Malayalam

Malayalam
മലയാളം malayāḷam മലയാണ്മ malayāṇma
Malayalam in Malayalam script
Native to	Primarily in the Indian state of Kerala
Region	Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahé (Pondicherry)
Ethnicity	Malayali
Native speakers	38 million (2007)
Language family	Dravidian Southern Tamil–Kannada Tamil–Kodagu Tamil–Malayalam Malayalam
Writing system	Brahmic (Malayalam script)
Official status
Official language in	Indian states:Kerala (State),Lakshadweep (Territory),Pondicherry (Territory)
Regulated by	Academy for Malayalam literature,Government of Kerala
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ml
ISO 639-2	mal
ISO 639-3	mal
Malayalam-speaking area

Malayalam (English: /mæləˈjɑːləm/; മലയാളം, malayāḷam, Malayalam pronunciation: [mɐləjaːɭəm]), is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Kerala. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages, and is spoken approximately by 33 million people according to the 2001 census. Malayalam is also spoken in the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; the Nilgiris, Kanyakumari and Coimbatore districts of Tamil Nadu, and the Dakshina Kannada, Mangalore and Kodagu districts of Karnataka.

Malayalam most likely originated from Middle Tamil (Sen-Tamil-Malayalam) in the 6th century. An alternative theory proposes a split in even more ancient times. Over eighty percent of the vocabulary of Malayalam in common usage is from Tamil. However, Malayalam incorporated many elements from Sanskrit through the ages and it was roughly estimated that at one stage over eighty percent of the vocabulary of Malayalam in scholarly usage was from Sanskrit. Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and courts of a region called Tamilakam, including present day Kerala state, a famous example being Silappatikaram. Silappatikaram was written by Chera prince Ilango Adigal from Cochin, and is considered a classic in Sangam literature. Modern Malayalam still preserves many words from the ancient Tamil vocabulary of Sangam literature. The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu script, and later the Kolezhuttu, which derived from it. As Malayalam began to freely borrow words as well as the rules of grammar from Sanskrit, Grantha script was adopted for writing and came to be known as Arya Ezhuttu. This developed into the modern Malayalam script. Many medieval liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam. The oldest literary work in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated from between the 9th and 11th centuries.

Due to its lineage deriving from both Sanskrit and Tamil, the Malayalam alphabet has the largest number of letters among the Indian languages. Malayalam script includes letters capable of representing all the sounds of Sanskrit and all Dravidian languages.

Etymology

The word Malayalam probably originated from the Malayalam/Tamil words mala meaning hill, and elam meaning region. Malayalam thus translates as "hill region" and used to refer to the land itself (Chera Kingdom), and only later became the name of the language. The language Malayalam is alternatively called Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malean, Maliyad, and Mallealle.

The word Malayalam originally meant only for the name of the region. "Malayanma" or "Malayayma" (meaning the language of the nation Malayalam) represented the language. With the emergence of modern Malayalam language, the name of the language started to be known by the name of the region. Hence now, the word "Malayanma" is considered by some to represent the olden Malayalam language. The language got the name Malayalam during the mid 19th century.

Evolution

The origin of Malayalam, whether it was from a dialect of Tamil or an independent offshoot of the Proto Dravidian language, has been and continues to be an engaging pursuit among comparative historical linguists. Robert Caldwell, in his book A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Languages opines that Malayalam branched from Classical Tamil that over time gained a large amount of Sanskrit vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs. Either way, it is generally agreed that by the end of 13th century a written form of the language emerged which was definitely different from Tamil. Template:Dravidian languages genealogy The earliest known poem in Malayalam, Ramacaritam, dated to 12th century A.D., was completed before the introduction of the Sanskrit alphabet. It shows the same phase of the language as in Jewish and Syrian Sasanas (dated to mid‑8th century A.D.). 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 called Campu emerged from the 14th century onwards. It mixed poetry with prose and used a vocabulary strongly influenced by Sanskrit, with themes from epics and Puranas.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan was the first to substitute Grantha-Malayalam script for the Tamil Vatteluttu. Ezhuthachan, regarded as the father of the modern Malayalam language, undertook an elaborate translation of the ancient Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata into Malayalam. His Adhyatma Ramayana and Mahabharata are still read with religious reverence by the Malayalam-speaking Hindu community. Kunchan Nambiar, the founder of Tullal, was a prolific literary figure of the 18th century. Tulu Grantha-Script] still was used only by Nambudiris. A Dutch German missionary called Arnos Paathiri alias Johann Ernst Hanxleden was the first European to write a Grammar book called Grantha Bhashayude Vyakaranam in 1699. The Nambudiri language in that era was not called Malayalam but Grantha Bhasha. The British printed Malabar English Dictionary by Graham Shaw in 1779 was still Tamil-English Dictionary. The Christians of Kerala started to learn the Tulu-Grantha Bhasha of Nambudiris under the British Tutelage. Paramekkal Thoma Kathanar wrote the first Malayalam travelogue called Vardhamana Pushthakam in 1789. However the British under Lord Monroe and Macaulay between 1815-1820s started promoting the Nambudiri Malyalam written with Tulu-Grantha Script and with a predominance of Sanskrit words. in 1815 Kottayam Seminary. Church Mission Society was established to teach the Syrian Christians the Nambudiri version of Malayalam. Benjamin Bailey (missionary) a British missionary made the first Malayalam types to print the Tulu-Grantha Alphabet in 1819. Hermann Gundert another German Missionary started the first News Paper in Malayalam in 1848 called Rajya Samacharam. The British support given to the Tulu-Grantha Malayalam of Nambudiris led to the destruction of all the earlier books of Kerala written in Lingua Malabar Tamul or Malayanma. British made no attempt to preserve the numerous Malayalam-Tamil books written in Thaliola, the Palm leaf books of Kerala and thereby destroying all the ancient Tamil and Malayalam-Tamil books of Kerala. The British missionaries actively Sanskritised Malayalam.The Sanskrit influence on Malayalam appear to be slowly decreasing. Visargam seem to have been deleted from Swaram(vowels). There is growing tendency to use Pacha Malayalam with lesser words containing aspirated alphabets in Vyanjanam (consonants).In many Malayalam movie songs, one may find only minimal aspirated consonants. Pacha Malayalam, like Tamil, is marked by its simplicity.

Together with Tamil, Toda, Kannada and Tulu, Malayalam belongs to the southern group of Dravidian languages. Some believe Proto-Tamil, the common stock of ancient Tamil and Malayalam, diverged over a period of four or five centuries from the 9th century on, resulting in the emergence of Malayalam as a language distinct from Proto-Tamil. As the language of scholarship and administration, Proto-Tamil, which was written in Tamil-Brahmi script and Vatteluttu later, greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam. Later the inroads the Nairs and the Namboothiris made into the cultural life of Kerala, the Namboothiri-Nair dominated society and politics, their trade relationships with Arabs, and the influence in Kerala of the Portuguese affected the languages. The Portuguese established vassal states (see Portuguese India) which accelerated the assimilation of many Roman, Semitic, and Indo-Aryan features into Malayalam; these occurred at different levels, particularly among the religious communities, such as Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Jains.

The first printed book in Kerala was Doctrina Christam, written by Henrique Henriques in Lingua Malabar Tamul. It was transliterated and translated into Malayalam, and printed by the Portuguese in 1578.

In 1821 the Church Mission Society (CMS) at Kottayam started printing books in Malayalam when Benjamin Bailey, an Anglican priest, made the first Malayalam types. In addition, he contributed to standardizing the prose. Hermann Gundert from Stuttgart, Germany, started the first Malayalam newspaper, Rajya Samacaram in 1847 at Talasseri. It was printed at Basel Mission.

History

Language

Malayalam is spoken mostly in the state of Kerala and adjoining areas. As "Malai" (Chera) means "mountain", the word "Malai-alam" obviously refers to either people or the language of the mountainous region. Till about a thousand years ago Tamil was the spoken language of present-day Kerala state with a number of local variations. It is said that Malayalam as a spoken language was not referred to in Tamil literature before the 15th century.

On the other hand, the Rama-charitam, which was composed in the 14th century, may be said to have inaugurated Malayalam literature just as Naniah’s Mahabharatam did for Telugu. The fact is that dialectical and local peculiarities had already developed and stamped themselves in local songs and ballads. But these linguistic variations were at last gathered together and made to give a coloring to a sustained literary work, the Rama-charitam, thereby giving the new language a justification and a new lease on life.

Originally Malayalam was no more than a local dialect of pure Tamil. Political isolation and local conflicts, the impact of Christianity and Islam, and the arrival of the Nambudiri Brahmins a little over a thousand years ago, all created conditions favorable to the development of the local dialect Malayalam. The Nambudri grafted a good deal of Sanskrit onto the local dialect and influenced its physiognomy. Popular and religious songs were composed first. Presently, the phenomenal popularity of Kamban's Tamil Ramayana led in course of time to a similar version in the local dialect.

By the 15th century the existence of Malayalam as a separate language was accepted.

1526 to 1707

The Malayalam language, with the introduction of a new type of devotional literature, underwent a metamorphosis, both in form and content, and it is generally held that modernity in Malayalam language and literature commenced at this period. This change was brought about by Thunchathu Ezhuthachan (16th century) who is known as the father of modern Malayalam. Till this time Malayalam indicated two different courses of development depending on its relationship with either Sanskrit or Tamil.

The earliest literary work in Malayalam now available is a prose commentary on Chanakya's Arthasastra, ascribed to the 13th century. The poetical works called Vaisikatantram are also believed to belong to the early 14th century. These works come under a special category known as Manipravalam, literally the combination of two languages, the language of Kerala and Sanskrit. A grammar and rhetoric in this hybrid style was written sometime in the 14th century in Sanskrit and the work, called the Lilatikalam, is the main source of information for a student of literary and linguistic history.

According to this book, the Manipravalam and Pattu styles of literary compositions were in vogue during this period. "Pattu" means "song" and more or less represents the pure Malayalam school of poetry. From the definition of the Pattu style given in the Lilatikalam, it can be surmised that the language of Kerala during this period was more or less in line with Tamil, but this has misled many people to believe incorrectly that Malayalam was itself Tamil during this period and before.

The latest research shows that Malayalam as a separate spoken language in Kerala began showing independent lines of development from its parental tongue Tamil, preserving the idiosyncrasies of the earliest Dravidian tongue, which only in due course gave birth to the literary form of Tamil, namely Sen Tamil and Malayalam, the spoken form of which is prevalent in Kerala. However, till the 13th century there is no hard evidence to show that the language of Kerala had a literary tradition except in folk songs.

Pre-Ezhuthachan period

The literary tradition consisted of three early Manipravalam Champus, a few Sandesa Kavyas and innumerable amorous compositions on the courtesans of Kerala, which throb with literary beauty and poetical fancies, combined with a relishing touch of realism about them with regard to the then social conditions. Many prose works in the form of commentaries upon Puranic episodes form the bulk of the classical works in Malayalam.

The Pattu (a sutra devoted to define this pattern is termed a pattu) school also has major works like the Ramacharitam (12th century), and the Bhagavad Gita (14th century) by a set of poets belonging to one family called the Kannassas. Some of them like Ramacharitam have a close resemblance to the Tamil language during this period. This is to be attributed to the influence of Tamil works on native poets belonging to areas that lie close to the Tamil country.

Contribution of Ezhuthachan

It is against this background that Ezhuthachan's contribution needs to be assessed. Malayalam was by this time developed to be a vehicle of ideas, of even thoughts like metaphysics, economics and politics. But as the language had been developing in two different lines it became necessary to bring a degree of uniformity of style. The writings of Ezhuthachan became a confluence of the two channels of linguistic currents. He borrowed from Sanskrit its rich lexicography but with a difference that the mainstay of his style in writing verses rested on the indigenous school.

What Tulsidasa did to Hindi Ezhuthachan did for Malayalam. His first work was a translation of the Ramayanam from Sanskrit. The devotional element blended with Vedantic thoughts linked with the story of Lord Ram opened a new chapter in Malayalam literature. Ultimately it became so popular that a copy of the Adhyatma Ramayanam was present and read in every Hindu house. The diversified characteristics of the language of Kerala slowly disappeared and merged into this newborn style, which continues to this day.

The Ramayanam was followed by the Srimad Bhagavatam, a work of superb literary excellence. The description, figures of speech and portrayal of characters have something peculiar to the life of Kerala in them. The Holy Gita was another important work.

Post Ezhuthachan period

Many Puranas were written during this period closely imitating Ezhuthachan's style. The period immediately following that of Ezhuthachan is therefore called the Bhakti Yuga, the age of devotional literature in Malayalam. An example of these followers of Ezhuthachan was Narayana Bhattatiri, the author of the immortal Sanskrit Bhakti-kavya.

Melpathur Bhattathirippad was a contemporary of Ezhuthachan. The most prominent writer who followed in Ezhuthachan’s footsteps was Poonthanam Nambudiri, the author of the Jnanappana, a philosophical work in simple Malayalam.

It was during the 16th and 17th centuries that later Champu kavyas were written. Their specialty was that they contained both Sanskritic and indigenous elements of poetry to an equal degree, and in that manner were unique.

Attakkatha Age

Ezhuthachan literature, closely following the Champu style in its use of Sanskrit and Malayalam with a definite purpose and motive, is the prototype of Attakkatha literature. "Attam" in Malayalam means the "dance or drama", and "katha" is a Sanskrit term meaning "story". Ezhuthachan are therefore stories written for a type of dance drama known as Kathakali. Bharata’s Natyasastra had become by the time a handbook of the Chakyars, the traditional actors of Sanskrit dramas in temples. Most of these dramas were confined to the temple premises.

The Raja of Kottarakkara, a princely poet of the 16th century, wrote a version of the Ramayana in Malayalam styled the Ramanattam, as against the story of Lord Krishna called the Krishnattam. The entire Ramayana story was divided into eight parts which formed the basis of the Ramanattam, which later paved the way for the art of Kathakali. When another prince, the Raja of Kottayam, composed stories of the Mahabharata for the same purpose, he preferred to call it Kathakali and the literary composition was thereafter known as Attakkatha. A number of Kathakali plays were written during this period.

Unnayi Varyar

Unnayi Varyar, whose Nalacharitan Attakkatha is popular even today, was the most prominent poet of the 18th century among not only the Kathakali writers, but also among the classical poets of Kerala. He is often referred to as the Kalidasa of Kerala. Although Kathakali is a dance drama and its literary form should more or less be modeled after the drama, there is nothing more in common between an Attakkatha and Sanskrit drama.

That is to say, the principles of dramaturgy to be observed in writing a particular type of Sanskrit drama are completely ignored by an author of Attakkatha. Delineation of a particular rasa is an inevitable feature with Sanskrit drama, whereas in an Attakkatha all the predominant rasas are given full treatment, and consequently the theme of an Attakkatha often loses its integrity and artistic unity when viewed as a literary work.

Any Attakkatha fulfills its objective if it affords a variety of scenes depicting different types of characters, and each scene would have its own hero with the rasa associated with that character. When that hero is portrayed he is given utmost importance, to the utter neglect of the main sentiment (rasa) of the theme in general. However, the purpose of Attakkatha is not to present a theme with a well-knit emotional plot as its central point, but to present all approved types of characters already set to suit the technique of the art of Kathakali.

1607 to 1818

By the dawn of the 18th century Malayalam literature was in its full bloom thanks to the contribution of Ezhuthachan, who is looked upon as the father of modern Malayalam. His translation of the Adhyatma Ramayanam and the Bharatam brought about a revolution in the Malayalam language, so much so that it underwent a thorough change in vocabulary and style, freeing itself from the bondage of archaic forms almost akin to Tamil, with a bias towards Sanskrit. It was his works that standardized the language of Kerala. Modern Malayalam has not significantly changed thereafter.

The major literary output of the century was in the form of local plays composed for the art of kathakali, the dance dramas of Kerala also known as Attakkatha. It seems the Gitagovinda of Jayadeva provided a model for this type of literary composition. The verses in Sanskrit narrate the story and the dialogue is composed in imitation of songs in the Gitagovinda, set to music in appropriate ragas in the classical Karnataka style.

Besides the Raja of Kottarakkara and Unnayi Varyar referred to above, nearly a hundred plays were composed during this century by poets belonging to all categories and subscribing to all standards, such as Irayimman Tampi and Ashvati Raja, to mention just two.

Devotional literature in Malayalam found its heyday during the early phase of this period. Ezhuthachan referred to above gave emphasis to the Bhakti cult. The Jnanappana by Puntanam Nambudiri is a unique work in the branch of philosophical poetry. Written in simple language, it is a sincere approach to the advaita philosophy of Vedanta.

It was during this period that Christian missionaries made their contribution to Malayalam by compiling dictionaries in the language, translating the Bible into simple prose and translating verses on Biblical themes. Due to these foreigners, a revolution in prose writing was effected, freeing it completely from the bondage of the pedantic Sanskrit style. Books on astronomy, astrology, mathematics and medicine were written by scholars in Sanskrit.

It took nearly two centuries for a salutary blending of the scholarly Sanskrit and popular styles to bring Malayalam prose to its present form, enriched in its vocabulary by Sanskrit but at the same time flexible, pliable and effective as to popular parlance.

Kunjan Nambiar

Kunjan Nambiar, the "people’s poet" of Kerala, lived in the first half of the 18th century. He brought about a revolution in the cultural and religious outlook of the people by bringing art and literature from its high and pedantic realm down to the popular standard.

Dance, drama, and literature were closely associated with the people living in the temples, primarily the Nambudiri Brahmins. Caste Hindus like the Nairs, who formed the majority of the population, were subdivided into many clans and were not directly involved in cultural and religious activities. At this time came Kunjan Nambiar, who belonged to the intermediary community of temple servants, expounded a new solo dance art called Thullal for which he himself wrote more than fifty works, all in simple but elegant verse. He chose Puranic themes for his dance recitals but he retold the stories in a different manner. He narrated the stories in the social background of his time, converting all Puranic characters into ordinary human beings.

The dominant notes in his works were humor and satire. His works enlightened and educated people, creating a social awareness among them. Ramapurattu Varyar, a contemporary of Nambiar who wrote only one original poetic work, the Kuchelavrittam, the story of Kuchela or Sudama, is considered to be the morning star of modern Malayalam lyrics.

The period saw the best of classical poets like Unnayi Varyar. The literary output of this period maintained a high quality. Prose made its appearance during this period, inaugurating a new branch of literature. Aiding this development was the fact that missionaries wrote grammars of Malayalam. Unfortunately, the close of this century witnessed a decline in the quality of literary production.

1818 to 1905

The Age of Swathi Thirunal

The literary and cultural history of Kerala during this period has to be viewed against political conditions during this period. Though divided into three distinct political units, i.e. Travancore, Cochin & Malabar, Kerala remained a single cultural unit. Travancore and Cochin had come under British rule due to treaty obligations while Malabar was part of the Madras Presidency. All these political units were influenced by the new system of administration that the British introduced in India.

An era favorable to the growth of literary and cultural activity dawned on Kerala as elsewhere with the difference that owing to the widespread interest taken by the rulers of Travancore and Cochin in the spread of education along Western lines and in the adoption of British methods of administration, the new orientation of culture received a stronger impetus in these states.

Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, a scholar in several Indian languages.

The period that followed may rightly be called the age of Swathi Thirunal, (Maharaja of Travancore 1829-1847). A great scholar in several Indian languages, he tried his hand at poetic and musical compositions in Malayalam, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telegu, Hindi and Marathi. Learned men from all over the country flocked to his court to display their talents. It was the age of Thyagaraja, Muthuswami and Syama Sastri in South Indian Music.

As regards literature, the leading figures were Irayimman Thampi and Vidwan Koithampuran, both poets of the royal court. Their works abound in a beautiful and happy blending of music and poetry. The former is surely the most musical poet of Kerala and his beautiful lullaby commencing with the line Omana Ttinkalkitavo has earned him an everlasting name. But the prime reason why he is held in such high esteem in Malayalam is the contribution he has made to Kathakali literature by his three works, namely the Dakshayagam, the Kichakavadham and the Uttara-svayamvaram. The latter’s Kathakali work Ravana Vijayam has made him immortal in literature.

Impact of English education

The progress of literature in the Cochin and Malabar areas during this period was influenced by the advancement of English education in these regions. The educational activities of the missionaries belonging to the Basel Mission (conversion efforts notwithstanding) deserve special mention. It was under their auspices that Dr Gundert, a German missionary of exceptional linguistic talents, produced by his own personal effort the Malayalam-English Dictionary, which even today remains an authoritative work. A priest George Mathan wrote the first authoritative grammar book in Malayalam titled Malayanmayude Vyakaranam. Thanks to the efforts of kings like Swathi Thirunal and the assistance given by him to the Church Mission and London Mission Societies a number of schools were started.

Prose literature

The establishment of the Madras University in 1857 marks an important event in the cultural history of Kerala. It is from here that a generation of scholars well versed in Western literature and with the capacity to enrich their own language by adopting Western literary trends came into being. Prose was the first branch to receive an impetus by its contact with English. Though there was no shortage of prose in Malayalam, it was not along Western lines. It was left to the farsighted policy of the Maharaja of Travancore (1861 to 1880) to start a scheme for the preparation of textbooks for use by schools in the state. Kerala Varma V, a scholar in Sanskrit, Malayalam and English was appointed Chairman of the Committee formed to prepare textbooks. He wrote several books suited for various standards.

The growth of journalism, too, helped in the development of prose. Initiated by missionaries for the purpose of religious propaganda, journalism was taken up by local scholars who started newspapers and journals for literary and political activities.

Novels

With his work Kundalata in 1887, Appu Nedungadi marks the origin of prose fiction in Malayalam. Other talented writers were Chandu Menon, the author of Indulekha, a great social novel, in 1889 and another called Sarada. Also there was C V Raman Pillai, who wrote the historical novel Marttandavarma in 1890 as well as works like Dharmaraja, and Ramaraja Bahadur.

Drama and poetry

Shakuntala writes to Dushyanta. Painting by Raja Ravi Varma. The poetry was translated by Kerala Varma as Abhijnanasakuntalam

In poetry there were two main trends, one represented by Venmani Nampoodiris and the other by Kerala Varma. The latter’s poetry was modeled on the old Manipravalam style abounding in Sanskrit words and terms, but it had a charm of its own when adapted to express new ideas in that masterly way characteristic of himself. His translation of Kalidasa’s Abhijnanasakuntalam in 1882 marks an important event in the history of Malayalam drama and poetry. Also Kerala Varma’s Mayura-sandesam is a Sandesakavya (messenger poem) written after the manner of Kalidasa’s Meghadutam. Though it cannot be compared with the original, it was still one of the most popularly acclaimed poems in Malayalam.

The Venmani Nampoodiris were upholders of the pure Malayalam style. The Junior Venmani’s Puraprabandham, a descriptive poem on the famous temple festival at Trichur, and other works abound in wit and humor. They were much liked due to their appeal, simplicity of manner and melody of diction.

Closely following the above trend were scholars who came under the influence of English poetry. A. R. Raja Raja Varma, Professor of Malayalam in the Maharaja’s College at Trivandrum, led the new movement. He emphasized the importance of sentiment in poetry as compared to form, attacked the tendency of poets who gave undue importance to uniformity in sound and opposed the predominance of Sanskrit words in Malayalam verse.

One of the notable features of the early decades of the 20th century was the great interest taken by writers in translating works from Sanskrit and English into Malayalam. Kalidasa’s Meghaduta and Kumarasambhava by A. R. Raja Raja Varma and the Raghuvamsa by K. N. Menon must be mentioned. One of the most successful of the later translators was C. S. Subramaniam Potti who set a good model by his translation of the Durgesanandini of Bankim Chandra from an English version of it.

1905 to 1947

Novels

The early decades of the 20th century saw the beginning of a period of rapid development of all branches of Malayalam literature. A good number of authors familiar with the latest trends in English literature came forward to contribute to the enrichment of their mother tongue. Their efforts were directed more to the development of prose than poetry.

It is interesting to note that a number of Bengali novels were translated during this period. C. S. S. Potti, mentioned above, also brought out the Lake of Palms of R. C. Dutt under the title Thala Pushkarani, Kapalakundala by V. K. Thampi and Visha Vruksham by T. C. Kalyani Amma were also translations of novels by Bankimochandra Chatterji.

Among the original novels written at that time only a few are worth mentioning, such as Bhootha Rayar by Appan Thampuran, Keraleswaran by Raman Nambeesan and Cheraman Perumal by K. K. Menon. Although a large number of social novels were produced during this period, only a few are remembered, such as Snehalatha by Kannan Menon, Hemalatha by T. K. Velu Pillai and Kambola-balika by N. K. Krishna Pillai. But by far the most inspiring work of that time was Aphante Makal by M. B. Namboodiri, who directed his literary talents towards the abolition of old worn-out customs and manners which had for years been the bane of the community.

Short stories came into being. With the advent of E. V. Krishna Pillai, certain marks of novelty became noticeable in the short story. His Keleesoudham proved his capacity to write with considerable emotional appeal.

Social dramas

C. V. Raman Pillai was a pioneer in prose dramas. He had a particular knack for writing dramas in a lighter vein. His Kurupillakalari of 1909 marks the appearance of the first original Malayalam prose drama. It is a satirical drama intended to ridicule the Malayali official classes who started imitating Western fashion and etiquette. There were other authors, less well-known, who wrote in this vein.

Poetry - the Romantic impact

Kumaran Asan’s celebrated poem, Vina Poovu (The Fallen Flower) depicts in a symbolic manner the tragedy of human life in a moving and thought-provoking manner. Vallathol’s Bandhanasthanaya Aniruddhan, which demonstrates an exceptionally brilliant power of imagination and deep emotional faculties, depicts a situation from the Puranic story of Usha and Aniruddha. Ulloor S. P. Iyer was another veteran who joined the new school. He wrote a series of poems like Oru Mazhathulli in which he excelled as a romantic poet.

The three more or less contemporary poets Kumaran Asan, Vallathol Narayana Menon and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer considerably enriched Malayalam poetry. Some of their works reflect social and political movements of that time. Asan wrote about untouchability in Kerala; Ullor’s writings reflect his deep devotion and admiration for the great moral and spiritual values, which he believed were the real assets of ancient social life of India. They were known as the trio of Malayalam poetry. After them there were others like K. K. Nair and K. M. Panikkar who contributed to the growth of poetry.

Under the guidance of A. Balakrishna Pillai, a progressive school of authors appeared in almost all branches of literature, such as the novel, the short story, the drama, and criticism.

Post-independence period

Malayalam is one of the 22 official languages of India. The Kerala Official Language (Legislation) Act, 1969, declares Malayalam the official language of Kerala.

Malayalam in Malayalam script was introduced as the official language of Lakshadweep during the British Raj. Malayalam has official language status in the district of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep. Malayalam serves as a link language on the islands including the Mahl-dominated Minicoy Island.

Malayalam also has official language status in the Mahe District of the Union Territory of Pondicherry.

Dialects

Dialects of Malayalam are distinguishable at regional and social levels, including occupational and also communal differences. The salient features of many varieties of tribal speech (e.g., the speech of Muthuvans, Malayarayas, Malai Ulladas, Kanikkars, Kadars, Paliyars, Kurumas, and Vedas) and those of the various dialects of Dalits (a.k.a. "Harijans"), Brahmins, Nairs, Ezhavas, Syrian Christians (Nasrani), Latin Christians, Muslims, fishermen and many of the occupational terms common to different sections of Malayalees have been identified.

It may be noted at this point that labels such as "Brahmin Dialect" and "Harijan 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., madayan and viddhi, both meaning "fool"), bhosku ("lie"), musku ("impudence"), dustu ("impurity"), and eebhyan and sumbhan (both meaning "good-for-nothing fellow") abound in this dialect.

The dialect of the educated stratum among the Nairs resembles the Brahmin dialect in many respects. The amount of Sanskrit influence, however, is found to be steadily decreasing as one descends along the parameter of education.

One of the striking features differentiating the Nair dialect from the Ezhava dialect is the phonetic quality of the word-final: an enunciative vowel unusually transcribed as "U". In the Nair dialect it is a mid-central unrounded vowel whereas in the Ezhava dialect it is often heard as a lower high back unrounded vowel.

The Harijan dialect comprises overall features of many sub-dialects such as the Pulaya dialect and the Paraya dialect. It is devoid of "S", "Y" and aspiration. The lack of complex consonant clusters is another characteristic feature of the Harijan dialect. Pronominal terminations appended to finite verbal forms are preserved by certain varieties of Harijan speech.

The Syrian Christian dialect of Malayalam is quite close to the Nair dialect, especially in phonology. 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 from English and Syriac. The few loan words which have found their way into the Christian dialect are assimilated in many cases through the process of de-aspiration.

The Latin Christian dialect of Malayalam is close to fishermen dialect. It is also influenced by Latin, Portuguese and English.

The Muslim dialect shows maximum divergence from the literary Standard Dialect of Malayalam. It is very much influenced by Arabic and Urdu rather than by Sanskrit or by English. The retroflex continuant 'ZHA' of the Literary Dialect is realized in the Muslim dialect as the palatal 'YA'.

As regards the geographical dialects of Malayalam, surveys conducted so far by the Department of Linguistics, University of Kerala restricted the focus of attention during a given study on one specific caste so as to avoid mixing up of more than one variable such as communal and geographical factors. Thus for examples, the survey of the Ezhava dialect of Malayalam, results of which have been published by the Department in 1974, has brought to light the existence of twelve major dialect areas for Malayalam, although the isoglosses are found to crisscross in many instances. They are following:

1. South Travancore
2. Central Travancore
3. North Travancore
4. West Vempanad
5. Kochi
6. South Malabar
7. South Eastern Palghat
8. North Western
9. Central Malabar
10. Wayanad
11. North Malabar
12. The Peak Dialect

Sub-dialect regions, which could be marked off, were found to be thirty. This number is reported to tally approximately with the number of principalities that existed during the pre-British period in Kerala. In a few instances at least, as in the case of Venad, Karappuram, Nileswaram and Kumbala, the known boundaries of old principalities are found to coincide with those of certain dialects or sub-dialects that retain their individuality even today. This seems to reveal the significance of political divisions in Kerala in bringing about dialect difference.

Divergence among dialects of Malayalam embrace almost all aspects of language such as phonetics, phonology, grammar and vocabulary. Differences between any two given dialects can be quantified in terms of the presence or absence of specific units at each level of the language. To cite a single example of language variation along the geographical parameter, it may be noted that there are as many as seventy seven different expressions employed by the Ezhavas and spread over various geographical points just to refer to a single item, namely, the flower bunch of coconut. kola is the expression attested in most of the panchayats in the Palghat, Ernakulam and Trivandrum districts of Kerala, whereas /kolachil occurs most predominantly in Kannur and Kochi and klannil in Alappuzha and Kollam. Kozhinnul and kulannilu are the forms most common in Trichur and Kottayam respectively. In addition to these forms most widely spread among the areas specified above, there are dozens of other forms such as kotumpu (Kollam and Trivandrum), katirpu (Kottayam), krali(Pathanamthitta),pattachi, gnannil (Kollam), pochata (Palghat) etc. referring to the same item.

Geographic distribution and population

See also: Kerala Gulf diaspora and States of India by Malayalam speakers

According to the Indian census of 2011, there were 32,299,239 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 96.74% of the total population of the state. There were a further 701,673 (2.1% of the total number) in Karnataka, 557,705 (1.7%) in Tamil Nadu, and 406,358 (1.2%) in Maharashtra. The number of Malayalam speakers in Lakshadweep is 51,100, which is only 0.15% of the total number, but is as much as about 84% of the population of Lakshadweep. 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 the Yerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations like Eranadan. 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.

Large numbers of Malayalis have settled in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai (Bombay), Pune and Chennai (Madras). A large number of Malayalis have also emigrated to the Middle 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 in Bergen County, New Jersey and Rockland County, New York. There were 7,093 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2006. The 2001 Canadian census reported 7,070 people who listed Malayalam as their mother tongue. The 2006 New Zealand census reported 2,139 speakers. 134 Malayalam speaking households were reported in 1956 in Fiji. There is also a considerable Malayali population in the Persian Gulf regions, especially in Dubai.

Development of literature

Main article: Malayalam literature

File:Vaikom Muhammad Basheer.jpg

Vykkam Muhammad Bashir

Takazhi Sivasankara Pilla

The earliest written record resembling Malayalam is the Vazhappalli inscription (ca. 830 CE). The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition: Malayalam Nada, Tamil Nada and Sanskrit Nada.

• Classical songs known as Nadan Pattu
• Manipravalam of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam. Niranam poets Manipravalam Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar wrote Manipravalam poetry in the 14th century.

• The folk song rich in native elements

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, are Ramacaritam and Vaishikatantram, both from the 12th century.

The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, Bhashakautalyam (12th century) on Chanakya’s Arthasastra. Adhyatmaramayanam by Tuncattu Ramanujan Ezhuttaccan (known as the father of the Malayalam language) who was born in Tirur, one of the most important works in Malayalam literature. Unnunili Sandesam written in the 14th century is amongst the oldest literary works in Malayalam language.

By the end of 18th century some of the Christian missionaries from Kerala started writing in Malayalam but mostly travelogues, dictionaries and religious books. Varttamana Pustakam (1778), written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar is considered to be the first travelogue in an Indian language. Church Mission Society which started a seminary at Kottayam in 1819 also started a press which printed Malayalam books in 19th century. Malayalam and Sanskrit were increasingly studied by Christians of Kottayam and Pathanamthitta. By the end of 19th century Malayalam replaced Syriac as language of Liturgy in the Syrian Christian churches.

Phonology

For the consonants and vowels, the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbol is given, followed by the Malayalam character and the ISO 15919 transliteration.

Vowels

The first letter in Malayalam

	Short			Long
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i/ ഇ i	/ɨ̆/ * ŭ	/u/ ഉ u	/iː/ ഈ ī		/uː/ ഊ ū
Mid	/e/ എ e	/ə/ * a	/o/ ഒ o	/eː/ ഏ ē		/oː/ ഓ ō
Open		/a/ അ a			/aː/ ആ ā

• */ɨ̆/ is the saṁvr̥tōkāram, an epenthentic 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/, but later on it was just completely omitted (that is, written as an inherent vowel). In modern times, it is written in two different ways – the Northern style, in which a chandrakkala is used, and the Southern or Travancore style, in which the diacritic for a /u/ is attached to the preceding consonant and a chandrakkala is written above.
• */a/ (phonetically central: [ä]) and /ə/ are both represented as basic or "default" vowels in the Abugida script (although /ə/ never occurs word-initially and therefore does not make use of the letter അ), but they are distinct vowels.

Malayalam has also borrowed the Sanskrit diphthongs of /äu/ (represented in Malayalam as ഔ, au) and /ai/ (represented in Malayalam as ഐ, ai), although these mostly occur only in Sanskrit loanwords. Traditionally (as in Sanskrit), four vocalic consonants (usually pronounced in Malayalam as consonants followed by the saṁvr̥tōkāram, 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.

Consonants

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		/m/ മ m		/n̪/ ന n		/n/ ന * n		/ɳ/ ണ ṇ		/ɲ/ ഞ ñ		/ŋ/ ങ ṅ
Stop	plain	/p/ പ p	/b/ ബ b	/t̪/ ത t	/d̪/ ദ d	/t/ * t		/ʈ/ ട ṭ	/ɖ/ ഡ ḍ	/t͡ʃ/ ച c	/d͡ʒ/ ജ j	/k/ ക k	/ɡ/ ഗ g
	aspirated	/pʰ/ ഫ ph	/bʱ/ ഭ bh	/t̪ʰ/ ഥ th	/d̪ʱ/ ധ dh			/ʈʰ/ ഠ ṭh	/ɖʱ/ ഢ ḍh	/t͡ʃʰ/ ഛ ch	/d͡ʒʱ/ ഝ jh	/kʰ/ ഖ kh	/ɡʱ/ ഘ gh
Fricative		/f/ ഫ* f		/s̪/ സ s				/ʂ/ ഷ ṣ		/ɕ/ ശ ś				/h/ ഹ h
Approximant	central	/ʋ/ വ v						/ɻ/ ഴ l		/j/ യ y
	lateral					/l/ ല l		/ɭ/ ള ḷ
Rhotic						/ɾʲ/ ര r		/r/ റ r

• The unaspirated alveolar plosive stop once had a separate character but it has become obsolete, as the sound only occurs in geminate form (when geminated it is written with a റ below another റ) or immediately following other consonants (in these cases, റ or ററ are usually written in small size underneath the first consonant). The archaic letter can be found in the "t" row here [1].
• The alveolar nasal also had a separate character that is now obsolete (it can be seen in the "n" row here [2]) and the sound is now almost always represented by the symbol that was originally used only for the dental 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, "ennāl" ("by me", first person singular pronoun in the instrumental case) and ennāl ("if that is so", elided from the original "entāl"), which are both written "ennāl".
• 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.
• The voiceless unaspirated plosives, the nasals and the laterals can be geminated.

Number system and other symbols

Praslesham	ഽ	Corresponds to Devanagari avagraha, used when a Sanskrit phrase containing an avagraha is written in Malayalam script. The symbol indicates the elision of the word-initial vowel a after a word that ends in ā, ē, or ō, and is transliterated as an apostrophe (’), or sometimes as a colon + and apostrophe (:’). (Malayalam: പ്രശ്ലേഷം, praślēṣam)
Malayalam date mark	൹	Used in an abbreviation of a date.
Danda	।	Archaic punctuation marks.
Double danda	॥

Malayalam numbers and fractions are written as follows. These are archaic and no longer commonly used. Note that there is a confusion about the glyph of Malayalam digit zero. The correct form is oval-shaped, but occasionally the glyph for ¼ ൳ is erroneously shown as the glyph for 0.

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	100	1000	¼	½	¾
	൧	൨	൩	൪	൫	൬	൭	൮	൯	൰	൱	൲	൳	൴	൵

Grammar

Malayalam has a canonical word order of SOV (subject–object–verb) as do other Dravidian languages. Both adjectives and possessive pronouns precede the nouns they modify. Malayalam has 6 or 7 grammatical cases. Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood and aspect, but not for person, gender or number except in archaic or poetic language.

Nouns

The declensional 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 and nasals (although the modern Malayalam script does not distinguish the latter from the dental nasal) are underlined for clarity, following the convention of the National Library at Kolkata romanization.

Personal pronouns

Vocative forms are given in parentheses after the nominative, as the only pronominal vocatives that are used are the third person ones, which only occur in compounds.

	Singular				Plural
Case	First person	Second person	Third person (masculine)	Third person (feminine)	First person (exclusive)	First person (inclusive)	Second person	Third Person
Nominative	ñān	nī	avan (voc. avanē)	avaḷ (voc. avaḷē)	ñaṅṅaḷ	nām/ nammaḷ	niṅṅaḷ	avar (voc. avarē)
Accusative	enne	ninne	avane	avaḷe	ñaṅṅaḷe	namme	niṅṅaḷe	avare
Genitive	ente (also en, ennuṭe)	ninte (also nin, ninnuṭe)	avante (also avanuṭe)	avaḷuṭe	ñaṅṅaḷuṭe (also ñaṅṅuṭe)	nammuṭe	niṅṅaḷuṭe	avaruṭe
Dative	enikku	ninakku	avanu	avaḷkku	ñaṅṅaḷkku	namukku	niṅṅaḷkku	avarkku
Instrumental	ennāl	ninnāl	avanāl	avaḷāl	ñaṅṅaḷāl (also ñaṅṅāl)	nammāl	niṅṅaḷāl (also niṅṅāl)	avarāl
Locative	ennil (also eṅkal)	ninnil (also niṅkal)	avanil (also avaṅkal)	avaḷil (also avaḷkal)	ñaṅṅaḷil	nammil	niṅṅaḷil	avaril (also avarkal)
Sociative	ennōṭu	ninnōṭu	avanōṭu	avaḷōṭu	ñaṅṅaḷōṭu	nammōṭu	niṅṅaḷōṭu	avarōṭu

Other nouns

The following are examples of some of the most common declension patterns.

Word	Tree		Elephant		Human		Dog
Case	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	maram	maraṅṅaḷ	āna	ānakaḷ	manuṣyan	manuṣyar	paṭṭi	paṭṭikaḷ
Vocative	maramē	maraṅṅaḷē	ānē	ānakaḷē	manuṣyā	manuṣyarē	paṭṭī	paṭṭikaḷē
Accusative	maratte	maraṅṅaḷe	ānaye	ānakaḷe	manuṣyane	manuṣyare	paṭṭiye	paṭṭikaḷe
Genitive	marattinte	maraṅṅaḷuṭe	ānayuṭe	ānakaḷuṭe	manuṣyante	manuṣyaruṭe	paṭṭiyuṭe	paṭṭikaḷuṭe
Dative	marattinu	maraṅṅaḷkku	ānaykku	ānakaḷkku	manuṣyanu	manuṣyarkku	paṭṭiykku	paṭṭikaḷkku
Instrumental	marattāl	maraṅṅaḷāl	ānayāl	ānakaḷāl	manuṣyanāl	manuṣyarāl	paṭṭiyāl	paṭṭikaḷāl
Locative	marattil	maraṅṅaḷil	ānayil	ānakaḷil	manuṣyanil	manuṣyaril	paṭṭiyil	paṭṭikaḷil
Sociative	marattōṭu	maraṅṅaḷōṭu	ānayōṭu	ānakaḷōṭu	manuṣyanōṭu	manuṣyarōṭu	paṭṭiyōṭu	paṭṭikaḷōṭu

Words adopted from Sanskrit

When words are adopted from Sanskrit, their endings are usually changed to conform to Malayalam norms:

Nouns

• Masculine Sanskrit nouns with a word 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 the vocative 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. 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 ending, which is also /m/ (or, allophonically, anusvara due to the requirements of the sandhi 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 these tatsama borrowings, there are also many tadbhava 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".

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.

Writing system

Main articles: Malayalam alphabet and Malayalam braille

A public notice board written using Malayalam script. The Malayalam language possesses official recognition in the state of Kerala, and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry

A Malayalam translation of the Qurʾān in Arabi Malayalam script

Historically, several scripts were used to write Malayalam. Among these scripts were Vattezhuthu, Kolezhuthu and Malayanma scripts. But it was the Grantha script, another Southern Brahmi variation, which gave rise to the modern Malayalam script. 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/ 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 named anusvāra and visarga. 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.

In 1999 a group named "Rachana Akshara Vedi" produced a set of free fonts containing the entire character repertoire of more than 900 glyphs. This was announced and released along with a text editor in the same year at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala. In 2004, the fonts were released under the GNU GPL license by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation at the Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kochi, Kerala.

Malayalam has been written in other scripts like Roman and in a type of Arabic script; Arabic scripts particularly were taught in madrasahs in Kerala and the Lakshadweep Islands.

External influences

Variations in intonation patterns, vocabulary, and distribution of grammatical and phonological elements are observable along the parameters of region, religion, community, occupation, social stratum, style and register. The influence of Sanskrit was very prominent in formal Malayalam used in literature. Malayalam has a substantially high amount of Sanskrit loan words for which it pays interest but seldom used. Loan words and influences also from Hebrew, Syriac and Ladino abound in the Jewish Malayalam dialects, as well as English, Portuguese, Syriac and Greek in the Christian dialects, while Arabic and Persian elements predominate in the Muslim dialects. The Muslim dialect known as Mappila Malayalam is used in the Malabar region of Kerala. Another Muslim dialect called Beary bashe is used in the extreme northern part of Kerala and the southern part of Karnataka.

The regional dialects of Malayalam can be divided into thirteen dialect areas. They are as follows:

South Travancore	Central Travancore	West Vempanad
North Travancore	Kochi (Cochin)	South Malabar
South Eastern Palghat	North Western Palghat	Central Malabar
Wayanad	North Malabar	Kasaragod
	Lakshadweep

According to Ethnologue, the dialects are:

Malabar, Nagari-Malayalam, South Kerala, Central Kerala, North Kerala, Kayavar, Namboodiri, Nair, Moplah (Mapilla), Pulaya, Nasrani, and Kasargod.

The community dialects are: Namboodiri, Nair, Moplah (Mapilla), Pulaya, and Nasrani.

Whereas both the Namboothiri and Nair dialects have a common nature, the Mapilla dialect is among the most divergent of dialects, differing considerably from literary Malayalam.

For a comprehensive list of loan words, see Loan words in Malayalam.

"Malayalam" as a palindrome

The word "Malayalam" is spelled as a palindrome in English. However, it is not a palindrome in its own script, for three reasons: the third "a" is long and should properly be transliterated "aa" or "ā" (an "a" with a macron), while the other "a"’s are short; the two "l" consonants represent different sounds, the first "l" being dental ("[l̪]", Malayalam "ല", Roman "l") (although the consonant chart below lists that sound as alveolar) and the second retroflex ("[ɭ]", Malayalam "ള", Roman "ḷ"); and the final "m" is written as an anusvara, which denotes the same phoneme "/m/" as in the initial "m" in this case, but the two "m"’s are spelled differently (the first "m" is a normal "maമ" with an inherent vowel "a", while the last "m  ം" is a pure consonant).

See also

• Beary bashe
• Kasaragod Malayalam
• Lingua Malabar Tamul
• Malayalam calendar
• Malayalam literature
• Malayalam poetry
• Manipravalam
• Tulu Script

Further reading

• Pillai, Anitha Devi (2010). Singaporean Malayalam. Saarbrücken: VDM. ISBN 3-639-21333-5.

External links

• Ethnologue report for Malayalam
• Unicode Code Chart for Malayalam (PDF Format)
• Malayalam Grammar