Badugas are one of the native peoples of the Nilgiris. They are of the Dravidian stock. Many place-names show traces of their presence on the Nilgiris at least for a few thousand years now. Badugas, however, are the most numerous, and they gave their name to the language that has since been called Badugu. As a Dravidian language and a member of Tamil-Kannada branch as well, Badugu shares certain features of both groups. One feature that distinguishes Badugu markedly from Tamil and Kannada is its retaining of the Retracted Vowels, which were complemented later with flexion of the tongue resulting in Retroflex sounds.