Betta Kurumba language

The Betta Kurumba language (Beṭṭa Kurumba) is a Dravidian language closely related to Kannada and Tamil,^[1][2] and is spoken by 32,000 people in the Nilgiri mountains and in adjoining areas in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Beṭṭa (ಬೆಟ್ಟ) means “hills” in Kannada and kurumba (ಕುರುಬ) means “shepherd”.

Betta Kurumba
ಬೆಟ್ಟ ಕುರುಬ வேட்டை குறும்பர்
Native to	India
Region	Nilgiri mountains (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala)
Native speakers	32,000 (2003)[1]
Language family	Dravidian Southern Southern I Tamil–Kannada Badaga–Kannada Kannadoid Betta Kurumba
Writing system	Kannada script Malayalam script Tamil script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xub
Glottolog	bett1235
ELP	Betta Kurumba

See also

• Kuruba
• Kurumba languages
• Dravidian languages
• List of languages by number of native speakers in India
• Languages of South Asia

Notes

1. Betta Kurumba at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Shapiro, Michael C.; Schiffman, Harold F. (1981). Language and Society in South Asia. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. p. 101. ISBN 9788120826076.

References

• Coelho, Gail Maria (2003): A Grammar of Betta Kurumba (PDF).
• Coelho, Gail Maria (2018). Annotated Texts in Betta Kurumba. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 978-9004378223.

Further reading

• Coelho, Gail (2013). "The re-emergence of finite serial verbs in South Dravidian". In Singh, Rajendra; Bhattacharja, Shishir (eds.). Annual Review of South Asian Languages and Linguistics: 2012. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 45–76. doi:10.1515/9783110279757.45. ISBN 978-3-11-027949-8.
• Coelho, Gail (2014). "Placing Indigeneity: Betta Kurumba Narratives of Territory and Clan Structure". Asian Ethnology. 73 (1/2): 39–60. JSTOR 43150503. Accessed 30 July 2023.
• Coelho, Gail (2018). "Complex predicates in Betta Kurumba". Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics. 5 (1): 23–77. doi:10.1515/jsall-2018-0007.
• Coelho, Gail (2019). "Betta Kurumba". In Steever, Sanford B. (ed.). The Dravidian Languages. Routledge. pp. 162–192. ISBN 9781317525394.
• Zvelebil, Kamil V. (1982). "Bëṭṭu̵ Kuṟumba: First Report on a Tribal Language". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 102 (3): 523–27. doi:10.2307/602307. JSTOR 602307.

External links

• ELAR Open Access Archive