Alternate Names: Palkar, Patnuli, Saurashtri, Sourashtra, Sowrashtra
Dialects: Northern Saurashtra, Southern Saurashtra. Indo-Aryan elements reveal Gujarati , relationship; some structure from Dravidian, lexicon from Telugu , and Tamil ,. An Indo-European island surrounded by Dravidian languages. The 3 main populations in Salem, Thanjavur, and Madurai cities had between 67% and 97% inherent intelligibility among themselves. Lexical similarity: 77%–96% between all varieties. The 3 main populations: 84%–96%. Southern dialects have 83% or higher lexical similarity with Thanjavur variety.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 185,000 (2001 census). Each listed district has communities of at least 5,000.
Language Use: Vigorous. Home, prayer. Also use Tamil [tam].
Language Development: Radio programs. Dictionary. NT: 2001.
Writing System: Devanagari, Saurashtra, Tamil, Telugu
Nation of Origin: India
Other Comments: Most are weavers; nonweavers are generally better educated. System of exogamous clans. Hindu.