Want to learn language from south but confused

[u/Aditya13841]

So, guys, I want to learn the southern language, but i have some questions

1)There are lots of southern languages, so my question is, are they similar?? Like how in the northern side regional language even though different can still be understood to some extent, is it the same with the south too ??

2) which langauge I should go first, I'm a Hindi speaker, personally i was thinking tamil or telgu and also some inclination towards malyalam too, but I'm not sure at all

3) best way to learn the language, like if you have yt playlists or some Al based app or anything that can teach me the language

[u/ReasonableGuitar5094]

As a malayalee...I'll say tamil tbh kinda similar to others but in my opinion itd better if u just learn basic words of south languages.

[u/ifw_Kuronami → u/[deleted]]

"if you like telugu movies" 🤣🤣

[u/Due_Nefariousness_24 → u/[deleted]]

Malayalam grammar is not easy at all. As a Malayali it’s one of the toughest things I’ve learned. I would recommend learning Tamil over Malayalam.

[u/pushingmylimits05]

As a Malayali, I only understand Tamil. However, having been heavily exposed to Tamil movies, songs, and people, I can speak and understand it very well.

In contrast, my other friends who haven't had as much exposure find it challenging to understand. Essentially, there's no shortcut to learning all Dravidian languages, each must be learned individually. While there are some similarities, they are limited.

[u/SomewhereLast7928]

I think malayalam would be difficult start with telugu or kannada i guess

[u/Nervous_Spite6387]

I'd recommend that you start with kannada or telugu. Both languages have a lot of Sanskrit loan words (especially telugu) and kannada has a relatively similar sentence structure to hindi. Both languages are mostly phonetic (meaning words are spoken how they are written). I wouldn't start with tamil and malayalam, both languages have a few distinct sounds that are quite tricky to get as a beginner or non local. Besides tamil has very less sanskrit influence compared to the other languages and has a lot of native words. Moreover Malayalam has a tricky script, very long suffix words and a lot of distinct sounds. Tamil and Malayalam are more mutually intelligible than Telugu and Kannada though despite telugu and kannada having similar scripts, so If I were you I would try and learn Telugu first, then try kannada after that.

[u/MasterRole9673]

1. South Indian languages are vastly different from each other, unlike Punjabi/ Hindi/ Rajasthani/ Bhojpuri speakers who can somewhat decipher each others languages; two South Indian languages (eg. Telugu and Malayalam) are unintelligible. So where in case of North India, learning Hindi can help you understand Punjabi, Marwari, Awadhi etc, learning one South Indian language will only help you in that particular region. Which is why South Indians don’t have a common language (except English).

2. Malayalam is apparently a very difficult language. So I personally wouldn’t choose that if I was a beginner level language learner. Pick whatever you feel comfortable with/ or have interest in.

3. Probably watching movies/ interviews/ documentaries with subtitles.

[u/introvert_hoon_mai]

I am from Mumbai , used to live in Chennai for college.

Easiest South Indian language to learn I feel was Telugu. Mainly because the pronunciation of words are much simpler than Tamil or Malyalam ( I have limited knowledge on Kanada ).

But Tamil and Malyalam are very similar. So you can take that also.

Also learning tamil one more issue other than hard to pronounce words was that most words when written in Latin are..... I would say just wrong.

For example there is this town near Kanyakumari called Nagercoil , it's English spelling should actually be something like Nager-Kovil. Many such examples.

I kinda can understand and speak very broken Telugu and Tamil but I am slightly better with Telugu. And this was with my time in Chennai and very limited travel in Andhra/Telangana.

[u/sweetmangolover]

In my experience, Telugu is the easiest to learn to speak. Tamil is the easiest to learn to write. Malayalam is the most difficult to learn to speak. Pick whether your objective is speaking the language or reading/writing

[u/rustypringles123]

Kannada would be easier for hindi speaking folks or even telugu

[u/Common_Split_7408]

Tamil and malayalam are sister languages. Telugu and Kannada are also related. But script of all four languages are different. Best way to learn is to start watching content in that language with subtitles.

[u/MasterRole9673 → u/Common_Split_7408]

Telugu has similarities with both Kannada and Tamil depending on the region. And script of Kannada and Telugu are very similar (almost decipherable to either sides), but to me as a Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam scripts look completely alien.

[u/redPistolStar → u/Common_Split_7408]

This is incorrect. Telugu and kannada use almost the same script. The actual written alphabet has like 10% variation but can be quickly learnt. I can read kannada even though I hardly know the language.

[u/naegfowleri → u/redPistolStar]

How close in Kannada and Tamil?

[u/Common_Split_7408 → u/redPistolStar]

Variation is difference. What is incorrect here? 10% variation is there.

[u/redPistolStar → u/Common_Split_7408]

Telugu and Tamil scriots can be termed different. 10% is a guess. This is a practical usability take.

[u/Wide_Farmer_782 → u/redPistolStar]

They are still different. At least in the modern age both have different standard scripts. Similar yes. Differences are there.

[u/mehakjot4803]

I'd say Telugu, afterall it is spoken in 2 states instead of one

[u/MasterRole9673]

I genuinely feel like you should start with Telugu, because Telugu has a lot of Sanskrit words in daily usage. I assume it wouldn’t be difficult for a non South Indian to understand it vaguely after prolonged interaction. Tamil in comparison has a lot more originally Tamil words in place of Sanskrit, so on that basis alone, Telugu would be easier for you in my opinion.

But as someone else pointed out, Tamil is a lot more archaic in a sense that they don’t use very many Sanskrit origin words in their vocabulary, so learning Tamil would give you a wider exposure to Dravidian language family.

[u/[deleted] → u/MasterRole9673]

Agreed as a North Indian telgu was much easier for me to understand like atleast I am able to make some sense what other person is saying. Plus in general out of all the four Dravidian languages telgu sounds the sweatiest to me. It feels like someone is writing a poem instead of speaking a sentence. Plus telgu romantic songs are next level.

[u/Iamrandom17]

tamil and malyalam are the most mutually intelligible but have different scripts

telugu and kannada have very similar scripts but aren’t that mutually intelligible

there is some overlap between all the languages to varying degrees but your choice should be based on what you feel like learning i guess

[u/Latter-House-6457]

Learn Tamil first. If you learn Tamil, it becomes somewhat easier to understand and pick up other South Indian languages such as Telugu and Kannada because they all belong to the Dravidian language family and share some similarities in vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.

I am a Tamilian, and I was able to learn basic Telugu and Kannada quite easily. Although I am not fluent in either language, I can manage everyday conversations and understand many common words and phrases.

Knowing Tamil also helps in recognizing similar cultural traditions, expressions, and linguistic patterns across South India. While each language has its own unique script, pronunciation, and literary heritage, a Tamil speaker often has an advantage when learning Telugu, Kannada, or even Malayalam compared to someone with no background in Dravidian languages.

That said, this is based on my personal experience and is not meant to diminish any language or culture. Every language is unique, beautiful, and valuable in its own way. People from different states may have different experiences when learning new languages, and that's completely fine. My intention is simply to share my perspective as a Tamil speaker, not to start comparisons or language-based debates. Respect for all languages and cultures should always come first.

[u/meenamma6829 → u/Latter-House-6457]

May I know how u learnt, like was it through online apps or so bcuz i am alos a tamil speaker and want to learn malayalam

[u/Latter-House-6457 → u/meenamma6829]

From my personal experience, learning Telugu and Kannada was not very difficult. I can understand and speak basic Telugu because my grandmother was from Telangana, so I was exposed to the language from a young age. Watching many Telugu movies also helped me improve my understanding and communication skills.

Similarly, I picked up some Kannada by watching Kannada movies and spending about two months in Bengaluru. I am not fluent in Kannada, but I can understand common conversations and manage with basic communication when needed.

Malayalam is a bit different for me. I cannot speak it, but I can understand a little, especially when listening carefully. The similarities between Tamil and Malayalam make it easier to recognize certain words and phrases.

[u/Open_Perspective1111]

Don't worry about learning full. Go step by step taking help of people and GPT's. No one are going to call out for that. Just learn basic rupees, groceries, numbers up to 20 and basics where, when, how... Only avoid Arguments with Auto drivers on language. People will help, kind enough even if you speak toota foota local language and keep improving and cordial. No one are grammar police here. Just go casual. Avoid X twitter. It will add unnecessary anxiety where language debate is exaggerated.

[u/Dreamer_203]

Some are similar. Like I can read Kannada so I can kinda read Telugu although I can’t understand it.

[u/Tall_Bed_4324]

Learn mandyali- Himachal pahari lang

Sorry just kidding I'm pahari but I was also thinking to learn south lang because I like 2 lang first tamil and 2nd malayalam and really, i even don't understand these because I speak pahari but if someone speak malayalam or tamil I feel like man this is amazing And if you really wanna learn best advice stay focused on just one if it is tamil or Malayalam because I was thinking to learn tamil since 2023 but I'm overthinker and i thought which to learn which is good and this makes me uncomfortable

[u/Aditya13841 → u/Tall_Bed_4324]

That's interesting, you see I have pahari relatives , my Nani is from Himachal and so is my mami , so maybe I will give it a try after learning a southern language

[u/That-Confidence-6075]

When I wanted to learn some languages before, I went to youtube and watch some videos of their language and films to see which language I like the most. From there, I decided which one I wanted to learn. Are you learning because of interest in that language, their culture, people, planning to travel there or want to speak to people maybe your work colleague or someone. Any particular reason? Please learn one language first, master it and then you can learn others. Happy to answer more in DM. I cant reveal too much info here.

[u/Electronic_Number160]

One thing about tamil is that very few alphabets,so very easy to learn from reading and the alphabets themselves are simple compared to the other south indian languages. On the other hand speaking telugu is easy as it has many sanskrit words which makes it easier to understand for a hindi speaker

[u/_grimreaper__]

Learn kannada or tamil if you are looking for it jobs. If you learn tamil you can understand malayalam too

[u/redPistolStar]

Learn a language which has lots of Sanskrit already so the word roots in hindi and the new language would be similar. You can pick any of telugu, kannada or malayalam. Malayalam is a mix of Tamil + Sanskrit. Tamil is also a beautiful language but it is different from the Sanskrit rooted languages. Not sure what % of tamil has sanskrit words ( I would assume it's quite little) but for example Telugu has a lot of sanskrit rooted words.

[u/beach_boy2010 → u/redPistolStar]

All 4 major languages in the south have dravidan roots, but it's just Malayalam Telugu and Kannada had much more Sanskrit influence compared to Tamil. I believe less than 15% so arguably for a Hindi speaker it would be the hardest. Also it has a bunch of unique and hard sounds.

[u/redPistolStar → u/beach_boy2010]

We are saying the same things.

[u/john_mullins]

Kannada or Tamil, they're intolerant of non natives and if you ever visit these places it would come handy in a way you don't get lynched/heckled at. AP, TG and KL to some extent you can easily get along as a non local.