Urali

Urali (ISO-639-3 code: url)

The main focul area of the Urali belongs to dravidian language speaking settlements in the present study of Ethnocultural and Linguistic Documentation is in the Sathyamangalam Taluk of Erode District of Tamilnadu situated in the trijunction hill tracts of Tamil nadu, Karnataka and Kerala at an altitude of 1105 meters above the mean sea level. The whole Sathyamangalam and Thalamalai ranges were classified under the North Coimbatore forest division as constituted on 1st June, 1961, G.O. No1433, Food and Agricultural dated 19th april 1961. The division is bounded on the north by Mysore and Kollegal forest divisions, on the east by Dharmapuri and Salem division, and on the west by Erode, Nilgiris and Mysore. The greater part of the division is situated on a plateau which is a continuation of the Mysore plateau. The whole range is diveded into three sections, namely, 1) The North Coimbatore plateau, 2) The Palamalais, and 3) The foot hills and plains area.

Tyhe term Urali means a ruler of a village or people who have inhabited in a village. Besides the speach variety called Urali which is their mother tongue, they also speak Tamil and Kannada which are highly influenced by their mother tongue Urali. This community is spread over the different districts of Tamilnadu and Kerala and, some bordering areas of Karnataka. Mainly they inhabit the hill tracts of the above mentioned states. In Kerala they live mainly in the districts of Waynad and Idukki. Both the ethno cultural and linguistic data for this study on ETHNO CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC DOCUMENTATION OF URALIS will be collected mainly from the following eight hamlets in Dimbam forest, Sathyamangalam taluk, Tamil nadu where the Uralis live. Following are the names of the eight hamlets from which the data will be collected.1) Bejjaluhatti, 2) Mavanattam, 3) Ittrai 4) Tadasalhatti, 5) Galidimbam, 6) Talamalai, 7) Kodipuram, and 8) Ramaranai. The above hamlets are approximatly 20 kilometera around Dimbam forest in different directions.