Kota is a language of the
Dravidian language family
The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a language family, family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in South India, southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have b ...
with about 9000 native speakers in the
Nilgiri hills
The Nilgiri Mountains form part of the Western Ghats in northwestern Tamil Nadu, Southern Karnataka, and eastern Kerala in India. They are located at the trijunction of three states and connect the Western Ghats with the Eastern Ghats. At le ...
of
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
state,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. It is spoken mainly by the tribal
Kota people. In the late 19th century, the native speaking population was about 1,100. In 1990, the population was only 930, out of an ethnic population of perhaps 1,400, despite the great increase in the population of the area.
[ The language is 'critically endangered' due to the greater social status of neighbouring languages. The Kota language may have originated from Tamil-Kannada and is closely related to Toda. The Kota population is about 2500. The origin of the name Kota is derived from the Dravidian root word 'Ko' meaning Mountain.]
Phonology
Vowels
Kota notably doesn't have central vowels like the other Nilgiri languages, Toda, the closest language also has it.
Consonants
[] and [] occur in free variation with // and //. [] occurs as an allophone of // before retroflexes.
References
Further reading
*Emeneau, M.B. 1944.
Kota Texts
' California: University of California Press.
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External links
Olympic Song Practice Session in Kota Language & StyleThe hare in the moon and eclipses of the moon
Kota Swedesh List
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kota Language
Agglutinative languages
Endangered languages of India
Dravidian languages