kej ISO 639

Kadar

  • Geography

    IN Kerala state: Thrissur district; Palakkad district, Chittoor sub-district; Tamil Nadu state: Coimbatore district.
  • Language Cloud

A language of India

kej
Kada, Kadir
1,960 (2004 SIL), decreasing.
Kerala state: Thrissur district; Palakkad district, Chittoor sub-district; Tamil Nadu state: Coimbatore district.
India, Map 7
6b (Threatened).
Dravidian, Southern, Tamil-Kannada, Tamil-Kodagu, Tamil-Malayalam, Malayalam
None known. Phonology related to Tamil [tam] and vocabulary related to Malayalam [mal] (Menon 1996). Lexical similarity: 56%–62% with Tamil [tam], 62%–65% with Malayalam [mal], 67% with Mala Malasar [ima], 61%–63 % with Kanikkaran [kev].
Some language shift to Malayalam [mal] observed in Kerala. Home, village, religious services. Some young people, all adults. Also use English [eng]. Also use Malayalam [mal]. Also use Tamil [tam].
Literacy rate in L2: 51% in Kerala, 56% in Tamil Nadu (2001 census). Grammar.
Unwritten [Qaax].
3 groups named Kadar in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Kadar who use the Kadar language live primarily Palakkad and Thrissur hills, and Coimbatore. A second group lives in Wayanad District and use Malayalam [mal]. A third Kadar (Kadir) group is in Tamil Nadu, Triuchirapalli and Tanjavur districts. They have nothing in common with Western Ghats Kadar. Seen as less developed than other tribes of Chittoor. Hindu, traditional religion.
OLAC resources in and about Kadar