Blue = majority or plurality speak Malayalam Light blue = A significant minority speak Malayalam or Malayalam languages are spoken alongside other languages
Malayalam is written in anon-Latin script. Malayalam text used in this article is transliterated into the Latin script according to theISO 15919 standard.
The origin of Malayalam remains a matter of dispute among scholars. The mainstream view holds that Malayalam descends from a western coastal dialect of earlyMiddle Tamil and separated from it sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries.[14][15] This western dialect also preserved some archaisms suggesting an earlier divergence of the spoken dialects in the prehistoric period. A second view argues for the development of the two languages out of "Proto-Dravidian" or "Proto-Tamil-Malayalam" either in the prehistoric period or in the middle of the first millennium A.D.,[16][17][18] although this is generally rejected by historical linguists.[19] TheQuilon Syrian copper plates of 849/850 CE are considered by some to be the oldest available inscription written inOld Malayalam. However, the existence of Old Malayalam is sometimes disputed by scholars.[20] They regard theChera Perumal inscriptional language as a diverging dialect or variety of contemporaryTamil.[20][21] The oldest extant literary work in Malayalam distinct from the Tamil tradition isRamacharitam (late 12th or early 13th century).[22]
Robert Caldwell describes the extent of Malayalam in the 19th century as extending from the vicinity ofKumbla in the north where it supersedes withTulu toKanyakumari in the south, where it begins to be superseded byTamil,[28] beside the inhabited islands ofLakshadweep in theArabian Sea.
Etymology
In a 7th-century poem written by the Tamil poetSambandar the people of Kerala are referred to asmalaiyāḷar (mountain people).[29] The wordMalayalam is also said to originate from the wordsmala, meaning 'mountain', andalam, meaning 'region' or '-ship' (as in "township");Malayalam thus translates directly as 'themountain region'. The termMalabar was used as an alternative term forMalayalam in foreign trade circles to denote the southwestern coast of the Indian peninsula, which also meansThe land of hills.[30][31][32][33] The term originally referred to the western hillyland of theChera dynasty (laterZamorins and theKingdom of Cochin),Kingdom of Ezhimala (laterKolathunadu), andAy kingdom (laterTravancore), and only later became the name of its language.[34] The language Malayalam was alternatively calledAlealum,Malayalani,Malayali,Malabari,Malean,Maliyad,Mallealle, andKerala Bhasha until the early 19th century CE.[35][36][37]
The earliest extantliterary works in the regionallanguage of present-dayKerala probably date back to as early as the12th century. At that time, the language was differentiated by the nameKerala Bhasha. The earliest mention of Malayalam as a language is found outside of Kerala in the 15th centuryTelugu work Śrībhīmēśvarapurāṇamu by Śrīnātha.[38] The distinctive "Malayalam" named identity of thislanguage appears to have come into existence in Kerala only around the16th century, when it was known as "Malayayma" or "Malayanma"; the words were also used to refer to thescript and theregion.[39] According toDuarte Barbosa, a Portuguese visitor who visited Kerala in the early 16th century CE, the people in the southwesternMalabar coast of India fromKumbla in north toKanyakumari in south had a unique language, which was called "Maliama" by them.[40][41]
Prior to thisperiod, the people of Kerala usually referred to their language as "Tamil", and both terms overlapped into thecolonial period.[note 1]
Due to the geographical isolation of theMalabar Coast from the rest of theIndian peninsula due to the presence of theWestern Ghats mountain ranges which lie parallel to the coast, the dialect ofOld Tamil spoken inKerala was different from that spoken inTamil Nadu.[36] The mainstream view holds that Malayalam began to grow as a distinct literary language from the western coastal dialect ofMiddle Tamil[44] and the linguistic separation completed sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries.[18][45] The renowned poets ofClassical Tamil such asParanar (1st century CE),Ilango Adigal (2nd–3rd century CE), andKulasekhara Alvar (9th century CE) wereKeralites.[36] TheSangam works can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.[46]
Some scholars however believe that bothTamil and Malayalam developed during the prehistoric period from a common ancestor, "Proto-Tamil-Malayalam", and that the notion of Malayalam being a "daughter" ofTamil is misplaced.[16] This is based on the fact that Malayalam and severalDravidian languages on theWestern Coast have common archaic features which are not found even in the oldest historical forms of literary Tamil.[47] Despite this, Malayalam shares many common innovations with Tamil that emerged during the earlyMiddle Tamil period, thus making independent descent impossible.[14][note 2] For example,Old Tamil lacks the first and second person plural pronouns with the endingkaḷ. It is in the Early Middle Tamil stage thatkaḷ first appears:[49]
Indeed, most features of Malayalam morphology are derivable from a form of speech corresponding to early Middle Tamil.[50]
Robert Caldwell, in his 1856 book "A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages", opined that literary Malayalam branched fromClassical Tamil and over time gained a large amount ofSanskrit vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs.[34] As the language of scholarship and administration, Old-Tamil, which was written inTamil-Brahmi and the Vatteluttu alphabet later, greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam as a literary language. TheMalayalam script began to diverge from theVatteluttu and the WesternGrantha scripts in the 8th and 9th centuries ofCommon Era. By the end of the 13th century, a written form of the language emerged which was unique from theVatteluttu script that was used to write Tamil on the eastern coast.[51]
Old Malayalam
Old Malayalam (‹See RfD›Paḻaya Malayāḷam), an inscriptional language found inKerala from circa 9th to circa 13th century CE,[52] is the earliest attested form of Malayalam.[53][54] The beginning of the development ofOld Malayalam from a western coastal dialect ofMiddle Tamil can be dated to circa 8th century CE.[55][15][56] It remained a west coast dialect until circa 9th century CE or a little later.[57][55] The origin ofMalayalam calendar dates back to year 825 CE.[58][59][60] It is generally agreed that the western coastal dialect of Tamil began to separate, diverge, and grow as a distinct language due to geographical separation of Kerala from the Tamil country[57] and the influence ofSanskrit andPrakrit from theNambudiriBrahmins of theMalabar Coast.[53][36]
Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan is also credited with developing theMalayalam script into the current form through the intermixing and modification of the erstwhile scripts ofVatteluttu,Kolezhuthu, andGrantha script, which were used to write the inscriptions and literary works of Old and Middle Malayalam.[64] He further eliminated excess and unnecessary letters from the modified script.[64] Hence, Ezhuthachan is also known asThe Father of modern Malayalam.[64] The development of modernMalayalam script was also heavily influenced by theTigalari script, which was used to writeSanskrit, due to the influence ofTuluva Brahmins in Kerala.[64] The language used in theArabi Malayalam works of the 16th–17th century CE is a mixture of Modern Malayalam andArabic.[64] They follow the syntax of modern Malayalam, though written in a modified form ofArabic script, which is known asArabi Malayalam script.[64] P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval workKeralolpathi, which describes theParashurama legend and the departure of the finalCheraman Perumal king toMecca, to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.[68]
Variations inintonation patterns, vocabulary, and distribution of grammatical andphonological elements are observable along the parameters of region, religion, community, occupation, social stratum, style and register.
According to the Dravidian Encyclopedia, the regionaldialects of Malayalam can be divided into fifteen dialect areas.[7] They are as follows:
According to Ethnologue, the dialects are:[35] Malabar, Nagari-Malayalam, North Kerala, Central Kerala, South Kerala, Kayavar,Namboodiri,Nair,Mappila,Beary,Jeseri,Yerava, Pulaya,Nasrani, andKasargod. The community dialects are:Namboodiri,Nair,Arabi Malayalam, Pulaya, andNasrani.[35] Whereas both theNamboothiri and Nair dialects have a common nature, theArabi Malayalam is among the most divergent of dialects, differing considerably from literary Malayalam.[35]Jeseri is a dialect of Malayalam spoken mainly in the Union territory ofLakshadweep andBeary is spoken inTulu Nadu which are nearer to Kerala. Of the total 33,066,392 Malayalam speakers in India in 2001, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke theYerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations likeEranadan.[81]
The dialects of Malayalam spoken in the districts likeKasaragod,Kannur,Wayanad,Kozhikode, andMalappuram in the formerMalabar District have few influences fromKannada.[36] For example, the words those start with the sound "V" in Malayalam become "B" in these districts as inKannada.[36] Also theVoiced retroflex approximant (/ɻ/) which is seen in both Tamil and the standard form of Malayalam, are not seen in the northern dialects of Malayalam, as inKannada.[36] For example, the wordsVazhi (Path),Vili (Call),Vere (Another), andVaa (Come/Mouth), becomeBayi,Bili,Bere, andBaa in the northern dialects of Malayalam.[36] Similarly the Malayalam spoken in the southern districts of Kerala, i.e.,Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam-Pathanamthitta area is influenced by Tamil.[36]
Labels such as "Nampoothiri Dialect", "Mappila Dialect", and "Nasrani Dialect" refer to overall patterns constituted by the sub-dialects spoken by the subcastes or sub-groups of each such caste. The most outstanding features of the major communal dialects of Malayalam are summarized below:
Lexical items with phonological features reminiscent of Sanskrit (e.g.,viddhi meaning 'fool'),bhosku 'lie',musku 'impudence',dustu 'impurity', andeebhyan andsumbhan (both meaning 'good-for-nothing fellow') abound in Nampoothiri dialect.[82]
The Muslim dialect, also known asArabi Malayalam, shows maximum divergence from the literary Standard Dialect of Malayalam. It is very much influenced byArabic andPersian rather than by Sanskrit or by English. The retroflex continuantzha of the literary dialect is realised in the Muslim dialect as the palatalya. In some other dialects of Northern Kerala too,zha of the literary dialect is realised asya.
The Syrian Christian or Nasrani dialect of Malayalam is quite close to theNair dialect, especially inphonology. The speech of the educated section among Syrian Christians and that of those who are close to the church are peculiar in having a number of assimilated as well as unassimilated loan words fromEnglish andSyriac. The few loan words which have found their way into the Christian dialect are assimilated in many cases through the process of de-aspiration.[83][84]
TheRavula is a tribal dialect of Malayalam spoken by the members ofRavula, an indigenous people's tribe who are primarily inhabitants of theKodagu district ofKarnataka.[85]
Malayalam has incorporated many elements from other languages over the years, the most notable of these beingSanskrit and later, English.[87] According toSooranad Kunjan Pillai who compiled the authoritative Malayalam lexicon, the other principal languages whose vocabulary was incorporated over the ages wereArabic,Dutch,Hindustani,Pali,Persian,Portuguese,Prakrit, andSyriac.[88]
Many medievalliturgical texts were written in an admixture ofSanskrit and early Malayalam, calledManipravalam.[89] The influence ofSanskrit was very prominent in formal Malayalam used in the medieval literature. Malayalam has a substantially high number of Sanskrit loanwords but these are seldom used.[90]
SomeArabic loanwords likeadālattŭ (court of justice),jāmyaṃ (bail),japti (foreclosure),jilla (district),tālukkŭ (subdistrict), etc., are used in the formal literary Malayalam for administrative purposes.
The Muslim dialect known asMappila Malayalam is predominantly in the northern districts of Kerala. Another Muslim dialect calledBeary bashe is used in the extreme northern part of Kerala along with the southern part of Karnataka in a former region calledTulu Nadu.
Malayalam is a language spoken by the native people of southwestern India and the islands ofLakshadweep in theArabian Sea. According to the Indian census of 2011, there were 32,413,213 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 97.03% of the total population of the state. There were a further 701,673 (1.14% of the total number) inKarnataka, 957,705 (2.70%) inTamil Nadu, and 406,358 (1.2%) inMaharashtra.
The number of Malayalam speakers inLakshadweep is 51,100, which is only 0.15% of the total number, but is as much as about 84% of the population of Lakshadweep. Malayalam was the most spoken language in erstwhileGudalur taluk (now Gudalur and Panthalur taluks) ofNilgiris district in Tamil Nadu which accounts for 48.8% population and it was the second most spoken language inMangalore and Puttur taluks ofSouth Canara accounting for 21.2% and 15.4% respectively according to 1951 census report.[91] 25.57% of the total population in theKodagu district ofKarnataka areMalayalis, and they form the single largest linguistic group accounting for 35.5% in theVirajpet Taluk.[92] Around one-third of theMalayalis inKodagu district speak theYerava dialect according to the 2011 census, which is native to Kodagu andWayanad.[92]
In all, Malayalis made up 3.22% of the total Indian population in 2011. Of the total 34,713,130 Malayalam speakers in India in 2011, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke theYerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations likeEranadan.[93] As per the 1991 census data, 28.85% of all Malayalam speakers in India spoke a second language and 19.64% of the total knew three or more languages.
Just before independence,Malaya attracted many Malayalis. Large numbers of Malayalis have settled inChennai,Bengaluru,Mangaluru,Hyderabad,Mumbai,Navi Mumbai,Pune,Mysuru andDelhi. Many Malayalis have also emigrated to theMiddle East, the United States, and Europe. There were 179,860 speakers of Malayalam in the United States, according to the 2000 census, with the highest concentrations inBergen County, New Jersey, andRockland County, New York.[94] There are 144,000 of Malayalam speakers inMalaysia.[citation needed] There were 11,687 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2016.[95] The 2001Canadian census reported 7,070 people who listed Malayalam as their mother tongue, mainly inToronto. The 2006 New Zealand census reported 2,139 speakers.[96] 134 Malayalam speaking households were reported in 1956 inFiji. There is also a considerableMalayali population in thePersian Gulf regions, especially inDubai,Kuwait andDoha.
Phonology
Monophthongs of Malayalam, from Namboodiripad, Savithry (2016)[97]Spoken Malayalam
⟨്⟩/ɨ̆/ formed from word final short /u/'s but now there are /u/'s finally as well, mostly in loanwords but also natively like inguru,kuru,puẓu and nativepērŭ, there are minimal pairs as wellappŭ "water",appu a given name; It is also added to the end of loanwords ending in some consonants, e.g. Sanskritmanas,suhr̥t, Malayalammanassŭ,suhr̥ttŭ, Englishcurrent Ml.karaṇṭŭ. It is thesaṁvr̥tōkāram, anepenthentic vowel in Malayalam. Therefore, it has no independent vowel letter (because it never occurs at the beginning of words) but, when it comes after a consonant, there are various ways of representing it. In medieval times, it was just represented with the symbol for/u/ ⟨കു⟩, but later on it was just completely omitted (that is, written as an inherent vowel ⟨ക⟩, thus, ⟨പേര്⟩pērŭ "name" was once written as ⟨പേര⟩pēra which means "guava"). In modern times, it is written in two different ways – the Northern style, in which achandrakkala is used ⟨ക്⟩, and the Southern orTravancore style, in which the diacritic for a/u/ is attached to the preceding consonant and a chandrakkala is written above ⟨കു്⟩. According to one author, this alternative form ⟨കു്⟩ is historically more correct, though the simplified form without a vowel signu is common nowadays.[99]
/a/ (phonetically central:[ä]) is represented as basic or the "default" vowel in theabugida script.
Malayalam has also borrowed theSanskritdiphthongs of/ai̯/ (represented in Malayalam asഐ, ai) and/au̯/ (represented in Malayalam asഔ, au) although these mostly occur only in Sanskrit loanwords. Traditionally (as in Sanskrit), four vocalic consonants (usually pronounced in Malayalam as consonants followed by thesaṁvr̥tōkāram, which is not officially a vowel, and not as actual vocalic consonants) have been classified as vowels: vocalic r (ഋ,/rɨ̆/, r̥), long vocalic r (ൠ,/rɨː/, r̥̄), vocalic l (ഌ,/lɨ̆/, l̥) and long vocalic l (ൡ,/lɨː/, l̥̄). Except for the first, the other three have been omitted from the current script used in Kerala as there are no words in current Malayalam that use them.
Some authors say that Malayalam has no diphthongs and /ai̯, au̯/ are clusters of V+glide j/ʋ[15] while others consider all V+glide clusters to be diphthongs /ai̯, aːi̯, au̯, ei̯, oi̯, i̯a/ as inkai, vāypa, auṣadhaṁ, cey, koy andkāryaṁ[98]
Vowel length is phonemic and all of the vowels have minimal pairs for examplekaṭṭi "thickness",kāṭṭi "showed",koṭṭi "tapped",kōṭṭi "twisted, stick, marble",er̠i "throw",ēr̠i "lots"[98]
Some speakers also have /æː/, /ɔː/, /ə/ from English loanwords e.g. /bæːŋgɨ̆/ "bank" but most speakers replace it with /aː/, /eː/ or /ja/; /oː/ or /aː/ and /e/ or /a/.[15]
/ɕ~ʃ,t͡ɕ~t͡ʃ,t͡ɕʰ~t͡ʃʰ,d͡ʑ~d͡ʒ,d͡ʑʱ~d͡ʒʱ/ can either be postalveolar or alveolo-palatal depending upon the speaker and dialect; the postalveolar and alveolo-palatal realizations are in free variation.[97]
Thealveolar nasal once had a separate character ⟨ഩ⟩ that is now obsolete and the sound is now almost always represented by the symbol that was originally used only for thedental nasal. However, both sounds are extensively used in current colloquial and official Malayalam, and although they were allophones in Old Malayalam, they now occasionally contrast in gemination – for example,eṉṉāl ('by me', first person singular pronoun in the instrumental case) andennāl ('if that is so'), which are both writtenennāl (എന്നാൽ) and tiṉṉŭ "eat!", tinnŭ "ate".
The unaspirated alveolar stop also had a separate character ⟨ഺ⟩ but it has become obsolete, as the sound only occurs in geminate form (when geminated it is written with aറ below anotherറ ⟨റ്റ⟩) or immediately following other consonants (in these cases,റ orററ are usually written in small size underneath the first consonant).
The proto Dravidian alveolar stop*ṯ developed into an alveolar trill /r/ in many of theDravidian languages and*ṉṯ becamenn in Malayalam while*ṯṯ remained.[15] Currently Malayalam only has [nd] in the genitive case ending-ṉṟe and a word formed with ittaṉṟēṭam; Malayalam regained it from the older genitive case ending-ṉuṭaiya > -ṉuṭe > -ṉṭe > -ṉṟe, Malayalam still retains both forms in words like eṉṉuṭe and eṉṟe though the former is dated, a similar process happened in some Sri Lankan Tamil dialects.[101]
ന്റ is pronounced as [nd] but ൻറ can be pronounced as [nd] or [nr]; [nr] doesn't occur natively but it occurs in loans like എൻറോൾ (en̠r̠ōḷ) 'enroll' or ഹെൻറി (hen̠r̠i) 'Henry'.[102]
All non geminated voiceless stops and affricate become voiced intervocalically and after a nasal as in Tamil.[98][15]
The geminated velars /kk/ and /ŋŋ/ are sometimes palatalized word medially after /j, i(:), e(:)/ like in the wordsകിടക്കുക [kiɖɐk:ugɐ] vsഇരിക്കുക [iɾikʲ:ugɐ] andമങ്ങൽ [mɐŋ:ɐl] vs.മത്തങ്ങ [mɐt̪:ɐŋʲ:ɐ], their distribution is unpredictable e.g. it doesn't palatalize in vikkŭ but does in irikkŭ. If the palatalization is from /j/ it is sometimes deleted e.g. poykko can be [pojkʲːo] or [pokʲːo], aḍaykka as [ɐɖɐjkʲːɐ] or [ɐɖɐkʲːɐ]. Some of the northern dialects might pronounce them without palatalization.[97][98]
The letter ഫ represents both/pʰ/, a phoneme occurring in Sanskrit loanwords, and/f/, which is mostly found in comparatively recent borrowings from European languages. Though nowadays most people (especially youngsters) pronounce/pʰ/ as/f/ like in the wordഫലം/falam/.[98] In the Jesari dialect the native word-initial /p/ too spirantized to [f].[103]
/m,n,ɳ,l,ɭ/ are unreleased word finally.[98] Words will never begin or end with a geminated consonant./ɻ/ never occur word initially. All consonants appear word medially.[98]
The plain stops, affricates, nasals, laterals, the fricatives/s/ and/ʃ/ and approximants other than/ɻ/ can be geminated and gemination can sometimes change the meaning of the word, e.g.kaḷam 'cell',kaḷḷam 'lie'.[98]/n̪,ɲ,ŋ,t/ only occur in geminated form intervocalically.[97]
The approximant/ɻ/ has both rhotic and lateral qualities, and is indeterminate between an approximant and a fricative. The articulation of/ɻ/ changes part-way through, perhaps explaining why it behaves as both a rhotic and a lateral, both an approximant and a fricative, but the nature of the change is not understood.[104]
/n,t,ɾ,l,ɻ/ are weakly palatalized and have an advanced tongue root while/n̪,r,ɭ/ are clear or velarized and have a retracted tongue root, particularly noticeable in geminates.[97][105]
Around 75% ofnk and 50% ofñc andnt from Old Malayalam got assimilated toṅṅ, ññ andnn, almost all of theṉṯ merged withnn suggesting an earlier merger of some of then̠t̠ andnt (for e.g. the cognate of Tamilnan̠r̠i is spelt asnandi and pronounced nanni);mp andṇṭ were unchanged, e.g. Tamilmūṉṟu, maruntu, kañci, teṅku, Malayalammūnnŭ, marunnŭ, kaññi, teṅṅŭ.[106] Word finalai, āy and ey becamea unless the word is monosyllabic, e.g. Tamilavai, māṅgāy, veṇṇey Malayalamava, māṅṅa, veṇṇa. Finalāy in monosyllabic words becameāya e.g. Tamilkāy, Malayalamkāya.
Loanwords with /z/ are replaced with /s/ and not with /d͡ʒ/ like in Hindi or Telugu e.g. /brasi:l/ English "Brazil" unless it was loaned through Hindi then the Hindi pronunciation is taken e.g. /d͡ʒilla/ Hi./d͡ʒilaː/ Per./zilʔ/, other Perso-Arabic phonemes like/q,x,ɣ,ħ,Cˤ,ʕ,ʔ/ are replaced with /k, kʰ, g, h, C, ∅, ∅/, sometimes /q, x/ are replaced with /kʰ, k/ e.g. Arabic قطرqaṭar, خَطّxaṭṭ as ഖത്തർkhattaṟ, കത്ത്kattŭ. English loans with /θ, ð, ʒ/ are replaced with/t̪,d̪,ʃ/; the dentals do not clash with English loans with /t, d/, which are replaced with [t, d] or [ʈ, ɖ] though [d] is rare because of the limited distribution natively e.g. "taxi" asṯāksi or more commonlyṭāksi. The English /ɹ/ is loaned as either /ɾ/ or /r/ unpredictably, for e.g. 'current' got loaned askaraṇḍŭ but 'maroon' got loaned asmar̠ūṇ ormer̠ūṇ but the cluster /ɹs/ is loaned as /ɻs/ other clusters are loaned as /rC/ or /ɾC/, /ɻ/ only occurs in words with /ɹs/ e.g. 'force' asfōḻsŭ. Speakers with non rhotic English accents don't have /ɹC/ clusters in English loans and pronounce it asfōs(ŭ). In Sanskrit loans with /t̪C/ and /d̪C/ (unless C is a sonorant or a dental stop) sometimes the /t̪, d̪/ becomes /l/ especially in /t̪s/ e.g.utsava > ulsavam, utpādana > ulpādaṉam, udghāṭana > ulghāḍaṉam.[107] There are some native words with /s/ (urasŭ) and /ʃ/ (vīśŭ) but rest of the fricatives (except /f/ in native words of Jesari) and aspirates are only found in loans.
Rarely some speakers pronounce the voiced aspirated consonants as voiceless so words likedhaṉam asthaṉam, it is more commonly deaspirated sodhaṉam asdaṉam andkharam askaram, intervocalically the voiceless aspirate also becomes voiced somukham asmugam.[108]
i, u gets lowered to e, o when before Ca, eg.iṭam, mukham > eṭam, mogam, this change is seen in 10th century inscriptions, irunnaṭattu instead of irunniṭattu.[109] Exceptions includeivan uḷḷa > ivan, oḷḷa (south),ŭḷḷa iḷḷa, eḷḷa, ḷḷa in other dialects. Latter word and uṇṭŭ has seen such variation since old Malayalam of the south. u can become ŭ sporadically in other dialects as with the previous word.
Medial u's maybe pronounced as a kuttiyalugaram in the north and center, in central it may even merge with a for some, eg. kaṟuppŭ > kaṟappŭ, appuṟam > app(a)ṟam, taṇuttŭ > taṇattŭ. In center and north, ru can become ri when there is a non back vowel preceding it, eg. ceruppŭ, irumpŭ, parutti > cerippŭ, irimpŭ, paritti. This change is also seen in the standard form.
Sporadic cases of a > e, eg. laḍḍu, gaṅga, karayuka, raktam, raṇṭŭ > leḍḍu, geṅṅa, kareyuka, rektam, reṇṭŭ.
Cases of aya, ava > ē, ō, most commonly in the north and in some castelects, ef. avaḷuṭe > ōḷṭe.
A general feature is that the overall length of vowels decrease further north you go.
In fast speech initial consonants may be dropped, eg. ceytu koḷḷām > ceytōḷām, ḍraiv cey > ḍraivey, iṭṭu vaccu > iṭṭēccu, pōkuka vēṇam > pōkēṇam/pōkaṇam/pōṇam, pōkuka vēṇṭā > pōkēṇṭā/pōkaṇṭa/pōṇṭa, paḻam āyi > paḻōy, pōyi koḷḷuka vēṇam > poykkōḷaṇam > pokkyōṇam.
l, ḷ, ḻ dropped in coda, eg. tāḻttŭ, vilkkŭ, ñaṅṅaḷuṭe (>ñaṅṅaḷṭe), ippōḷ > tāttŭ, vikkŭ, ñaṅṅaṭe, ippō. Northern and Southern dialects might hypercorrect the last and similar words to ippam. Word finally it happens only if the next word starts with a consonant.
Medial k maybe lenited to a fricative or completely lost in center and north, eg. varukayilla > SK. varilla, NK. CK. varūla; pōkunnŭ > CK. pōṇŭ.
ḻ merged with y in certain Mappila and castelects.
More cases of nasal assimilation, eg. candaṉam, bhaṅgi > cannaṉam, baṅṅi. In some dialects neñcŭ, kuṭumbam > neññŭ, kuṭummam.
Loss of aspiration.
śc > śś, some cc too, eg. niścayam, talaccēri > niśśayam, talaśśēri.
Merger of v with b farther north and sporadically in center, particularly among Mappila speech, e.g. vā, vēṇam > bā, bēṇam. In some areas like Malappuram it's merged with m instead, vēṇam > mēṇam.[110]
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Thedeclensional paradigms for some common nouns and pronouns are given below. As Malayalam is an agglutinative language, it is difficult to delineate the cases strictly and determine how many there are, although seven or eight is the generally accepted number.Alveolar plosives andnasals (although the modernMalayalam script does not distinguish the latter from thedental nasal) are underlined for clarity, following the convention of theNational Library at Kolkata romanization.
Personal pronouns
Vocative forms are given in parentheses after thenominative, as the only pronominal vocatives that are used are the third person ones, which only occur in compounds.
The following are examples of some of the most common declension patterns.
Word (translated)
"Tree"
"Elephant"
"Human"
"Dog"
Case
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Nominative
മരം maram
മരങ്ങൾ maraṅṅaḷ
ആന āṉa
ആനകൾ āṉakaḷ
മനുഷ്യൻ maṉuṣyaṉ
മനുഷ്യർ maṉuṣyaṟ
പട്ടി paṭṭi
പട്ടികൾ paṭṭigaḷ
Vocative
മരമേ maramē
മരങ്ങളേ maraṅṅaḷē
ആനേ āṉē
ആനകളേ āṉakaḷē
മനുഷ്യാ maṉuṣyā
മനുഷ്യരേ maṉuṣyarē
പട്ടീ paṭṭī
പട്ടികളേ paṭṭikaḷē
Accusative
മരത്തെ maratte
മരങ്ങളെ maraṅṅaḷe
ആനയെ āṉaye
ആനകളെ āṉakaḷe
മനുഷ്യനെ maṉuṣyaṉe
മനുഷ്യരെ maṉuṣyare
പട്ടിയെ paṭṭiye
പട്ടികളെ paṭṭikaḷe
Genitive
മരത്തിൻ്റെ marattiṉd̠e
മരങ്ങളുടെ maraṅṅaḷuḍe
ആനയുടെ āṉayuḍe
ആനകളുടെ āṉagaḷuḍe
മനുഷ്യൻ്റെ maṉuṣyaṉd̠e
മനുഷ്യരുടെ maṉuṣyaruḍe
പട്ടിയുടെ paṭṭiyuḍe
പട്ടികളുടെ paṭṭikaḷuḍe
Dative
മരത്തിന് marattiṉŭ
മരങ്ങൾക്ക് maraṅṅaḷkkŭ
ആനയ്ക്ക് āṉaykkŭ
ആനകൾക്ക് āṉakaḷkkŭ
മനുഷ്യന് maṉuṣyaṉŭ
മനുഷ്യർക്ക് maṉuṣyaṟkkŭ
പട്ടിയ്ക്ക് paṭṭiykkŭ
പട്ടികൾക്ക് paṭṭikaḷkkŭ
Instrumental
മരത്താൽ marattāl
മരങ്ങളാൽ maraṅṅaḷāl
ആനയാൽ āṉayāl
ആനകളാൽ āṉakaḷāl
മനുഷ്യനാൽ maṉuṣyaṉāl
മനുഷ്യരാൽ maṉuṣyarāl
പട്ടിയാൽ paṭṭiyāl
പട്ടികളാൽ paṭṭikaḷāl
Locative
മരത്തിൽ marattil
മരങ്ങളിൽ maraṅṅaḷil
ആനയിൽ āṉayil
ആനകളിൽ āṉakaḷil
മനുഷ്യനിൽ maṉuṣyaṉil
മനുഷ്യരിൽ maṉuṣyaril
പട്ടിയിൽ paṭṭiyil
പട്ടികളിൽ paṭṭikaḷil
Sociative
മരത്തോട് marattōḍŭ
മരങ്ങളോട് maraṅṅaḷōḍŭ
ആനയോട് āṉayōḍŭ
ആനകളോട് āṉakaḷōḍŭ
മനുഷ്യനോട് maṉuṣyaṉōḍŭ
മനുഷ്യരോട് maṉuṣyarōḍŭ
പട്ടിയോട് paṭṭiyōḍŭ
പട്ടികളോട് paṭṭikaḷōḍŭ
Words adopted from Sanskrit
When words are adopted from Sanskrit, their endings are usually changed to conform to Malayalam norms:
Nouns
MasculineSanskrit nouns with aword stem ending in a short /a/ take the ending /an/ in the nominative singular. For example,Kr̥ṣṇa → Kr̥ṣṇan. The final /n/ is dropped before masculine surnames, honorifics, or titles ending in /an/ and beginning with a consonant other than /n/ – e.g., "Krishna Menon", "Krishna Kaniyaan" etc., but "Krishnan Ezhutthachan". Surnames ending with /ar/ or /aḷ/ (where these are plural forms of "an" denoting respect) are treated similarly – "Krishna Pothuval", "Krishna Chakyar", but "Krishnan Nair", "Krishnan Nambiar", as are Sanskrit surnames such "Varma(n)", "Sharma(n)", or "Gupta(n)" (rare) – e.g., "Krishna Varma", "Krishna Sharman". If a name is a compound, only the last element undergoes this transformation – e.g., "Kr̥ṣṇa" + "dēva" = "Kr̥ṣṇadēvan", not "Kr̥ṣṇandēvan".
Feminine words ending in a long /ā/ or /ī/ are changed to end in a short /a/ or /i/, for example "Sītā" → "Sīta" and "Lakṣmī" → "Lakṣmi". However, the long vowel still appears in compound words, such as "Sītādēvi" or" Lakṣmīdēvi". The long ī is generally reserved for thevocative forms of these names, although in Sanskrit the vocative actually takes a short /i/. There are also a small number of nominative /ī/ endings that have not been shortened – a prominent example being the word "strī" for "woman".
Nouns that have a stem in /-an/ and which end with a long /ā/ in the masculine nominative singular have /vŭ/ added to them, for example "Brahmā" (stem "Brahman") → "Brahmāvŭ". When the same nouns are declined in the neuter and take a short /a/ ending in Sanskrit, Malayalam adds an additional /m/, e.g. "Brahma" (neuter nominative singular of "Brahman") becomes "Brahmam". This is again omitted when forming compounds.
Words whose roots end in /-an/ but whose nominative singular ending is /-a-/ (for example, the Sanskrit root of "karma" is actually "karman") are also changed. The original root is ignored and "karma" (the form in Malayalam being "karmam" because it ends in a short /a/) is taken as the basic form of the noun when declining.[115] However, this does not apply to all consonant stems, as "unchangeable" stems such as "manas" ("mind") and "suhr̥t" ("friend") are identical to the Malayalam nominative singular forms (although the regularly derived "manam" sometimes occurs as an alternative to "manas").
Sanskrit words describing things or animals rather than people with a stem in short /a/ end with an /m/ in Malayalam. For example, "Rāmāyaṇa" → "Rāmāyaṇam". In most cases, this is actually the same as the Sanskrit accusative case ending, which is also /m/ (or, allophonically, anusvara due to the requirements of thesandhi word-combining rules) in the neuter nominative. However, "things and animals" and "people" are not always differentiated based on whether or not they are sentient beings; for example, "Narasimha" becomes "Narasiṃham" and not "Narasiṃhan", whereas "Ananta" becomes "Anantan" even though both are sentient. This does not strictly correspond to the Sanskrit neuter gender, as both "Narasiṃha" and "Ananta" are masculine nouns in the original Sanskrit.
Nouns with short vowel stems other than /a/, such as "Viṣṇu", "Prajāpati" etc. are declined with the Sanskrit stem acting as the Malayalam nominative singular (the Sanskrit nominative singular is formed by adding a visarga, e.g., as in "Viṣṇuḥ")
The original Sanskrit vocative is often used in formal or poetic Malayalam, e.g. "Harē" (for "Hari") or "Prabhō" (for "Prabhu" – "Lord"). This is restricted to certain contexts – mainly when addressing deities or other exalted individuals, so a normal man named Hari would usually be addressed using a Malayalam vocative such as "Harī". The Sanskrit genitive is also occasionally found in Malayalam poetry, especially the personal pronouns "mama" ("my" or "mine") and "tava" ("thy" or "thine"). Other cases are less common and generally restricted to the realm of Maṇipravāḷam.
Along with thesetatsama borrowings, there are also manytadbhava words in common use. These were incorporated via borrowing before the separation of Malayalam and Tamil. As the language did not then accommodate Sanskrit phonology as it now does, words were changed to conform to the Old Tamil phonological system, for example "Kr̥ṣṇa" → "Kaṇṇan".[116] Most of his works are oriented on the basic Malayalam family and cultures and many of them were path-breaking in the history of Malayalam literature
A Malayalam signboard fromKannur, Kerala. Malayalam is official language in theIndian state ofKerala and the union territories ofLakshadweep andPuducheryA Board in Malayalam which uses the complex letters in traditional script
Historically, several scripts were used to write Malayalam. Among these were the Vatteluttu,Kolezhuthu andMalayanma scripts. But it was theGrantha script, anotherSouthern Brahmi variation, which gave rise to the modernMalayalam script. The modern Malayalam script bears high similarity toTigalari script, which was used for writingTulu language inCoastal Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada andUdupi districts) and the northernmostKasaragod district of Kerala.[24] It is syllabic in the sense that the sequence of graphic elements means that syllables have to be read as units, though in this system the elements representing individual vowels and consonants are for the most part readily identifiable. In the 1960s Malayalam dispensed with many special letters representing less frequent conjunct consonants and combinations of the vowel /u, u:/ with different consonants.
Malayalam script consists of a total of 578 characters. The script contains 52 letters including 16 vowels and 36 consonants, which forms 576 syllabic characters, and contains two additional diacritic characters namedanusvāra andvisarga.[121][122] The earlier style of writing has been superseded by a new style as of 1981. This new script reduces the different letters for typesetting from 900 to fewer than 90. This was mainly done to include Malayalam in the keyboards of typewriters and computers.
Achillu (ചില്ല്,cillŭ), or achillaksharam (ചില്ലക്ഷരം,cillakṣaram), is a special consonant letter that represents a pure consonant independently, without help of avirama. Unlike a consonant represented by an ordinary consonant letter, this consonant is never followed by an inherent vowel.Anusvara andvisarga fit this definition but are not usually included. ISCII and Unicode 5.0 treat achillu as a glyph variant of a normal ("base") consonant letter.[123] In Unicode 5.1 and later,chillu letters are treated as independent characters, encoded atomically.
Chillu letters
Letter
Unicode name
Base
Remarks
Examples
ൺ
CHILLU NN
ṇaണ
കൂൺ (kūṇ, "mushroom")
ൻ
CHILLU N
ṉaന
Chillu of dental – alveolar nasalṉa.
അവൻ (avaṉ, "he")
ർ
CHILLU RR
ṟaറ
Historically stood forraര, notṟaറ.
അവർ (avar̠, "they")
ൽ
CHILLU L
laല
കാൽ (kāl, "foot")
ൾ
CHILLU LL
ḷaള
അവൾ (avaḷ, "she")
ൿ
CHILLU K
kaക
Not in modern use
വാൿചാതുരി (doesn't occur word finally.)
ൔ
CHILLU M
maമ
Not in modern use
ൕ
CHILLU Y
yaയ
Not in modern use
ൖ
CHILLU LLL
ḻaഴ
Not in modern use
Number system and other symbols
Praślēṣam
ഽ
Corresponds toDevanagariavagraha, used when a Sanskrit phrase containing anavagraha is written in Malayalam script. The symbol indicates theelision of the word-initial vowela after a word that ends inā,ē, orō, and is transliterated as an apostrophe ('), or sometimes as a colon + an apostrophe (:'). (Malayalam: പ്രശ്ലേഷം,praślēṣam)
Malayalam numbers and fractions are written as follows. These are archaic and no longer used. Instead, the commonHindu-Arabic numeral system is followed. There is a confusion about the glyph of Malayalam digit zero. The correct form is oval-shaped, but occasionally the glyph for1⁄4 (൳) is erroneously shown as the glyph for 0.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
100
1000
1⁄4
1⁄2
3⁄4
൦
൧
൨
൩
൪
൫
൬
൭
൮
൯
൰
൱
൲
൳
൴
൵
Number "11" is written as "൰൧" and not "൧൧". "32" is written as "൩൰൨" similar to theTamil numeral system.
11
20
21
30
110
10,099
൰൧
൨൰
൨൰൧
൩൰
൱൰
൰൲൯൰൯
For example, the number "2013" is read in Malayalam asരണ്ടായിരത്തി പതിമൂന്ന് (raṇḍāyiratti padimūnnŭ). It is split into:
രണ്ട് (raṇḍŭ) : 2 –൨
ആയിരം (āyiram) : 1000 –൲
പത്ത് (pattŭ) : 10 –൰
മൂന്ന് (mūnnŭ) : 3 –൩
Combine them together to get the Malayalam number൨൲൰൩.[124]
And 1,00,000 as "൱൲" = hundred(൱), thousand(൲) (100×1000), 10,00,000 as "൰൱൲" = ten(൰), hundred(൱), thousand(൲) (10×100×1000) and 1,00,00,000 as "൱൱൲" = hundred(൱), hundred(൱), thousand(൲) (100×100×1000).
Later on this system got reformed to be more similar to the Hindu-Arabic numerals so 10,00,000 in the reformed numerals it would be൧൦൦൦൦൦൦.[125]
Fractions
In Malayalam you can transcribe any fraction by affixing (-il) after the denominator followed by the numerator, so a fraction like7⁄10 would be read asപത്തിൽ ഏഴ് (pattil ēḻŭ) 'out of ten, seven' but fractions like1⁄21⁄4 and3⁄4 have distinct names (ara,kāl,mukkāl) and1⁄8 (arakkāl) 'half quarter'.[125]
A medievalTigalari manuscript (Bears high similarity with modern Malayalam script)
Vatteluttu (Malayalam: വട്ടെഴുത്ത്,Vaṭṭezhuthŭ, "round writing") is a script that had evolved fromTamil-Brahmi and was once used extensively in the southern part of present-dayTamil Nadu and inKerala.
Malayalam was first written in Vattezhuthu. TheVazhappally inscription issued byRajashekhara Varman is the earliest example, dating from about 830 CE.[126][127] During the medieval period, theTigalari script that was used for writingTulu inSouth Canara, andSanskrit in the adjacentMalabar region, had a close similarity to the modern Malayalam script.[24] In the Tamil country, the modernTamil script had supplanted Vattezhuthu by the 15th century, but in theMalabar region, Vattezhuthu remained in general use up to the 17th century,[128] or the 18th century.[129] A variant form of this script,Kolezhuthu, was used until about the 19th century mainly in theMalabar-Cochin area.[130]
Vatteluttu was in general use, but was not suitable for literature where many Sanskrit words were used. Like Tamil-Brahmi, it was originally used to writeTamil, and as such, did not have letters for voiced or aspirated consonants used in Sanskrit but not used in Tamil. For this reason, Vatteluttu and the Grantha alphabet were sometimes mixed, as in theManipravalam. One of the oldest examples of the Manipravalam literature,Vaishikatantram (വൈശികതന്ത്രം,Vaiśikatantram), dates back to the 12th century,[131][132] where the earliest form of the Malayalam script was used, which seems to have been systematized to some extent by the first half of the 13th century.[126][129]
Another variant form,Malayanma, was used in the south ofThiruvananthapuram.[130] By the 19th century, old scripts like Kolezhuthu had been supplanted by Arya-eluttu – that is the current Malayalam script. Nowadays, it is widely used in the press of the Malayali population in Kerala.[133]
According toArthur Coke Burnell, one form of the Grantha alphabet, originally used in theChola dynasty, was imported into the southwest coast of India in the 8th or 9th century, which was then modified in course of time in this secluded area, where communication with the east coast was very limited.[134] It later evolved into Tigalari-Malayalam script was used by theMalayali, Havyaka Brahmins and Tulu Brahmin people, but was originally only applied to writeSanskrit. This script split into two scripts: Tigalari and Malayalam. While Malayalam script was extended and modified to write vernacular language Malayalam, the Tigalari was written for Sanskrit only.[134][135] In Malabar, this writing system was termed Arya-eluttu (ആര്യ എഴുത്ത്,Ārya eḻuttŭ),[136] meaning "Arya writing" (Sanskrit isIndo-Aryan language while Malayalam is aDravidian language).
Suriyani Malayalam (സുറിയാനി മലയാളം, ܣܘܪܝܢܝ ܡܠܝܠܡ), also known asKarshoni,Syro-Malabarica orSyriac Malayalam, is a version of Malayalam written in a variant form of theSyriac alphabet which was popular among theSaint Thomas Christians (also known as Syrian Christians or Nasranis) ofKerala inIndia.[137][117][84] It uses Malayalam grammar, theMaḏnḥāyā or "Eastern" Syriac script with specialorthographic features, and vocabulary from Malayalam and East Syriac. This originated in the South Indian region of theMalabar Coast (modern-day Kerala). Until the 20th century, the script was widely used by Syrian Christians in Kerala.
Ponnani script
Arabi Malayalam alphabet with Malayalam alphabet correspondences
TheSangam literature can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.[46] According toIravatham Mahadevan, the earliest Malayalam inscription discovered until now is the Edakal-5 inscription (ca. late 4th century – early 5th century) readingī pazhama (transl. 'this is old').[145] Although this has been disputed by many scholars who regard it as a regional dialect of Old Tamil.[146] The use of the pronounī and the lack of the literary Tamil-ai ending are archaisms from Proto-Dravidian rather than unique innovations of Malayalam.[note 3]
The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition:[64]Malayalam Nada, Tamil Nada and Sanskrit Nada.[64]
Manipravalam of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam.Niranam poets[148] Manipravalam Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar wrote Manipravalam poetry in the 14th century.[64]
Malayalam poetry to the late 20th century betrays varying degrees of the fusion of the three different strands. The oldest examples of Pattu and Manipravalam, respectively, areRamacharitam andVaishikatantram, both from the 12th century.[158][64]
For the first 600 years of theMalayalam calendar, Malayalam literature remained in a preliminary stage. During this time, Malayalam literature consisted mainly of various genres of songs (Pattu).[64] Folk songs are the oldest literary form in Malayalam.[25] They were just oral songs.[25] Many of them were related to agricultural activities, includingPulayar Pattu,Pulluvan Pattu,Njattu Pattu,Koythu Pattu, etc.[25] OtherBallads of Folk Song period include theVadakkan Pattukal (Northern songs) inNorth Malabar region and theThekkan Pattukal (Southern songs) inSouthern Travancore.[25] Some of the earliestMappila songs (Muslim songs) were also folk songs.[25]
The earliest known poems in Malayalam,Ramacharitam andThirunizhalmala, dated to the 12th to 14th century, were completed before the introduction of the Sanskrit alphabet. It was written by a poet with the pen nameCheeramakavi who, according to poet Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer, was Sree Veerarama Varman, a king of southern Kerala from AD 1195 to 1208.[162] However the claim that it was written in Southern Kerala is expired on the basis of new discoveries.[163] Other experts, like Chirakkal T Balakrishnan Nair, K.M. George, M. M. Purushothaman Nair, and P.V. Krishnan Nair, state that the origin of the book is inKasaragod district inNorth Malabar region.[163] They cite the use of certain words in the book and also the fact that the manuscript of the book was recovered fromNileshwaram inNorth Malabar.[164] The influence ofRamacharitam is mostly seen in the contemporary literary works of Northern Kerala.[163] The words used inRamacharitam such asNade (Mumbe),Innum (Iniyum),Ninna (Ninne), Chaaduka (Eriyuka) are special features of the dialect spoken inNorth Malabar (Kasaragod-Kannur region).[163] Furthermore, theThiruvananthapuram mentioned inRamacharitham is not the Thiruvananthapuram in Southern Kerala.[163] But it isAnanthapura Lake Temple ofKumbla in the northernmostKasaragod district of Kerala.[163] The wordThiru is used just by the meaningHonoured.[163] Today it is widely accepted thatRamacharitham was written somewhere inNorth Malabar (most likely nearKasaragod).[163]
But the period of the earliest available literary document cannot be the sole criterion used to determine the antiquity of a language. In its early literature, Malayalam has songs,Pattu, for various subjects and occasions, such as harvesting, love songs, heroes, gods, etc. A form of writing calledCampu emerged from the 14th century onwards. It mixed poetry with prose and used a vocabulary strongly influenced by Sanskrit, with themes from epics andPuranas.[51]
The works includingUnniyachi Charitham,Unnichirudevi Charitham, andUnniyadi Charitham, are written inMiddle Malayalam, those date back to 13th and 14th centuries ofCommon Era.[64][36] TheSandesha Kavyas of 14th century CE written inManipravalam language includeUnnuneeli Sandesam[64][36] The literary works written inMiddle Malayalam were heavily influenced bySanskrit andPrakrit, while comparing them with the modernMalayalam literature.[64][36] The wordManipravalam literally meansDiamond-Coral orRuby-Coral. The 14th-centuryLilatilakam text states Manipravalam to be aBhashya (language) where "Malayalam and Sanskrit should combine together like ruby and coral, without the least trace of any discord".[66][67] TheChampu Kavyas written by Punam Nambudiri, one among thePathinettara Kavikal (Eighteen and a half poets) in the court of theZamorin of Calicut, also belong to Middle Malayalam.[36][64]
Modern Malayalam
The poemKrishnagatha written byCherusseri Namboothiri, who was the court poet of the king Udaya Varman Kolathiri (1446–1475) ofKolathunadu, is written in modern Malayalam.[64] The language used inKrishnagatha is the modern spoken form of Malayalam.[64] It appears to be the first literary work written in the present-day language of Malayalam.[64] During the 16th century CE,Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan from theKingdom of Tanur andPoonthanam Nambudiri from theKingdom of Valluvanad followed the new trend initiated by Cherussery in their poems. TheAdhyathmaramayanam Kilippattu andMahabharathamKilippattu written by Ezhuthachan andJnanappana written by Poonthanam are also included in the earliest form of Modern Malayalam.[64] The words used in most of theArabi Malayalam works, which dates back to 16th–17th centuries, are also very closer to modern Malayalam language.[64] P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval workKeralolpathi, which describes theParashurama legend and the departure of the finalCheraman Perumal king toMecca, to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.[68]
Kunchan Nambiar, the founder ofThullal movement, was a prolific literary figure of the 18th century.[64]
Impact of European scholars
Cover page ofNasranikal okkekkum ariyendunna samkshepavedartham which is the first book to be printed in Malayalam in 1772.
The British printed Malabar English Dictionary[165] by Graham Shaw in 1779 was still in the form of a Tamil-English Dictionary.[166]Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar wrote the first Malayalam travelogue calledVarthamanappusthakam in 1789.
Hermann Gundert, (1814–1893), a German missionary and scholar of exceptional linguistic talents, played a distinguishable role in the development of Malayalam literature. His major works are Keralolpathi (1843), Pazhancholmala (1845), Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1851),Paathamala (1860) the first Malayalam school text book, Kerala pazhama (1868),the first Malayalam dictionary (1872), Malayalarajyam (1879) – Geography of Kerala,Rajya Samacharam (1847 June) the first Malayalam news paper, Paschimodayam (1879) – Magazine.[167] He lived inThalassery for around 20 years. He learned the language from well established local teachers Ooracheri Gurukkanmar from Chokli, a village nearThalassery and consulted them in works. He also translated the Bible into Malayalam.[168][169]
In 1821, theChurch Mission Society (CMS) atKottayam in association with theSyriac Orthodox Church started a seminary atKottayam in 1819 and started printing books in Malayalam when Benjamin Bailey, anAnglican priest, made the first Malayalam types. In addition, he contributed to standardizing the prose.[170]Hermann Gundert fromStuttgart, Germany, started the first Malayalam newspaper,Rajya Samacaram in 1847 atTalasseri. It was printed atBasel Mission.[171] Malayalam andSanskrit were increasingly studied by Christians ofKottayam andPathanamthitta. TheMarthomite movement in the mid-19th century called for replacement ofSyriac by Malayalam for liturgical purposes. By the end of the 19th century Malayalam replacedSyriac as language ofLiturgy in all Syrian Christian churches.
Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar, (1861–1914) fromThalassery was the author of first Malayalam short story, Vasanavikriti. After him innumerable world class literature works by was born in Malayalam.[64]
O. Chandu Menon wrote his novels "Indulekha" and "Saradha" while he was the judge at Parappanangadi Munciff Court.Indulekha is also the first Major Novel written in Malayalam language.[172]
The third quarter of the 19th century CE bore witness to the rise of a new school of poets devoted to the observation of life around them and the use of pure Malayalam. The major poets of theVenmani School wereVenmani Achhan Nambudiripad (1817–1891),Venmani Mahan Nambudiripad (1844–1893),Poonthottam Achhan Nambudiri (1821–1865),Poonthottam Mahan Nambudiri (1857–1896) and the members of theKodungallur Kovilakam (Royal Family) such asKodungallur Kunjikkuttan Thampuran. The style of these poets became quite popular for a while and influenced even others who were not members of the group likeVelutheri Kesavan Vaidyar (1839–1897) and Perunlli Krishnan Vaidyan (1863–1894). The Venmani school pioneered a style of poetry that was associated with common day themes, and the use of pure Malayalam (Pachcha Malayalam) rather than Sanskrit.[64]
In 1957 Basheer'sPathummayude Aadu (Pathumma's Goat) brought in a new kind of prose tale, which perhaps only Basheer could handle with dexterity. The fifties thus mark the evolution of a new kind of fiction, which had its impact on the short stories as well. This was the auspicious moment for the entry ofM. T. Vasudevan Nair andT. Padmanabhan upon the scene. Front runners in the post-modern trend includeKakkanadan,O. V. Vijayan,E. Harikumar,M. Mukundan andAnand.[64]
Contemporary Malayalam poetry deals with social, political, and economic life context. The tendency of the modern poetry is often towardspolitical radicalism.[155]
^Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.[1]Archived 14 November 2018 at theWayback Machine
^abSubramoniam, V. I. (1997). Dravidian encyclopaedia. vol. 3, Language and literature. Thiruvananthapuram: International School of Dravidian Linguistics.Cit-P-487.Dravidian EncyclopediaArchived 29 September 2007 at theWayback Machine
^Shulman, David (2016).Tamil: A Biography. Harvard University Press.doi:10.2307/j.ctt1g69zdt.ISBN978-0-674-05992-4.JSTORj.ctt1g69zdt."There has been a tendency among historical linguists to think of Malayalam as having divergeddirectly from Tamil (the Tamil spoken from ancient times in what is todayKerala), perhaps as late as the thirteenth century. But this view is almostcertainly wrong. Tamil and Malayalam must have separated from one another ata much earlier stage, perhaps around the middle of the first millennium A.D., aswe can see from several surviving archaic features of Malayalam."
^abKarashima 2014, p. 6: Other sources date this split to the 7th and 8th centuries.
^S.V. Shanmugam (1976). "Formation and Development of Malayalam",Indian Literature, Vol. 19, No. 3 (May–June 1976), pp. 5–30.JSTOR24157306 "Yet, some scholars of Malayalam still believe that Malayalam should have originated independently from the Proto-Dravidian at a very early stage [...] The native scholars are unwilling to accept Malayalam as anausbau language; instead they take it to be anabstand language 'language by distance' contrary to historical evidence (pp.9–10)".
^abcdefghiMathrubhumi Yearbook Plus – 2019 (Malayalam ed.). Kozhikode: P. V. Chandran, Managing Editor, Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited, Kozhikode. 2018. p. 454.ASIN8182676444.
^Menon, A. Sreedhara (2008).The legacy of Kerala (1st DCB ed.). Kottayam, Kerala: D C Books.ISBN978-81-264-2157-2.
^Caldwell, Robert (1998).A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Or South-Indian Family of Languages. Asian Educational Services. pp. 6, 16,17–19, 20,21–25.ISBN978-81-206-0117-8.Malayalam is spoken along the Malabar coast, on the western side of the Ghauts, or Malaya range of mountains, from the vicinity of Kumbla near Mangalore, where it supersedes Tuļu, to Kanyakumari, where it begins to be superseded by Tamil. (Pages 6, 16, 20, 31)
^Sreedhara Menon, A. (January 2007).Kerala Charitram (2007 ed.). Kottayam: DC Books.ISBN9788126415885.Archived from the original on 13 November 2021. Retrieved19 July 2020.
^Barbosa, Duarte (1989).The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and their inhabitants (Volume 2). Asian Educational Services. pp. 1–7.ISBN9788120604513.Per Barbosa, Malabar begins at the point where the kingdom of Narasyngua or Vijayanagar ends, that is at Cumbola (Cambola) on the Chandragiri river.
^Barbosa, Duarte; Dames, Mansel Longworth (1918)."PDF.js viewer"(PDF).indianculture.gov.in. Asian Educational Services. pp. 194–198.Archived(PDF) from the original on 24 April 2022. Retrieved24 April 2022.
^Gopinathan Nair (2009), p. 682: "[...] Malayalam emerged from Proto-Tamil–Malayalam; divergence occurred over a period of four or five centuries, from the 8th century onward".
^abMathrubhumi Yearbook Plus – 2019 (Malayalam ed.). Kozhikode: P. V. Chandran, Managing Editor, Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited, Kozhikode. 2018. p. 450.ASIN8182676444.
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^Often transliterated aszh by Malayalis and Tamils, may also be transliterated asẓ orr̤ by some others.
^"Prior to this relatively modern coining of "Malayalam", the identity is even more fraught, for Kerala folk more usually referred to their language as "Tamil", just as those in the dominant kingdoms of Tamilnadu, east of the Western Ghats, had from the early centuries C.E. Use of the label "Tamil" continued to overlap with that of "Malayalam" into the colonial period".[39]
^Linguist K.M Prabhakar Variar further adds: "It is an accepted principle in comparative linguistics that 'innovations' rather than 'retentions' or 'losses' are to be relied on for sub-grouping of genetically related language. Every member of a language family has a stock of 'retentions of a few proto-features' together with a stock 'innovations'. It is the later that would show the relative distances among the member languages. Therefore, retention of a few proto-features in a particular language does not prove the earlier branching of the same from the proto-language. Malayalam, of course, has retained certain phonological and morphological features which can be reconstructed as belonging to the Proto-Dravidian and which have been lost or have suffered shape changes in the other member-languages. Which language in the Dravidian family doesn't have such retentions? Has anyone measured the relative percentages of retentions of archaic features in the twenty and odd Dravidian languages?".[48]
^"*aH and *iH are demonstrative adjectives reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian, as they show variation in vowel length. When they occur in isolation they occur as ā, and ī but when they are followed by a consonant initial word then they appear as a- and i- as in Ta. appoẓutu 'that time'., : Te. appuḍu id. and Ta. ippoẓutu 'that time'., : Te.ippuḍu id. However, Modern Tamil has replaced ā, and ī with anda and inda but most Dravidian languages have preserved it."[147][page needed]
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