Note 1 — Chapter XXV · LANGUAGE
Reading edition
Previous writers have differed in their views on the special affinities of the Toda language. No one has now, I think, any doubt that the language is Dravidian. Bernhard Schmid,1 who wrote in 1837, appears to me to have known more of the true Toda language than anyone who has written since, and he ascribed two-thirds of the Toda vocabulary to Tamil and was unable to trace the remaining third to any other language. Caldwell2 believed the language of the Todas to be most closely allied to Tamil. According to Pope3 the language was originally old Canarese with the addition of a few Tamil forms, but he has included in his vocabulary words which have probably been borrowed from the Badagas.