Malayalam /ml?'j??l?m/[3] (??????, Malaya?am ?, Malayalam pronunciation: ?[m?l?

ja
???m]) is a language spoken in India, predominantly in the state of Kerala. It i
s one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was designated a Classical Lang
uage in India in 2013.[4] Malayalam has official language status in the state of
Kerala and in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry. It belongs t
o the Dravidian family of languages, and is spoken by approximately 33 million p
eople according to the 2001 census. Malayalam is also spoken in the neighboring
states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; with more populace in the Nilgiris, Kanyakum
ari and Coimbatore districts of Tamil Nadu, and the Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu
districts of Karnataka.[5][6][7]
Malayalam most likely originated from Middle Tamil (Sen-Tamil) in the 6th centur
y.[8] An alternative theory proposes a split in even more ancient times.[8] Mala
yalam incorporated many elements from Sanskrit through the ages and today over e
ighty percent of the vocabulary of Malayalam in scholarly usage is from Sanskrit
.[9] Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and cour
ts of a region called Tamilakam, including present day Kerala state, a famous ex
ample being Silappatikaram. Silappatikaram was written by Chera prince Ilango Ad
igal from Cochin, and is considered a classic in Sangam literature. Modern Malay
alam still preserves many words from the ancient Tamil vocabulary of Sangam lite
rature. The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vattezhuttu script,
and later the Kolezhuttu, which derived from it.[10] As Malayalam began to freel
y 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.[11] This developed in
to the modern Malayalam script.[12] Many medieval liturgical texts were written
in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam.[13] The ol
dest literary work in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated fro
m between the 9th and 11th centuries.[8] The first travelogue in any Indian lang
uage is in Malayalam, titled as Varthamanappusthakam written by Paremmakkal Thom
a Kathanar in 1785.[14][15]
Due to its lineage deriving from both Sanskrit and Tamil, the Malayalam alphabet
has the largest number of letters among the Indian languages.[16] Malayalam scr
ipt includes letters capable of representing all the sounds of Sanskrit and all
Dravidian languages.[17][18][19]
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Evolution
3 History
3.1 Language
3.1.1 Impact of English education
3.1.2 Prose literature
3.1.3 Short Stories
3.1.4 Novels
3.1.5 Drama and poetry
3.2 1905 to 1947
3.2.1 Novels
3.2.2 Social dramas
3.2.3 Poetry the Romantic impact
3.3 Post-independence period
4 Dialects
5 Geographic distribution and population
6 Development of literature
7 Phonology
7.1 Vowels
7.2 Consonants
7.3 Number system and other symbols
8 Grammar
8.1 Nouns
8.2 Personal pronouns
8.3 Other nouns
8.4 Words adopted from Sanskrit
8.4.1 Nouns
9 Writing system
10 External influences
11 See also
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links