Badaga language

Badaga is a southern Dravidian language spoken by the Badaga people of the Nilgiris district of Northwest Tamil Nadu. The language is closely related to the Kannada language.[2]

Badaga
படுக, ಬಡಗ, ബഡഗ
Native toIndia
RegionThe Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu
EthnicityBadaga
Native speakers
134,000 (2011 census)[1]
Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Yogesh Badagu
Language codes
ISO 639-3bfq
Glottologbada1257

Phonology

Badaga has five vowel qualities, /i e a o u/, where each of them may be long or short, and until the 1930s they were contrastively half and fully retroflexed, for a total of 30 vowel phonemes.[3] Current speakers only distinguish retroflection of a few vowels.[4]

Example words[5]
IPA Gloss
/noː/disease
/po˞˞ː/scar
/mo˞e˞/sprout
/a˞e˞/tiger's den
/ha˞ːsu/to spread out
/ka˞˞ːʃu/to remove
/i˞ːu˞˞/seven
/hu˞˞ːj/tamarind
/be˞ː/bangle
/be˞˞ː/banana
/huj/to strike
/hu˞j/tamarind
/u˞˞j/chisel

Note on transcription: rhoticity ⟨◌˞⟩ indicates half-retroflexion; doubled ⟨◌˞˞⟩ it indicates full retroflexion.

Bilabial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɳ
Stop voiceless p t ʈ c k
voiced b d ɖ ɟ g
Fricative v s
Approximant l ɻ j
Trill r

Writing system

Several attempts have been made at constructing an orthography based on English, Kannada and Tamil. The earliest printed book using Kannada script was a Christian work, "Anga Kartagibba Yesu Kristana Olleya Suddiya Pustaka" by Basel Mission Press of Mangaluru in 1890.[6]

Use of vowels and consonants of Tamil-Kannada script to create Badaga script
Use of Tamil-Kannada script to create Badaga script

Badaga can also be written in the Kannada script and Tamil script.

Dictionary

Badaga is well studied and several Badaga-English Dictionaries have been produced since the latter part of the nineteenth century.[7]

References
  1. Badaga at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
  2. Hockings, Paul (2004), "Badaga", in Ember, Carol R.; Ember, Melvin (eds.), Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology: Health and Illness in the World’s Cultures Volume I: Topics Volume II: Cultures, Boston, MA: Springer US, pp. 572–578, doi:10.1007/0-387-29905-x_57, ISBN 978-0-387-29905-1
  3. Emenau (1931) reports no tokens of /i˞˞/, but suggests this is an accidental gap.
  4. "Badaga". UCLA Phonetics Lab. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  5. "Word List for Badaga". UCLA Phonetics Lab. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  6. http://gospelgo.com/q/Badaga%20Bible%20-%20Gospel%20of%20Luke.pdf
  7. Paul Hockings, Christiane Pilot-Raichoor (1992). A Badaga-English Dictionary (Reprint ed.). Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110126778. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
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