Malayalam

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Not to be confused with Malay, an Austronesian language.

Malayalam
മലയാളം, malayāḷaṁ
L2: 710,000[2]
Early forms
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
Regulated by
Language codes
ISO 639-1ml
ISO 639-2mal
ISO 639-3mal
Glottologmala1464
Linguasphere49-EBE-ba
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Malayalam is written in a non-Latin script. Malayalam text used in this article is transliterated into the Latin script according to the ISO 15919 standard.
PersonMalayāḷi
PeopleMalayāḷikaḷ
LanguageMalayāḷam
CountryMalayāḷa Nāṭu
A Malayalam speaker, recorded in South Africa

Malayalam (

Mahé),[9][10][11] and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep and is spoken by 35 million people in India.[12]
Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with a significant number of speakers in the
Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune etc. Malayalam is closely related to the Tamil language
.

The origin of Malayalam remains a matter of dispute among scholars. The mainstream view holds that Malayalam descends from early

Chera Perumal inscriptional language as a diverging dialect or variety of contemporary Tamil.[16][17] The oldest extant literary work in Malayalam distinct from the Tamil tradition is Ramacharitam (late 12th or early 13th century).[18]

The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the

Vatteluttu script.[19] The current Malayalam script is based on the Vatteluttu script, which was extended with Grantha script letters to adopt Indo-Aryan loanwords.[19][20] It bears high similarity with the Tigalari script, a historical script that was used to write the Tulu language in South Canara, and Sanskrit in the adjacent Malabar region.[21] The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE.[22] The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785.[23][24]

Robert Caldwell describes the extent of Malayalam in the 19th century as extending from the vicinity of Kumbla in the north where it supersedes with Tulu to Kanyakumari in the south, where it begins to be superseded by Tamil,[25] besides the inhabited islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.

Etymology

The word Malayalam originated from the words mala, meaning '

Ay kingdom (later Travancore), and only later became the name of its language.[30] The language Malayalam was alternatively called Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malabari, Malean, Maliyad, Mallealle, and Kerala Bhasha until the early 19th century CE.[31][32][33]

The earliest extant

Malabar coast of India from Kumbla in north to Kanyakumari in south had a unique language, which was called "Maliama" by them.[35][36]

Prior to this period, the people of Kerala usually referred to their language as 'Tamil', and both terms overlapped into the colonial period.[note 1]

History

The Quilon Syrian copper plates (849/850 CE) are considered as the oldest available inscription written in Old Malayalam.[37] Besides Old Malayalam, the copper plate also contains signatures in Arabic (Kufic script), Middle Persian (cursive Pahlavi script) and Judeo-Persian (standard square Hebrew) scripts.[38]

Due to the geographical isolation of the

Keralites.[32] The Sangam works can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.[42]

Some scholars however believe that both Tamil and Malayalam developed during the prehistoric period from a common ancestor, 'Proto-Tamil-Malayalam', and that the notion of Malayalam being a 'daughter' of Tamil is misplaced.[14] This is based on the fact that Malayalam and several Dravidian languages on the Western Coast have common archaic features which are not found even in the oldest historical forms of literary Tamil.[43] Despite this Malayalam shares many common innovations with Tamil that emerged during the early Middle Tamil period, thus making independent descent impossible.[13]

For example, Old Tamil lacks the first and second person plural pronouns with the ending kaḷ. It is in the Early Middle Tamil stage that kaḷ first appears:[44]

Language Plural Pronouns
Old Tamil yām, nām, nīr, nīyir
Middle Tamil nānkaḷ, nām, nīnkaḷ, enkaḷ
Malayalam ñaṅṅaḷ, nām, niṅṅaḷ, nammaḷ

Indeed, most features of Malayalam morphology are derivable from a form of speech corresponding to early Middle Tamil.[45]

Robert Caldwell, in his 1856 book "A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages", opined that literary Malayalam branched from Classical Tamil and over time gained a large amount of Sanskrit vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs.[30] As the language of scholarship and administration, Old-Tamil, which was written in Tamil-Brahmi and the Vatteluttu alphabet later, greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam as a literary language. The Malayalam script began to diverge from the Vatteluttu and the Western Grantha scripts in the 8th and 9th centuries of Common Era. And by the end of the 13th century a written form of the language emerged which was unique from the Vatteluttu script that was used to write Tamil on the eastern coast.[46]

Old Malayalam

Old Malayalam (Paḻaya Malayāḷam), an inscriptional language found in Kerala from c. 9th to c. 13th century CE,[47] is the earliest attested form of Malayalam.[48][49] The beginning of the development of Old Malayalam from a western coastal dialect of Middle Tamil can be dated to c. 8th century CE.[50][19][51] It remained a west coast dialect until c. 9th century CE or a little later.[52][50] The origin of Malayalam calendar dates back to year 825 CE.[53][54][55] The formation of the language is mainly attributed to geographical separation of Kerala from the Tamil country[52] and the influence of immigrant Tulu-Canarese Brahmins in Kerala (who also knew Sanskrit and Prakrit).[48] It is generally agreed that the western coastal dialect of Tamil began to separate, diverge, and grow as a distinct language, mainly due to the heavy influence of Sanskrit and Prakrit, those became common prominent languages on Malabar Coast, when the caste system became strong in Kerala under Nambudiri Brahmins.[32]

The

Chera Perumal kings as well as the upper-caste (Nambudiri) village temples).[48] Most of the inscriptions in Old Malayalam were found from the northern districts of Kerala, those lie adjacent to Tulu Nadu.[48] Old Malayalam was mostly written in Vatteluttu script (with Pallava/Southern Grantha characters).[48] Old Malayalam had several features distinct from the contemporary Tamil, which include the nasalisation of adjoining sounds, substitution of palatal sounds for dental sounds, contraction of vowels, and the rejection of gender verbs.[48][56][57] Ramacharitam and Thirunizhalmala are the possible literary works of Old Malayalam
found so far.

Middle Malayalam

Kolezhuthu and Malayanma were also used to write Middle Malayalam, in addition to Vatteluthu and Grantha script those were used to write Old Malayalam.[32] The literary works written in Middle Malayalam were heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Prakrit, while comparing them with the modern Malayalam literature.[59][32]

Adhyatma Ramayanam preserved at Thunchan Parambu, Tirur

Modern Malayalam

The Middle Malayalam was succeeded by Modern Malayalam (Aadhunika Malayalam) by 15th century CE.[32] The poem Krishnagatha written by Cherusseri Namboothiri, who was the court poet of the king Udaya Varman Kolathiri (1446–1475) of Kolathunadu, is written in modern Malayalam.[59] The language used in Krishnagatha is the modern spoken form of Malayalam.[59] During the 16th century CE, Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan from the Kingdom of Tanur and Poonthanam Nambudiri from the Kingdom of Valluvanad followed the new trend initiated by Cherussery in their poems. The Adhyathmaramayanam Kilippattu and Mahabharatham Kilippattu written by Ezhuthachan and Jnanappana written by Poonthanam are also included in the earliest form of Modern Malayalam.[59]

Comparison of Grantha, Tigalari, and Malayalam scripts
Letter
Script ka kha ga gha ṅa
Grantha 𑌕 𑌖 𑌗 𑌘 𑌙
Tigalari
Malayalam ക ഖ ഗ ഘ ങ
Kannada ಕ ಖ ಗ ಘ ಙ
Sinhala ක් ඛ ග ඝ ණ

It is

Arabic.[59] They follow the syntax of modern Malayalam, though written in a modified form of Arabic script, which is known as Arabi Malayalam script.[59] P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval work Keralolpathi, which describes the Parashurama legend and the departure of the final Cheraman Perumal king to Mecca, to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.[63]

Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, have gained international recognition.[73][74][75] Malayalam has also borrowed a lot of its words from various foreign languages, mainly from the Semitic languages including Arabic, and the European languages including Dutch and Portuguese, due to the long heritage of Indian Ocean trade and the Portuguese-Dutch colonisation of the Malabar Coast.[32][59]

Dialects

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.

According to the Dravidian Encyclopedia, the regional dialects of Malayalam can be divided into fifteen dialect areas.[76] They are as follows:

According to Ethnologue, the dialects are:

Eranadan.[77]

The dialects of Malayalam spoken in the districts like

Wayanad, Kozhikode, and Malappuram in the former Malabar District have few influences from Kannada.[32] For example, the words those start with the sound "V" in Malayalam become "B" in these districts as in Kannada.[32] Also the Voiced 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 in Kannada.[32] For example, the words Vazhi (Path), Vili (Call), Vere (Another), and Vaa (Come/Mouth), become Bayi, Bili, Bere, and Baa in the northern dialects of Malayalam.[32] Similarly the Malayalam spoken in the southern districts of Kerala, i.e., Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam-Pathanamthitta area is influenced by Tamil.[32]

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:

External influences and loanwords

Malayalam has incorporated many elements from other languages over the years, the most notable of these being Sanskrit and later, English.[84] According to Sooranad Kunjan Pillai who compiled the authoritative Malayalam lexicon, the other principal languages whose vocabulary was incorporated over the ages were Arabic, Dutch, Hindustani, Pali, Persian, Portuguese, Prakrit, and Syriac.[85]

  • Many medieval
    liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam.[86] The influence of Sanskrit 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.[87]
  • Some Arabic loanwords like adālattŭ (court of justice), jāmyaṃ (bail), japti (foreclosure), jilla (district), tālukkŭ (subdistrict), etc., are used in the formal literary Malayalam for administrative purposes.
  • Loanwords and influences also from
    Muslim
    dialects.
  • The Muslim dialect known as
    Beary bashe is used in the extreme northern part of Kerala along with the southern part of Karnataka in a former region called Tulu Nadu
    .
Examples of vocabulary from various origins
Malayalam word Source
ഉമ്മ, umma, 'mother'
Arabic
: أُمّ‎, ʔumm
മാമോദീസ, māmōdīsa, 'baptism'
Official Aramaic
: ܡܥܡܘܕܝܬܐ, maʿmōḏīṯā
തപാല്‍, tapāl, 'post or mail' Dutch: de paal
ആപ്പിൾ, āppiḷ, 'apple' English: apple
നങ്കൂരം, naṅkūraṁ, 'anchor'
Ancient Greek
: ἄγκῡρα, ánkūra
മിനിയാൻ, miniyāṉ, 'quorum' Hebrew: minyán
പഞ്ചായത്ത്, pañcāyattŭ, '
panchayat
'
Hindi
: पंचायत, pañcāyat
അച്ഛൻ, acchaṉ, 'father'
Prakrit languages
: 𑀅𑀚𑁆𑀚, ajja
പടക്, paṭakŭ, 'boat' Malayo-Polynesian languages: *paʀaqu
ഉഷാര്‍, uṣāṟ, 'alert' Persian: هوشیار, hūšyâr
ജനാല, jaṉāla, 'window' Portuguese: janela
ലക്ഷം, lakṣam, 'lakh'
Sanskrit
: लक्ष, lakṣa

Geographic distribution and population

See also: Kerala Gulf diaspora and States of India by Malayalam speakers
State/Union Territory Malayalam speakers 2011[1] Proportion
Kerala 32,413,213 97.03%
Lakshadweep 54,264 84.17%
Andaman and Nicobar Islands 27,475 7.22%
Puducherry 47,973 3.84%
Karnataka 701,673 1.14%
Tamil Nadu 957,705 2.70%
India 34,838,819 2.88%

Malayalam is a language spoken by the native people of southwestern India and the islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian 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) in Karnataka, 957,705 (2.70%) in Tamil Nadu, and 406,358 (1.2%) in Maharashtra.

The number of Malayalam speakers in

Wayanad.[89]

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.[90] 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,

Malayali population in the Persian Gulf regions, especially in Dubai and Doha
.

Phonology

Monophthongs of Malayalam, from Namboodiripad, Savithry (2016)[94]
Spoken and sung Malayalam

For the consonants and vowels, the

Kasargod district of Kerala.[21] Tigalari script was also used for writing Sanskrit in Malabar region
.

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 /o/ ഒ o /eː/ ഏ ē /oː/ ഓ ō
Open /a/ അ a /aː/ ആ ā
  • ⟨്⟩ /ɨ̆/ formed from word final short /u/'s but now there are /u/'s finally as well, mostly in loanwords but also natively like in guru, kuru, puẓu and native pērŭ, there are minimal pairs as well appŭ "water", appu a given name; It is also added to the end of loanwords ending in some consonants, e.g. Sanskrit manas, suhr̥t, Malayalam manassŭ, suhr̥ttŭ, English current Ml. karaṇṭŭ. It is the saṁvr̥tōkāram, an
    chandrakkala is used ⟨ക്⟩, 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 ⟨കു്⟩. According to one author, this alternative form ⟨കു്⟩ is historically more correct, though the simplified form without a vowel sign u is common nowadays.[96]
  • /a/ (phonetically central: [ä]) is represented as basic or the "default" vowel in the abugida script.

Malayalam has also borrowed the

diphthongs
of /ai̯/ (represented in Malayalam as ഐ, ai) and /au̯/ (represented in Malayalam as ഔ, au) 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.

Some authors say that Malayalam has no diphthongs and /ai̯, au̯/ are clusters of V+glide j/ʋ[19] while others consider all V+glide clusters to be diphthongs /ai̯, aːi̯, au̯, ei̯, oi̯, i̯a/ as in kai, vāypa, auṣadhaṁ, cey, koy and kāryaṁ[95]

Vowel length is phonemic and all of the vowels have minimal pairs for example kaṭṭi "thickness", kāṭṭi "showed", koṭṭi "tapped", kōṭṭi "twisted, stick, marble", er̠i "throw", ēr̠i "lots"[95]

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/.[19]

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar
Retroflex
Postalveolar/
Palatal
Velar
 Glottal
Nasal
 m മ ⟨m⟩
n̪
 ന ⟨n⟩
n ന / ഩ[a]
⟨ṉ⟩ 		ɳ ണ ⟨ṇ⟩ ɲ ഞ ⟨ñ⟩ ŋ ങ ⟨ṅ⟩
Plosive/
Affricate 		voiceless p പ ⟨p⟩
t̪
 ത ⟨t⟩
t
 റ്റ ⟨ṟṟ⟩ 		ʈ ട ⟨ṭ⟩ t͡ɕ~t͡ʃ ച ⟨c⟩ k ക ⟨k⟩
aspirated pʰ ഫ ⟨ph⟩ t̪ʰ ഥ ⟨th⟩ ʈʰ ഠ ⟨ṭh⟩ t͡ɕʰ~t͡ʃʰ ഛ ⟨ch⟩ kʰ ഖ ⟨kh⟩
voiced b ബ ⟨b⟩
d̪
 ദ ⟨d⟩ 		(
d)[b]

ന്റ ⟨nṟ⟩ 		ɖ ഡ ⟨ḍ⟩ d͡ʑ~d͡ʒ ജ ⟨j⟩ ɡ ഗ ⟨g⟩
breathy bʱ ഭ ⟨bh⟩ d̪ʱ ധ ⟨dh⟩ ɖʱ ഢ ⟨ḍh⟩ d͡ʑʱ~d͡ʒʱ ഝ ⟨jh⟩ ɡʱ ഘ ⟨gh⟩
Fricative f ഫ ⟨f⟩ s സ ⟨s⟩ ʂ ഷ ⟨ṣ⟩ ɕ~ʃ ശ ⟨ś⟩ h ഹ ⟨h⟩
Approx.
 central ʋ വ ⟨v⟩ ɻ ഴ ⟨ḻ⟩[c] j യ ⟨y⟩
lateral
l
 ല ⟨l⟩ 		ɭ ള ⟨ḷ⟩
Tap
 ɾ ര ⟨r⟩
Trill
r
 റ ⟨ṟ⟩
  • As in other Dravidian languages, the retroflex series are true subapical consonants, in which the underside of the tongue contacts the roof.[97]
  • All of the alveolars except /s/ are apical.[95]
  • /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.[94]
  • 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, eṉṉāl ('by me', first person singular pronoun in the instrumental case) and ennāl ('if that is so'), which are both written ennāl (എന്നാൽ).
  • 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 a റ below another റ ⟨റ്റ⟩) or immediately following other consonants (in these cases, റ or ററ 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 the Dravidian languages and *ṉṯ became nn in Malayalam while *ṯṯ remained.[19] Currently Malayalam only has [nd] in the genitive case ending -ṉṟe and a word formed with it taṉṟēṭam; 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.[98]
  • ന്റ is pronounced only 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'.[99]
  • All non geminated voiceless stops and affricate become voiced intervocalically and after a nasal as in Tamil.[95][19]
  • The geminated velars /kk/ and /ŋŋ/ are sometimes palatalized word medially after /j, i(:), e(:)/ like in the words കിടക്കുക [kiɖɐk:ugɐ] vs ഇരിക്കുക [iɾikʲ:ugɐ] and മങ്ങൽ [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.[94][95]
  • 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 word ഫലം /falam/.[95] In the Jesari dialect the native word-initial /p/ too spirantized to [f].[100]
  • /m, n, ɳ, l, ɭ/ are unreleased word finally.[95] Words will never begin or end with a geminated consonant. /ɻ/ never occur word initially. All consonants appear word medially.[95]
  • 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. കളം /kaɭam/ 'cell', കള്ളം /kaɭɭam/ 'lie'.[95] /n̪, ɲ, ŋ, t/ only occur in geminated form intervocalically.[94]
  • The retroflex lateral is clearly retroflex, but may be more of a flap [ɭ̆] (= [𝼈]) than an approximant [ɭ]. The approximant /ɻ/ has both rhotic and lateral qualities, and is indeterminate between an approximant and a fricative, but is laminal post-alveolar rather than a true retroflex. The articulation 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.[101]
  • /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.[94][102]
  • /ʋ/ may be realized as [ʋ], [v], [w] or [β̞].[94]
  • Around 75% of nk and 50% of ñc and nt from Old Malayalam got assimilated to ṅṅ, ññ and nn, almost all of the ṉṯ merged with nn suggesting an earlier merger of some of the n̠t̠ and nt (for e.g. the cognate of Tamil nan̠r̠i is spelt as nandi and pronounced nanni); mp and ṇṭ were unchanged, e.g. Tamil mūṉṟu, maruntu, kañci, teṅku, Malayalam mūnnŭ, marunnŭ, kaññi, teṅṅŭ.[103] Word final ai, āy and ey became a unless the word is monosyllabic, e.g. Tamil avai, māṅgāy, veṇṇey Malayalam ava, māṅṅa, veṇṇa. Final āy in monosyllabic words became āya e.g. Tamil kāy, Malayalam kāya.
  • 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 قطر qaṭar, خَطّ‎ xaṭṭ as ഖത്തർ khattaṟ, കത്ത് kattŭ. 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" as ṯāksi or more commonly ṭāksi. The English /ɹ/ is loaned as either /ɾ/ or /r/ unpredictably, for e.g. 'current' got loaned as karaṇḍŭ but 'maroon' got loaned as mar̠ūṇ or mer̠ūṇ 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' as fōḻsŭ. Speakers with non rhotic English accents don't have /ɹC/ clusters in English loans and pronounce it as fōs(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. 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 like dhaṉam as thaṉam, it is more commonly deaspirated so dhaṉam as daṉam and kharam as karam, intervocalically the voiceless aspirate also becomes voiced so mukham as mugam.[104]

Sample text

The following text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

English

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.

Malayalam

മനുഷ്യരെല്ലാവരും തുല്യാവകാശങ്ങളോടും അന്തസ്സോടും സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യത്തോടുംകൂടി ജനിച്ചിട്ടുള്ളവരാണ്‌. അന്യോന്യം ഭ്രാതൃഭാവത്തോടെ പെരുമാറുവാനാണ്‌ മനുഷ്യന് വിവേകബുദ്ധിയും മനസാക്ഷിയും സിദ്ധമായിരിക്കുന്നത്‌.

Romanisation (ISO 15919)

manuṣyarellāvaruṁ tulyāvakāśaṅṅaḷōṭuṁ antassōṭuṁ svātantryattōṭuṅkūṭi janicciṭṭuḷḷavarāṇ‌ŭ. anyōnyaṁ bhrātr̥bhāvattōṭe perumāṟuvānāṇ‌ŭ manuṣyanŭ vivēkabuddhiyuṁ manasākṣiyuṁ siddhamāyirikkunnat‌ŭ.

IPA

/manuʂjaɾellaːʋaɾum t̪uljaːʋakaːʃaŋŋaɭoːʈum an̪t̪assoːʈum sʋaːt̪an̪tɾjat̪t̪oːʈuŋkuːʈi d͡ʒanit͡ʃt͡ʃiʈʈuɭɭaʋaɾaːɳɨ̆ ǁ anjoːnjam bʱraːt̪rɨ̆bʱaːʋat̪t̪oːʈe peɾumaːruʋaːnaːɳɨ̆ manuʂjanɨ̆ ʋiʋeːkabud̪d̪ʱijum manasaːkʂijum sid̪d̪ʱamaːjiɾikkun̪ːat̪ɨ̆ ǁ/

Grammar

Main article: Malayalam grammar

Malayalam has a canonical word order of

possessive adjectives precede the nouns they modify. Malayalam has 6[107] or 7[108][unreliable source?] grammatical cases. Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood and aspect, but not for person, gender nor number except in archaic or poetic language. The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE.[22]

Nouns

The

National Library at Kolkata romanization
.

Personal pronouns

nominative
, as the only pronominal vocatives that are used are the third person ones, which only occur in compounds.

Singular
Case

വിഭക്തി

1st person 2nd person informal[i] 3rd person (distal)[ii]
masculine feminine neutral
Nominative

സംബോധന

ñāṉ nī avaṉ (voc. avaṉē) avaḷ (voc. avaḷē) adŭ (voc. athinē)
Accusative

പ്രതിഗ്രാഹിക

eṉṉe niṉṉe avaṉe avaḷe atiṉe
Genitive

സംബന്ധിക

eṉte (also eṉ, eṉṉute) niṉte (also niṉ, niṉṉute) avaṉte (also avaṉute) avaḷute atiṉte
Dative

ഉദ്ദേശിക

eṉikkŭ niṉakkŭ avaṉŭ avaḷkkŭ atiṉŭ
Instrumental

പ്രായോജിക

eṉṉāl niṉṉāl avaṉāl avaḷāl atiṉāl
Locative

ആധാരിക

eṉṉil niṉṉil avaṉil avaḷil atil
Sociative

സംയോജിക

eṉṉōḍŭ niṉṉōḍŭ avaṉōḍŭ avaḷōḍŭ adinōḍŭ
Notes:
  1. ^ 2nd person singular formal is similar to 2nd person plural.
  2. ^ For proximal form, replace the initial 'a' with an 'i'.
Plural
Case

വിഭക്തി

1st person 2nd person 3rd person
exclusive inclusive
Nominative

സംബോധന

ñaṅṅaḷ nām/ nammaḷ niṅṅaḷ avar̠ (voc. avarē)
Accusative

പ്രതിഗ്രാഹിക

ñaṅṅaḷe nammaḷe niṅṅaḷe avare
Genitive

സംബന്ധിക

ñaṅṅaḷuḍe (also ñaṅṅuḍe) nammuḍe niṅṅaḷuḍe avaruḍe
Dative

ഉദ്ദേശിക

ñaṅṅaḷkkŭ nammaḷkkŭ (also namukkŭ) niṅṅaḷkkŭ avar̠kkŭ
Instrumental

പ്രായോജിക

ñaṅṅaḷāl (also ñaṅṅāl) nammāl niṅṅaḷāl avarāl
Locative

ആധാരിക

ñaṅṅaḷil nammil niṅṅaḷil avaril (also avaṟkal)
Sociative

സംയോജിക

ñaṅṅaḷōḍŭ nammōḍŭ niṅṅaḷōḍŭ avarōḍŭ

Other nouns

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 		മരങ്ങ​ൾ
maraṅṅaḷ 		ആന
āṉa 		ആനക​ൾ
āṉakaḷ 		മനുഷ്യൻ
maṉuṣyaṉ 		മനുഷ്യർ
maṉuṣyaṟ 		പട്ടി
paṭṭi 		പട്ടികൾ
paṭṭigaḷ
Vocative മരമേ
maramē 		മരങ്ങളേ
maraṅṅaḷē 		ആനേ
āṉē 		ആനക​ളേ
āṉakaḷē 		മനുഷ്യാ
maṉuṣyā 		മനുഷ്യരേ
maṉuṣyarē 		പട്ടീ
paṭṭī 		പട്ടികളേ
paṭṭikaḷē
Accusative മരത്തെ
maratte 		മരങ്ങളെ
maraṅṅaḷe 		ആനയെ
āṉaye 		ആനക​ളെ
āṉakaḷe 		മനുഷ്യനെ
maṉuṣyaṉe 		മനുഷ്യരെ
maṉuṣyare 		പട്ടിയെ
paṭṭiye 		പട്ടികളെ
paṭṭikaḷe
Genitive മരത്തിൻ്റെ
marattiṉd̠e 		മരങ്ങളുടെ
maraṅṅaḷuḍe 		ആനയുടെ
āṉayuḍe 		ആനക​ളുടെ
āṉagaḷuḍe 		മനുഷ്യൻ്റെ
maṉuṣyaṉd̠e 		മനുഷ്യരുടെ
maṉuṣyaruḍe 		പട്ടിയുടെ
paṭṭiyuḍe 		പട്ടികളുടെ
paṭṭikaḷuḍe
Dative മരത്തിന്
marattiṉŭ 		മരങ്ങൾക്ക്
maraṅṅaḷkkŭ 		ആനയ്ക്ക്
āṉaykkŭ 		ആനക​ൾക്ക്
āṉakaḷkkŭ 		മനുഷ്യന്
maṉuṣyaṉŭ 		മനുഷ്യർക്ക്
maṉuṣyaṟkkŭ 		പട്ടിയ്ക്ക്
paṭṭiykkŭ 		പട്ടികൾക്ക്
paṭṭikaḷkkŭ
Instrumental മരത്താൽ
marattāl 		മരങ്ങളാൽ
maraṅṅaḷāl 		ആനയാൽ
āṉayāl 		ആനക​ളാൽ
āṉakaḷāl 		മനുഷ്യനാൽ
maṉuṣyaṉāl 		മനുഷ്യരാൽ
maṉuṣyarāl 		പട്ടിയാൽ
paṭṭiyāl 		പട്ടികളാൽ
paṭṭikaḷāl
Locative മരത്തിൽ
marattil 		മരങ്ങളിൽ
maraṅṅaḷil 		ആനയിൽ
āṉayil 		ആനക​ളിൽ
āṉakaḷil 		മനുഷ്യനിൽ
maṉuṣyaṉil 		മനുഷ്യരിൽ
maṉuṣyaril 		പട്ടിയിൽ
paṭṭiyil 		പട്ടികളിൽ
paṭṭikaḷil
Sociative മരത്തോട്
marattōḍŭ 		മരങ്ങളോട്
maraṅṅaḷōḍŭ 		ആനയോട്
āṉayōḍŭ 		ആനക​ളോട്
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

  • 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.[109] 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, "
    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".[110] 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 braille

Aside from the Malayalam script, the Malayalam language has been written in other scripts like

Lakshadweep Islands.[112][113]

Malayalam script

A Malayalam signboard from Kannur, Kerala. Malayalam is official language in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puduchery

Historically, several scripts were used to write Malayalam. Among these were the Vatteluttu,

Southern Brahmi variation, which gave rise to the modern Malayalam script. The modern Malayalam script bears high similarity to Tigalari script, which was used for writing Tulu language in Coastal Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts) and the northernmost Kasaragod district of Kerala.[21]
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 named

anusvāra and visarga.[114][115]
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 GPL license by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation at the Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kochi, Kerala.

Chillu letters

A chillu (ചില്ല്, cillŭ), or a chillaksharam (ചില്ലക്ഷരം, cillakṣaram), is a special consonant letter that represents a pure consonant independently, without help of a virama. Unlike a consonant represented by an ordinary consonant letter, this consonant is never followed by an inherent vowel. Anusvara and visarga fit this definition but are not usually included. ISCII and Unicode 5.0 treat a chillu as a glyph variant of a normal ("base") consonant letter.[116] 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 ṇa ണ കൂൺ (kūṇ, "mushroom")
ൻ CHILLU N ṉa ന Chillu of dental – alveolar nasal ṉa. അവൻ (avaṉ, "he")
ർ CHILLU RR ṟa റ Historically stood for ra ര, not ṟa റ. അവർ (avar̠, "they")
ൽ CHILLU L la ല കാൽ (kāl, "foot")
ൾ CHILLU LL ḷa ള അവൾ (avaḷ, "she")
ൿ CHILLU K ka ക Not in modern use വാൿചാതുരി (doesn't occur word finally.)
ൔ CHILLU M ma മ Not in modern use
ൕ CHILLU Y ya യ Not in modern use
ൖ CHILLU LLL ḻa ഴ Not in modern use

Number system and other symbols

Praślēṣam ഽ Corresponds to
Malayalam
: പ്രശ്ലേഷം, praślēṣam)
Malayalam date mark ൹ Used in an abbreviation of a date.
Danda । Archaic punctuation marks.
Double danda ॥

Numerals

Main article: Malayalam numerals

Malayalam numbers and fractions are written as follows. These are archaic and no longer used. Instead, the common Hindu-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 for 1⁄4 (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 the Tamil numeral system.

11 20 21 30 110 10,099
൰൧ ൨൰ ൨൰൧ ൩൰ ൱൰ ൰൲൯൰൯

For example, the number "2013" is read in Malayalam as രണ്ടായിരത്തി 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 number ൨൲൰൩.[117]

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 be ൧൦൦൦൦൦൦.[118]

Fractions

In Malayalam you can transcribe any fraction by affixing (-il) after the denominator followed by the numerator, so a fraction like 7⁄10 would be read as പത്തിൽ ഏഴ് (pattil ēḻŭ) 'out of ten, seven' but fractions like 1⁄2 1⁄4 and 3⁄4 have distinct names (ara, kāl, mukkāl) and 1⁄8 (arakkāl) 'half quarter'.[118]

Vattezhuthu alphabet

Further information: Vatteluttu
A medieval Tigalari manuscript (Bears high similarity with modern Malayalam script)

Vatteluttu (

Malayalam: വട്ടെഴുത്ത്, Vaṭṭezhuthŭ, "round writing") is a script that had evolved from Tamil-Brahmi and was once used extensively in the southern part of present-day Tamil Nadu and in Kerala
.

Malayalam was first written in Vattezhuthu. The

Kolezhuthu, was used until about the 19th century mainly in the Malabar-Cochin area.[123]

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 write Tamil, 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 the Manipravalam. One of the oldest examples of the Manipravalam literature, Vaishikatantram (വൈശികതന്ത്രം, Vaiśikatantram), dates back to the 12th century,[124][125] 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.[119][122]

Another variant form, Malayanma, was used in the south of Thiruvananthapuram.[123] 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.[126]

Grantha

Further information: Grantha script
A Chera era Grantha inscription

According to

Malayali, Havyaka Brahmins and Tulu Brahmin people, but was originally only applied to write Sanskrit. 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.[127][128] In Malabar, this writing system was termed Arya-eluttu (ആര്യ എഴുത്ത്, Ārya eḻuttŭ),[129] meaning "Arya writing" (Sanskrit is Indo-Aryan language while Malayalam is a Dravidian language
).

Karshoni

East Syriac Script Thaksa (Chaldean Syrian Church, Thrissur, Kerala, India)

Maḏnḥāyā or "Eastern" Syriac script with special orthographic features, and vocabulary from Malayalam and East Syriac. This originated in the South Indian region of the Malabar 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

The

Muslim community.[136][137]

Literature

Main article: Malayalam literature

The Sangam literature can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.[42] According to Iravatham Mahadevan, the earliest Malayalam inscription discovered until now is the Edakal-5 inscription (ca. late 4th century – early 5th century) reading ī pazhama (transl. 'this is old').[138] Although this has been disputed by many scholars who regard it as a regional dialect of Old Tamil.[139] The use of the pronoun ī and the lack of the literary Tamil -ai ending are archaisms from Proto-Dravidian rather than unique innovations of Malayalam.[note 2]

The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition:[59] Malayalam Nada, Tamil Nada and Sanskrit Nada.[59]

  • Classical songs known as Nadan Pattu[59]
  • Manipravalam of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam. Niranam poets[141] Manipravalam Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar wrote Manipravalam poetry in the 14th century.[59]
  • The folk song rich in native elements

political radicalism.[148] Malayalam literature has been presented with six Jnanapith awards, the second-most for any Dravidian language and the third-highest for any Indian language.[149][150]

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 Ramacharitam and Vaishikatantram, both from the 12th century.[151][59]

The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, Bhashakautalyam (12th century) on

Unnunili Sandesam written in the 14th century is amongst the oldest literary works in Malayalam language.[152] Cherusseri Namboothiri of 15th century (Kannur-based poet), Poonthanam Nambudiri of 16th century (Perinthalmanna-based poet), Unnayi Variyar of 17th–18th centuries (Thrissur-based poet), and Kunchan Nambiar of 18th century (Palakkad-based poet), have played a major role in the development of Malayalam literature into current form.[59] The words used in many of the Arabi Malayalam works, which dates back to 16th–17th centuries are also very closer to modern Malayalam language.[59] The basin of the river Bharathappuzha, which is otherwise known as River Ponnani, and its tributaries, have played a major role in the development of modern Malayalam Literature.[153][59]

By the end of the 18th century some of the

Christian missionaries from Kerala started writing in Malayalam but mostly travelogues, dictionaries and religious books. Varthamanappusthakam (1778), written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar[154] is considered to be the first travelogue in an Indian language. The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE.[22]

Folk Songs

For the first 600 years of the

Mappila songs (Muslim songs) were also folk songs.[22]

Old and Middle Malayalam

Main articles: Old Malayalam and Middle Malayalam

The earliest known poems in Malayalam, Ramacharitam and Thirunizhalmala, 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 name Cheeramakavi who, according to poet Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer, was Sree Veerarama Varman, a king of southern Kerala from AD 1195 to 1208.[155] However the claim that it was written in Southern Kerala is expired on the basis of new discoveries.[156] 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 in Kasaragod district in North Malabar region.[156] They cite the use of certain words in the book and also the fact that the manuscript of the book was recovered from Nileshwaram in North Malabar.[157] The influence of Ramacharitam is mostly seen in the contemporary literary works of Northern Kerala.[156] The words used in Ramacharitam such as Nade (Mumbe), Innum (Iniyum), Ninna (Ninne), Chaaduka (Eriyuka) are special features of the dialect spoken in North Malabar (Kasaragod-Kannur region).[156] Furthermore, the Thiruvananthapuram mentioned in Ramacharitham is not the Thiruvananthapuram in Southern Kerala.[156] But it is Ananthapura Lake Temple of Kumbla in the northernmost Kasaragod district of Kerala.[156] The word Thiru is used just by the meaning Honoured.[156] Today it is widely accepted that Ramacharitham was written somewhere in North Malabar (most likely near Kasaragod).[156]

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.[46]

The works including Unniyachi Charitham, Unnichirudevi Charitham, and Unniyadi Charitham, are written in

Zamorin of Calicut, also belong to Middle Malayalam.[32][59]

Modern Malayalam

The poem Krishnagatha written by Cherusseri Namboothiri, who was the court poet of the king Udaya Varman Kolathiri (1446–1475) of Kolathunadu, is written in modern Malayalam.[59] The language used in Krishnagatha is the modern spoken form of Malayalam.[59] It appears to be the first literary work written in the present-day language of Malayalam.[59] During the 16th century CE, Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan from the Kingdom of Tanur and Poonthanam Nambudiri from the Kingdom of Valluvanad followed the new trend initiated by Cherussery in their poems. The Adhyathmaramayanam Kilippattu and Mahabharatham Kilippattu written by Ezhuthachan and Jnanappana written by Poonthanam are also included in the earliest form of Modern Malayalam.[59] The words used in most of the Arabi Malayalam works, which dates back to 16th–17th centuries, are also very closer to modern Malayalam language.[59] P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval work Keralolpathi, which describes the Parashurama legend and the departure of the final Cheraman Perumal king to Mecca, to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.[63]

Thunchan Parambu, Tirur, Malappuram

Kunchan Nambiar, the founder of Thullal movement, was a prolific literary figure of the 18th century.[59]

Impact of European scholars

Cover page of Nasranikal okkekkum ariyendunna samkshepavedartham which is the first book to be printed in Malayalam in 1772.

The British printed Malabar English Dictionary[158] by Graham Shaw in 1779 was still in the form of a Tamil-English Dictionary.[159] Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar wrote the first Malayalam travelogue called Varthamanappusthakam 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.[160] He lived in Thalassery for around 20 years. He learned the language from well established local teachers Ooracheri Gurukkanmar from Chokli, a village near Thalassery and consulted them in works. He also translated the Bible into Malayalam.[161][162]

In 1821, the

Marthomite movement in the mid-19th century called for replacement of Syriac by Malayalam for liturgical purposes. By the end of the 19th century Malayalam replaced Syriac as language of Liturgy
in all Syrian Christian churches.

1850–1904

See also: Malayalam journalism and Venmani School
Malayalam letters on old Travancore Rupee coin

Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar, (1861–1914) from Thalassery was the author of first Malayalam short story, Vasanavikriti. After him innumerable world class literature works by was born in Malayalam.[59]

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.[165]

Abhijnanasakuntalam

.[59]

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 the Venmani School were Venmani Achhan Nambudiripad (1817–1891), Venmani Mahan Nambudiripad (1844–1893), Poonthottam Achhan Nambudiri (1821–1865), Poonthottam Mahan Nambudiri (1857–1896) and the members of the Kodungallur Kovilakam (Royal Family) such as Kodungallur Kunjikkuttan Thampuran. The style of these poets became quite popular for a while and influenced even others who were not members of the group like Velutheri 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.[59]

Twentieth century

In the second half of the 20th century,

Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, have gained international recognition.[73][74][75][166]

Prose

The travelogues written by S. K. Pottekkatt were turning point in the travelogue literature.[59] The writers like Kavalam Narayana Panicker have contributed much to Malayalam drama.[22]

Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai turned away from party politics and produced a moving romance in Chemmeen (Shrimps) in 1956. For S. K. Pottekkatt and Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, who had not dabbled in politics, the continuity is marked in the former's Vishakanyaka (Poison Maid, 1948) and the latter's Ntuppuppakkoranendarnnu (My Grandpa had an Elephant, 1951). The non-political social or domestic novel was championed by P. C. Kuttikrishnan (Uroob) with his Ummachu (1955) and Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum (Men and Women of Charm, 1958).[59]

In 1957 Basheer's Pathummayude 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 of M. T. Vasudevan Nair and T. Padmanabhan upon the scene. Front runners in the post-modern trend include Kakkanadan, O. V. Vijayan, E. Harikumar, M. Mukundan and Anand.[59]

Kerala has the highest media exposure in India with newspapers publishing in nine languages, mainly English and Malayalam.[167][168]

Poetry

Contemporary Malayalam poetry deals with social, political, and economic life context. The tendency of the modern poetry is often towards

political radicalism.[148]

See also

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Sources

Further reading

English
Malayalam

Notes

  1. ^ Obsolete
  2. ^ Only occurs after ṉ.
  3. ^ Often transliterated as zh by Malayalis and Tamils, may also be transliterated as ẓ or r̤ by some others.
  1. ^ "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".[34]
  2. ^ "*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."[140][page needed]

External links

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