Editing Dravidian languages (section)

== Dravidian studies ==
[[File:LSI map of Dravidian languages.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Linguistic Survey of India]]'' (1906), map of the distribution of Dravidian languages]]

{{main|Dravidian studies}}
The 14th-century Sanskrit text ''[[Lilatilakam]]'', a grammar of [[Manipravalam]], states that the spoken languages of present-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu were similar, terming them as "Dramiḍa". The author does not consider the "Karṇṇāṭa" (Kannada) and the "Āndhra" (Telugu) languages as "Dramiḍa", because they were very different from the language of the "Tamil Veda" (''[[Tiruvaymoli]]''), but states that some people would include them in the "Dramiḍa" category.{{sfn|Shulman|2016|p=6}}

In 1816, [[Francis Whyte Ellis]] argued that [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Kannada]], [[Malayalam]], [[Tulu language|Tulu]] and [[Kodava language|Kodava]] descended from a common, non-[[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] ancestor.{{sfnp|Ellis|1816|p=3}}{{sfnp|Sreekumar|2009|pp=75, 90}} He supported his argument with a detailed comparison of non-Sanskrit vocabulary in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil, and also demonstrated that they shared grammatical structures.{{sfnp|Ellis|1816|pp=7–12, 23–31}}{{sfnp|Sreekumar|2009|pp=86–89}} In 1844, [[Christian Lassen]] discovered that [[Brahui language|Brahui]] was related to these languages.{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xix}} In 1856, [[Robert Caldwell]] published his ''Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages'',{{sfnp|Caldwell|1856}} which considerably expanded the Dravidian umbrella and established Dravidian as one of the major language groups of the world.{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xxiii}}

In 1961, [[T. Burrow]] and [[M. B. Emeneau]] published the ''Dravidian Etymological Dictionary'', with a major revision in 1984.{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xxv}}