There are many research done on Badaga community. A landmark research done by Christian Pilot-Raichoor, a French linguistic scholar from LACITO, a scientific research centre in Paris.
Where, she claims that the Badagas are the Aboriginal Primitive Tribes of Nilgiris and they speak a separate language which is not a dialect of any language.
It is evident from her research that the Badaga community was created in the Nilgiris with small local groups in ancient times. Badaga community evolved from the Nilgiris. The retro-flex sounds of the Badaga language are unique.
The Badaga language, widely believed to be a dialect of Kannada, was the language of communication of ancient South Dravidians language said Christian Pilot-Raichoor, a linguistic French scholar from LACITO, a scientific research centre in Paris. She was in town recently to do some research work.
"Today, it is recognized as a separate language," said Pilot-Raichoor, who has been working on the linguistic heritage of the Badaga language for the past two decades. According to her, there are too many important differences in the phonology and the grammar, differences in gender system, case system, verb classes.
"Whatever resemblance it has to Kannada points to early medieval and older forms of the language. The core grammar in the Badaga language converges with other Nilgiris languages which can be traced to early south Dravidian features," she explained.
Hence, Badaga is a traditional communities of the Nilgiris, retain their morphology and categorical distinctions, some very archaic features, which give them an overall grammatical homogeneity, according to her.
