More than a dozen languages are spoken in the Nilgiris, but the indigenous people did not write or read them. After 1847 German and Swiss missionaries opened schools for boys and girls in some Badaga villages, teaching them literacy. Ten Dravidian languages are found only here, and they have been studied in great detail for decades by professional linguists. Local place names are derived mainly from the dominant Badaga language, e.g., Doddabetta, Coonoor, Kotagiri, Gudaluru, Kunda, etc. Ootacamund is of Toda origin, and Udagamandalam is a very recent Tamil-language version of this place.