Linguistic features:
* Phonology: They share similar sound systems with a rich set of vowel and consonant sounds.
* Morphology: They have agglutinative morphology, meaning words are formed by adding suffixes to a base word.
* Syntax: Their sentence structure often follows a subject-object-verb order.
* Vocabulary: They have a significant number of cognates (words with a common origin), particularly in basic vocabulary related to nature, family, and everyday objects.
Cultural influences:
* History and geography: These languages are spoken in the southern part of India, known as South India, and have a shared cultural heritage.
* Literature and art: They all boast rich literary traditions with renowned poets, writers, and musicians.
* Religious practices: While Hinduism is the dominant religion in the region, there are variations in local practices and deities.
Despite these commonalities, these languages have also evolved independently, leading to significant differences in their pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. They are distinct languages with their own unique characteristics.
Here's a table summarizing some of the differences:
| Language | Script | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Telugu | Telugu script | Andhra Pradesh and Telangana |
| Tamil | Tamil script | Tamil Nadu and parts of Sri Lanka |
| Kannada | Kannada script | Karnataka |
| Malayalam | Malayalam script | Kerala and Lakshadweep |
It's worth noting that while these languages are distinct, there's often a degree of mutual intelligibility, especially among speakers of languages that share a common border.