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മലയാളം Malayāḷam
Malayalam in Malayalam script
Native to India
Region Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahé (Puducherry)
Ethnicity Malayali
Native speakers
38 million  (2007)[1]
Malayalam alphabet (Brahmic)
Malayalam Braille
Official status
Official language in
 Indian states: Kerala (State),[2] Lakshadweep (Territory), Puducherry (Territory)
Regulated by Academy for Malayalam literature, Government of Kerala
Language codes
ISO 639-1 ml
ISO 639-2 mal
ISO 639-3 mal
Glottolog mala1464[3]
Malayalam-speaking area

Malayalam /mæləˈjɑːləm/[4] (മലയാളം, Malayāḷam ? [mɐləjaːɭəm]), is a language spoken in India, predominantly in the state of Kerala. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was designated a Classical Language in India in 2013.[5] Malayalam has official language status in the state of Kerala and in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages and is spoken by some 38 million people. Malayalam is also spoken in the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; with more populace in the Nilgiris, Kanyakumari and Coimbatore districts of Tamil Nadu, and the Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts of Karnataka.[6][7][8]

Malayalam most likely originated from Middle Tamil (Sen-Tamil) in the 6th century.[9] An alternative theory proposes a split in even more ancient times.[9] Malayalam incorporated many elements from Sanskrit through the ages and today over eighty percent of the vocabulary of Malayalam in scholarly usage is from Sanskrit.[10] 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 Vattezhuttu script, and later the Kolezhuttu, which derived from it.[11] 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.[12] This developed into the modern Malayalam script.[13] Many medieval liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam.[14] The oldest literary work in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated from between the 9th and 11th centuries.[9] The first travelogue in any Indian language is in Malayalam, titled as Varthamanappusthakam written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785.[15][16]

Due to its lineage deriving from both Tamil and Sanskrit, the Malayalam alphabet has the largest number of letters among the Indian languages.[17] Malayalam script includes letters capable of representing all the sounds of Sanskrit and all Dravidian languages.As Malayalam language is developed from dravidian language Sen-Tamizh,the base of Malayalam is Sen Tamizh itself.[18][19][20]


The word Malayalam probably originated from the Malayalam/Tamil words mala meaning hill, and elam meaning region.[21] 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.[22] The language Malayalam is alternatively called Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malean, Maliyad, and Mallealle.[23]

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.[24]


The Tamil Chera Dynasty of Kerala came to an end in Kerala in 1102. Kerala was the integral part of the Pandyan Kingdom and Tamil was the state language of Kerala until 1310. After the fall of Villavar Tamils in 1310 after the attack of Delhi Sultanate under Malik Kafur Kerala was dominated by Tulu-Nepalese people who were migrants from Ahichatra who used Sanskrit and Prakrit. Many subcastes of Tulu Bunt such as Nayara, Menava, Kuruba and Samantha appeared in Kerala.Samanthas became the Kings of this Matriarchal society.This led to the decline of Tamil in Kerala. Still the Indigenous language of Kerala Malayanma otherwise called Malayalam or Malayalam-Tamil or Malayala Thamozhi or Lingua Malabar Tamul continued to be used until 1820.

Kerala had three types of languages after this period

1) Malayanma or Malayalma or Malayalam-Tamil was the native Dravidian language of Kerala a form of Kodunthamil. Malayanma used little or no Sanskrit and used Tamil Prosody.[25] Ravikutti Pilla Por (1630 ad) Ananthapura Varnanam(1750)Vadakkan Pattu (17th century) display no Sanskrit and purely Dravidian language. Ramacharitham also resembles Malayanma but with more Tamil words. Malayanma was called Naana Moona in Travancore as it started with the letters Na Ma. Malayanma used Vatteluthu (Vatteluttu alphabet), Kolezhuthu or Tamil Script. Itty Achudan who compiled Hortus Malabaricus used Kolezhuthu to write it. Majority of the indigenous Dravidian Malayalees used Malayanma until the 19th century when British banned it. Malayanma was the language of indigenous Pillai(Vellala)feudal aristocracy and Panicker(Villavar) of ancient Chera Kingdom. Most of the Malayanma books were lost as the British banned Malayanma in 1820.

Lingua Malabar Tamul was the Liturgical language of Christians after the Portuguese arrival. It is a form of Malayalam-Tamil written with either Portuguese script or Tamil Script. During the Portuguese and Dutch period thousands of books were printed in Lingua Malabar Tamul or Lingua Malabarica (Kerala language). Lingua Malabarica was printed at Quilon, Ambazhakkadu (Ambalacatta) near Angamaly and also Thalassery. Flos Sanctorum printed at Cochin in 1577 is still preserved at Copenhagen.[26] Ambalacatta near Angamaly, and also Cochin had the press during the Portuguese and Dutch periods where Lingua Malabar books were printed. Until 1820 Lingua Malabar Tamul continued to be the major language of Kerala. Keralas Christians never used Modern Malayalam or Sanskrit prior to the arrival of British missionaries in the 19th century. Portuguese organised a Tamil army under Vallikada Panicker in the 16th century. When these Tamils mixed with the Portuguese and Dutch a strong Cochin Mestizo or Mestico community evolved.[27] Though they initially used Portuguese alphabets to print Lingua Malabar they were using Tamil scripts latter.after Portuguese left in 1660 Syrian churches became dominant and Mestizos and their various subgroups (Toepass, Castizo,Lascar) disappeared. Still the Lingua Malabar Tamul continued to be printed in Ambalacatta and was in usage until 1820. Malayalam in that era signified either Malayanma or Lingua Malabar Tamul until the 19th century. Malabar(Malayalam) English dictionary printed in 1796 by Graham Shaw was a Tamil-English dictionary.[28]

3)Grantha Bhasa which was used exclusively by Namputhiri Brahmins of Kerala which contained 80 percent Sanskrit and few Malayalam words. Grantha Bhasa was used by migrants from Ahichatra which was written using a form of Tulu Script called Tigalari Script.Tulu-Grantha Bhasa had its origin at Karnataka where Sanskrit books were written using Tigalari alphabet. Grantha Bhasa was used exclusively by Nambuthiris who were less than 0.3 percent of the population. Mandara Ramayana written in Tulu language by Mandara Kesava Bhatta in the 15th century was closely related to the ADHYATHMA RAMAYANAM written by Ezhuthachan in the 16th century. Adhatyamia Ramayanam is the first book to use Tulu-Malayalam Script or Tigalari Script. Grantha-Malayalam books written by Nambuthiris in that era contained more than 80 percent Sanskrit and less than 20 percent Malayanma words. Grantha Bhasa used Sanskrit Grammar instead of Malayanma grammar.Grantha Bhasha had less than 10 books until the 19th century. The discovery that Sanskrit was closely related to German led missionaries of German origin such as Arnos Pathiri (Johann Ernst Hanxleden) to show interest in Grantha Bhasa.Johann Ernst Hanxleden wrote Grantha Bhasayude Vyaharanam in 1699 first ever Grammar book in Grantha Bhasa.

Tulu-Grantha Bhasa remained a minority language until the British made it the official language and started calling it Malayalam in the 19th century. The Church Mission Society established at Kottayam in 1815 started teaching Grantha Bhasa to Syrian Christians.In 1819 Benjamin Bailey (missionary) started mixing Malayanma with Granthabhasa and called it Middle Malayalam.Benjamin Bailey who was also a master of Tulu language made the first Tulu-Malayalam types(Tigalari)as used in Grantha Bhasa in 1819.The Malayalam Bible produced by Benjamin Bailey 1829 was overtly Sanskrit and was considered inconprehensible.[29] British established a Sanskrit college under Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara in 1830. When the efforts to make Sanskrit based Grantha Bhasa as liturgical language British-German missionaries such as Hermann Gundert added more of Dravidian words of Malayanma to the Grantha Bhasa and created the Modern Malayalam which use Tulu (Tigalari alphabet) to write Malayalam. Like Grantha Bhasa modern Malayalam uses Sanskrit Grammar instead of Malayanma Grammar.

The British manipulations gave Sanskrit a preeminent position in Kerala.Sanskrit or Modern Malayalam was never used by Christians of Kerala prior to British arrival.Thus by teaching Christians Sanskrit and Grantha Bhasa they could integrate Christians with the Namputhiris. Majority of the Malayanma speaking native Dravidian people of Kerala lost their language and Grammar when British never printed the Palm Leaf books written in Malayanma.

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.[30] Robert Caldwell, in his book A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of 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.[22] Either way, it is generally agreed that by the end of the 13th century a written form of the language emerged which was definitely different from Tamil.[30]

Proto-South-Central Dravidian
This tree diagram depicts the genealogy of the primary Dravidian languages spoken
in South India.

The earliest known poem in Malayalam, Ramacharitam, dated to the 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 Nasrani Sasanas (dated to mid‑8th century A.D.).[22] 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.[30]




Dr.Hermann Gundert, (1814 – 1893), a German missionary and scholar 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.[32] 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 Holy Bible into Malayalam.[33][34]

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. 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.[35][36]

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.[37] Hermann Gundert from Stuttgart, Germany, started the first Malayalam newspaper, Rajya Samacaram in 1847 at Talasseri. It was printed at Basel Mission.[38]




Malayalam is spoken mostly in the state of Kerala and adjoining areas. As "Mala" (Chera) means "mountain", the word "Malayaalam" obviously refers to either people or the language of the mountainous region. Rama-charitam, which was composed in the 14th century A.D., 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.

Malayalam as a distinct language arose due to Political and Geographical isolation, the impact of Christianity and Islam, and the arrival of the Namboodiri Brahmins a little over a thousand years ago, all created conditions favorable to the development of the local dialect Malayalam. The Namboodiri grafted a good deal of Sanskrit onto the local dialect and influenced its physiognomy. Popular and religious songs were composed first.

Thunchathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan














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.



Impact of English education[edit]

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 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 to the assistance given by him to the Church Mission and London Mission Societies, a number of schools were started.

Prose literature[edit]



Short Stories[edit]




Drama and poetry[edit]




1905 to 1947[edit]






Social dramas[edit]


Poetry – the Romantic impact[edit]




Post-independence period[edit]

Malayalam is one of the 22 official languages of India. The Kerala Official Language (Legislation) Act, 1969, declares Malayalam the official language of Kerala.[39][40]

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.[41] 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 Puducherry.


Dialects of Malayalam are distinguishable at regional and social levels,[42] 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.[43]

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:




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


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-Thrissur
  6. South Malabar
  7. South Eastern Palghat
  8. North Western
  9. Central Malabar
  10. Wayanad
  11. North Malabar
  12. The Peak Dialect



Geographic distribution and population[edit]


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.[45] There were 7,093 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2006.[46] The 2001 Canadian census reported 7,070 people who listed Malayalam as their mother tongue. The 2006 New Zealand census reported 2,139 speakers.[47] 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[edit]

Main article: Malayalam literature

The earliest written record resembling Malayalam is the Vazhappalli inscription (ca. 830 CE).[48] 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[49] Manipravalam Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar wrote Manipravalam poetry in the 14th century.
  • The folk song rich in native elements


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[51] written in the 14th century is amongst the oldest literary works in Malayalam language.

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[52] is considered to be the first travelogue in an Indian language. Church Mission Society in association with the Syriac Orthodox Church started a seminary at Kottayam in 1819 and also started a press which printed Malayalam books in the 19th century. Malayalam and Sanskrit were increasingly studied by Christians of Kottayam and Pathanamthitta. By the end of the 19th century Malayalam replaced Syriac as language of Liturgy in the Syrian Christian churches.




The first letter in Malayalam
  Short Long
Front Central Back Front Central Back
Open   /a/ അ a     /aː/ ആ ā  



Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal mm n n ɳ ɲñ ŋ
Stop plain pp bb t d t * ʈ ɖ t͡ʃc d͡ʒj kk ɡg
aspirated ph bh t̪ʰth d̪ʱdh ʈʰṭh ɖʱḍh t͡ʃʰch d͡ʒʱjh kh ɡʱgh
Fricative f ഫ* f s ʂ ɕś hh
Approximant central ʋv ɻ jy
lateral ll ɭ
Rhotic ɾʲr 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 row here [2].
  • The voiceless unaspirated plosives, the nasals and the laterals can be geminated.[53]

Number system and other symbols[edit]

(Malayalamപ്രശ്ലേഷം, 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 () is erroneously shown as the glyph for 0.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 100 1000 ¼ ½ ¾


Malayalam has a canonical word order of SOV (subject–object–verb) as do other Dravidian languages.[54] Both adjectives and possessive pronouns precede the nouns they modify. Malayalam has 6[55] or 7[56] grammatical cases. Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood and aspect, but not for person, gender or number except in archaic or poetic language.



Personal pronouns[edit]


Singular Plural
Nominative ñjān 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[edit]


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 marathinte maraṅṅaḷuṭe ānayuṭe ānakaḷuṭe manuṣyante manuṣyaruṭe paṭṭiyuṭe paṭṭikaḷuṭe
Dative marathinu maraṅṅaḷkku ānaykku ānakaḷkku manuṣyanu manuṣyarkku paṭṭiykku paṭṭikaḷkku
Instrumental marathāl maraṅṅaḷāl ānayāl ānakaḷāl manuṣyanāl manuṣyarāl paṭṭiyāl paṭṭikaḷāl
Locative marathil maraṅṅaḷil ānayil ānakaḷil manuṣyanil manuṣyaril paṭṭiyil paṭṭikaḷil
Sociative marathōṭu maraṅṅaḷōṭu ānayōṭu ānakaḷōṭu manuṣyanōṭu manuṣyarōṭu paṭṭiyōṭu paṭṭikaḷōṭu

Words adopted from Sanskrit[edit]




Writing system[edit]

A Malayalam translation of the Qurʾān in Arabi Malayalam script


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.[59][60] 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.


Malayalam has been written in other scripts like Roman, Syriac[61][62][63] and Arabic. Suriyani Malayalam was used by Saint Thomas Christians (also known as Nasranis) until the 19th century.[61][62][63] Arabic scripts particularly were taught in madrasahs in Kerala and the Lakshadweep Islands.[64][65]

External influences[edit]


The regional dialects of Malayalam can be divided into thirteen dialect areas.[67] They are as follows:

South Travancore Central Travancore West Vempanad
North Travancore Kochi-Thrissur South Malabar
South Eastern Palghat North Western Palghat Central Malabar
Wayanad North Malabar Kasaragod

According to Ethnologue, the dialects are:[23]


The community dialects are: Namboodiri, Nair, Moplah (Mapilla), Pulaya, and Nasrani.[23]



See also[edit]


  2. ^ Official languages, UNESCO, retrieved 2007-05-10 
  3. ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Malayalam". Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. 
  7. ^ "Kodagu-Kerala association is ancient". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 26 November 2008. 
  8. ^ "Virajpet Kannada Sahitya Sammelan on January 19". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 9 December 2008. 
  10. ^ Malayalam literary survey, Volume 27. Kēraḷa Sāhitya Akkādami. 2005. It is roughly estimated that a stunning eighty percentage of the vocabulary of the scholarly usage of the languages like Malayalam of the Dravidian stock is constituted by Sanskrit 
  11. ^ "(C. Radhakrishnan) Grantha, Vattezhuthu, Kolezhuthu, Malayanma, Devanagiri, Brahmi and Tamil alphabets". Retrieved 2012-02-20. 
  12. ^ Epigraphy - Grantha Script Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology
  14. ^ Manipravalam The Information & Public Relations Department, Government of Kerala.
  15. ^ Menon, A. Sreedhara (2008). The legacy of Kerala (1st DCB ed. ed.). Kottayam, Kerala: D C Books. ISBN 9788126421572. 
  16. ^ Varthamanappusthakam
  18. ^ Jayaseelan, K.A. (2000). "Malayalam Literature". Students' Britannica India 3. Popular Prakashan. p. 349. ISBN 978-0-85229-760-5. Retrieved 15 December 2014. 
  20. ^ "Malayalam". ALS International. Retrieved 19 June 2011. 
  21. ^ S. N. Sadasivan (2000). A social history of India. p. 296. ISBN 978-81-7648-170-0. 
  23. ^ a b c d "Ethnologue report for language code: mal". Retrieved 2012-02-20. 
  24. ^ A. R. Rajaraja Varma (2000) [First published 1896]. "Peedika". In Zacharia, Dr. Scaria. Kerala Panineeyam: Grammar of Malayalam (in Malayalam). Kottayam, Kerala, India....: D C Books. p. 1. ISBN 81-7130-672-1. 
  25. ^ Dissertation the second on the Malayálma language [by F.W. Ellis]. (Google eBook) 1815 P.21
  26. ^
  27. ^ Fort Cochin in Kerala, 1750-1830 Anjana Singh Published by Brill (2010) ISBN 9789004168169, p. 114
  28. ^
  29. ^ Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century Front Cover Timothy C. Tennent Kregel Academic, 2010 P.307
  30. ^ a b c The Written Languages of the World: A Survey of the Degree and Modes of Use : India : Book 1 Constitutional Languages. Presses Université Laval. 1978. p. 307. 
  32. ^ Rajyasamacharam | Kerala Press Academy. Retrieved on 2013-07-28.
  33. ^ Herman Gundert | Kerala Press Academy. Retrieved on 2013-07-28.
  36. ^ "Flos Sanctorum in Tamil and Malaylam in 1578". Retrieved 2012-02-20. 
  37. ^ "Banjamin Bailey", The Hindu, 5 February 2010
  38. ^ Rajya Samacaram, "1847 first Newspaper in Malayalam", Kerala Government
  39. ^
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Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]