Defence Minister George Fernandes has urged the government to include Tulu, spoken by around 7 million people in Karnataka, in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Addressing the national convention of Tulu-speaking people on Sunday, he said it is the 'proto-original languages of the world'.
That Tulu does not have a script is not of importance, he said.
English is written in Roman script while several Indian languages are written in Devanagri script, he added.
Former Karnataka chief minister Veerappa Moily said Tulu is the product of a rich culture and noted historian Arnold Tynobee had called it one of the 23 languages of the world.
Rani Abbakka, 'the first woman freedom fighter', was a Tulu-speaking person, he said.
According to Vaman Nandavar, president of the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Akademi, noted scholar Robert Caldwell, in 1856, had said that Tulu was one of the most developed among the Dravidian languages.
The participants handed over a memorandum to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and urged him to take action in this regard.
