DravidiLex

The DravidiLex project creates a resource for in-depth study of the interconnectedness of the Dravidian family of languages.  These languages are primarily spoken in the south of India, and many scholars believe them to have been the language of the Subcontinent prior to the arrival of the Indo-Aryan languages.

Underrepresented History

Linguistic scholarship of the last two centuries, when treating India, has tended to focus on Indo-Aryan languages.  This stems in part from the fact that these lie on the same family tree as many of the languages of Europe where early work on historical linguistics was progressing, and the languages shed light on their European relatives.  It stems also in part from the wide diffusion of literature through Sanskrit, itself an Indo-Aryan language, which had become a language of art and administration in the early empires which spanned much of the Subcontinent.

But elements of the Indo-Aryan languages show that they were in contact with Dravidian languages from the earliest periods.  And texts in one of the earliest documented Dravidian languages, Old Tamil, appear to come from the period between the 3rd century BCE and 5th century CE, precisely the period in which writing appears with the Indo-Aryan languages.

The Dravidian languages have therefore not only made their presence felt since the very earliest records of the Indo-Aryan languages, but they have also documented their presence for roughly as long as their linguistic neighbors.  Only in recent decades, however, have Dravidian languages begun to receive the scholarly attention they deserve.  But robust scholarly resources to further this research are few and far between.  DravidiLex endeavors to provide a comprehensive collection of resources for the lexical study of these languages and their cultural and linguistic history.