Alternate Names: Kowohans, Kurichchan, Kurichchia, Kurichia, Kurichiyars, Kuruchans
Dialects: Kunnam, Wayanad. Lexical similarity: 60%–66% between dialects; Wayanad dialect 67%–71% with Malayalam ,.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 29,400 (2004 survey). Ethnic population: 32,800 (2001 census).
Language Use: Shifting to Malayalam [mal], more in Kunnam than in Wayanad dialect. All are bilingual in Malayalam, but less than half with good proficiency. Many prefer Malayalam over their mother tongue and think children should learn Malayalam first. Possible reluctance to use mother tongue outside of village domain.
Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: 68% (2001 census). Grammar.
Writing System: Malayalam
Nation of Origin: India
Other Comments: A Scheduled Tribe. Consider themselves higher caste than Brahmin. An endangered language (Central Institute of Indian Languages). Further study is being done at Annamalai University. Hindu, Christian, traditional religion.