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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Asia > India > Muduga

Muduga

A language of India

ISO 639-3: udg

Population  3,370 (1991 census).
Region  Kerala state, Palakkad District, Mannarkad Taluk, Attapady block, Chundakki, Thazhachundakki, Veeranuru, Karuvare, Ommale, Kallamale, Kottamale, Chitturu, Chandakulam, Koravanpady, Ummathupadiga, Molakambi, Thekkumpanna, Abbannuru, Kottiyuru, Pettikkallu, Kakkuppady, and Mukkali hamlets; Tamil Nadu state, Nilgiris, and Coimbatore.
Alternate names   Mudugar
Dialects  Muduga influenced by Kannada [kan], Tamil [tam], Malayalam [mal], and Tulu [tcy], but not a dialect of any of them. Though it has similarities with Tamil in grammatical structure, it cannot be treated as a dialect of Tamil. It is distinct in the Dravidian family (Menon 1996:274 citing Rajendran). No dialects of Muduga determined on survey. Lexical similarity: 55%–57% with Malayalam, 59% with Muthuvan [muv], 60% with Tamil, 75% with the Attapady dialect of Irula [iru], 82%–83% with Attapady Kurumba [pkr].
Classification  Dravidian, Southern
Language use  Vigorous, children learn it first. Home, village, religion. All ages. Positive attitude. Education plays major role in determining bilingualism levels, but even some higher educated Muduga are not adequately bilingual in Malayalam.
Language development  Literacy rate in L2: 25% (31% men and 17% women) (1991 census). One of the least literate communities in Kerala, but 73% of survey respondents claim to be literate in Malayalam.
Comments  National census population figures combine Muduga of Attapady with Muthuvan, who, despite the similarity of the spelling of their ethnonym, are entirely different, and separated by geographic and cultural distance (Menon 1996). Agriculturalists. Traditional religion mixed with Hindu.