5 Endangered Languages of India

Badugu

A South Dravidian language spoken by the people in the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India, Badugu or Badaga is a dialect of Kannada. The customs and culture are very much distinct even though the language is of Dravidian origin. However, several attempts to construct an orthography based on England and Kannada were made. 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. According to 2011 census, around 133,500 native speakers exist in the world speaking this language, which is known for its retroflex vowels. The Badaga language is also written in the Tamil Script and during the later part of the nineteenth century, several Badaga-English dictionaries had been produced.