Paniya language

Paniya
Paniya
Pania, Paniyan, Panyah
പണിയ
Native to	India
Region	Kerala
Ethnicity	Paniyas
Native speakers	23,000 (2011 census); 23% of ethnic population[citation needed]
Language family	Dravidian Southern Southern I Tamil–Kannada Tamil–Kota Tamil–Toda Tamil–Irula Tamil–Kodava–Urali Tamil–Malayalam Malayalamoid Paniya–Ravula Paniya; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Old Tamil Middle Tamil ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pcg
Glottolog	pani1256

Paniya is one of the Malayalamoid languages spoken in India. It is spoken by the Paniya people, a scheduled tribe with a majority of its speakers in the state of Kerala. The language is also known as Pania, Paniyan and Panyah. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages.^[1] According to the 1981 Census, there were 63,827 speakers of Paniya which includes 56,952 in Kerala, 6,393 in Tamil Nadu, 482 in Karnataka.^[2] Most of its speakers are found in the Wayanad, Kozhikode, Kannur and Malappuram districts of Kerala, and to the west of the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu.

^ ^a ^b Paniya at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ "A Hand Book of Population Statistics - Census 1981". Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. 1988.

[e25-1] Paniya at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

[2] "A Hand Book of Population Statistics - Census 1981". Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. 1988.

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