of com munication are entirely occupied by the more enterprising Tamil people, whose language, too, seems gradually pushing the Maleala aside. Their retired character has led to the less scrupulous and more adroit Tamilar occupying all the lines of communication, and monopolizing the greater part of the public business and commerce of the Malabar states. In a short gine, perhaps, the Malealam will only be known in the hilly tracts or jungle fastnesses. Malealam -was separated from the Tamil before the latter was cultivated and refined, and from Brahmanieal influence has since had an infusion of Sanskrit words more than in any other Dravidian language, the fewest of such being in the Tamil.
Tulu or Tuluva is the last of the cultivated Dravidian tongues. It is an idiom which holds a position midway between the Canarese and the Malealam, but more nearly resembling the Canarese. Though once generally prevalent in the district of Canara, it is now spoken only in a small tract of country in the vicinity of Mangalore, by not more than 100,000 or 150,000 souls. It has been encroached upon by many languages, and is likely soon to disappear. The Tuluva has a strong resemblance to Maleala, though the Tuluva speaking races are unable to understand their Malealam neighbours.
The Toda, properly the Tuda or Tudava , lan guage is that spoken by the Tudavar, a primitive tribe on the Neilgherry Hills, believed to be the aboriginal inhabitants. They do not at present number more than from 300 to 5oo souls. It is supposed that they never could have exceeded a few thousands ; but they have diminished through opium-eating and polyandry, and at a former period the prevalence among them of female in fanticide. The Toda is the oldest indigenous speech on the hills.
The Kota is the language of the Kotar, a small tribe of helot craftsmen inhabitin? the Neilgherry Hills, and numbering about 1000' souls. It is a very old and rude dialect of Canarese, and their ancestors on the hills are supposed by Dr. Cald well to have been at some ancient time a low-caste tribe who had fled thither to escape persecution. They are exceedingly filthy in their habits, are addicted beyond all other low-caste tribes to the eating of carrion, and have been generally shunned by Europeans.
Badaqa or Budagar speak an ancient but organized dialect of the Canarese. They are immigrants from the north, and are the most numerous class of the inhabitants of the Neilgherry Hills.