Abstract: The Dravidian language family of South India is considered to be one of the most prominent connected language family known with 73 major sections and subsections. The Dravidian language diversification starts at a point where the proto-Dravidian language started split coinciding with the decline of the Indus valley civilization around 1500 years ago. This era also coincides with the enhanced diversification of Sanskrit to different Prakrit languages within Indian subcontinent. The next significant change in the Dravidian languages occurs during the conquest of Alexander coinciding with the beginning of Proto-Telugu and proto-Kannada. This era coincided with the emergence and popularisation of Buddhism and Jainism (social Renaissance), the diversification of the languages also can be traced with the mixing of the population during these periods. These have been traced using mtDNA and Y-chromosomal studies. The changes in the genetic makeup which could be traced along the migratory route to Australia can be easily ascertained. Thus, the genetic divergence of human populations within this area could be correlated with the diversification of the language family due to various factors. The psycho-linguistic effects of the environmental, social and geographical factors resulted in diversification of Indian Dravidian population and their linguistic diversity. In this review, we have elucidated these factors and correlated the two changes as interrelated and significant. Hence this bio-linguistic study can help in further research in the field.

Keywords: Psycholinguistics, Bio-linguistics, Dravidian, Genetics

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2019.61215