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.

Paniya
Pania, Paniyan, Panyah
പണിയ
Native toIndia
RegionKerala
EthnicityPaniyas
Native speakers
23,000 (2011 census)[1]
23% of ethnic population[citation needed]
Dravidian
Early forms
Language codes
ISO 639-3pcg
Glottologpani1256

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b 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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