The Kannada people or Kannadigas (IAST: Kannaḍiga) ("Kannadigas" is a term obtained by adding the English suffix "-s" to "kannadiga" to make it plural. ""Kannadigaru"" is the plural form in Kannada), are speakers of Kannada language and trace their ancestry to the state of Karnataka in India and its surrounding regions. Kannada belongs to the Dravidian family of languages. Significant Kannada minorities are found in the Indian states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and in other Indian states. An alternate English demonym for Kannadigas in modern works of history is the Kanarese. Modern Kannada stands among 30 of the most widely spoken languages of the world as of 2001.