KATTUNAYAKAN TRIBES AND THEIR LANGUAGES IN THE NILGIRI DISTRICT

Abstract

The present study is focused about the Kattunayakan tribes were residing in the Nilgiri district of the Gudalur and Pandalur taluks. Nilgiri district is the home land of particular indigenous tribes, and it’s covered by the rich flora and fauna with greenery looks like charming. Languages are different from one tribe to another tribal people. Kattunayakan tribal language was named as Ghotra basha or Nama pasha. This particular tribal language is otherwise called as south Indian Dravidian Language. Their dialect is mixed with the Tamil, Malayalam, Telgu and Kannada. Tribal Languages are very to speak and spell their own language, read and write. But now tribes have written their languages in their written form they gave more importance to preserve their culture, tradition and language.