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This article is about the 1965 Indian film. For the novel on which the film is based on, see Chemmeen (novel). 1965 Indian filmChemmeenPosterDirected byRamu KariatScreenplay byS. L. Puram SadanandanBased onChemmeenby Thakazhi Sivasankara PillaiProduced byBabu Ismail Sait (Chemmeen Babu)StarringSheelaMadhuKottarakkara
Sreedharan NairSathyan, Jerrardh JosekuttyCinematographyMarcus Bartley, U. RajagopalEdited byHrishikesh MukherjeeK. D. GeorgeMusic bySalil ChowdhuryProductioncompany Kanmani FilmsRelease date 19 August 1965 (1965-08-19) CountryIndiaLanguageMalayalamBudget₹8 lakhs[1]Box office₹40 lakhs[1] Chemmeen (lit. 'The Prawn') is a 1965
Indian Malayalam-language romance film, based on the novel of the same name by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. It was adapted into a screenplay by S. L. Puram Sadanandan, directed by Ramu Kariat, and produced by Babu Ismail Sait under the banner Kanmani Films. The film tells the story of a pre-marital and later extra-marital relationship between
Karuthamma, the daughter of an ambitious fisherman, and Pareekutty, the son of an affluent trader. The theme of the film is a popular legend among the fishermen communities along the coastal Kerala State in southern India regarding chastity. If a married fisher woman is faithless when her husband is out in the sea, the Sea Goddess (Kadalamma
literally meaning Mother Sea) would consume him. The film's cast includes Sheela as Karuthamma, Madhu as Pareekutty, Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair as Chembankunju, and Sathyan as Palani. It has cinematography by Marcus Bartley and U. Rajagopal, and editing by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and K. D. George. The original score and songs were
composed by Salil Chowdhury, with lyrics by Vayalar, and songs featuring the voices of K. J. Yesudas, P. Leela, Manna Dey and Santha P. Nair. The film released on 19 August 1965. It received strongly positive critical reviews and was recognised as a technically and artistically brilliant film. It is usually cited as the first notable creative film in South
India and is one of the popular cult classics in Malayalam cinema.[2][3] It was also the first South Indian film to win the Indian President's Gold Medal for the Best Film, which it did so in 1965. It was screened at various international film festivals and won awards at the Cannes and Chicago festivals. The film was included in the list of 100 greatest
Indian films by IBN Live.[4] Chemmeen was dubbed and released in Hindi as Chemmeen Lahren and in English as The Anger of the Sea. A sequel, Thirakalkkappuram, was released in 1998.[5] Plot This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. (December 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Karuthamma (Sheela) is the daughter of an ambitious fisherman, Chembankunju (Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair). She is in love with a young fish trader, Pareekutty (Madhu). Chembankunju's only aim in life is to own a boat and net. Pareekutty finances
Chembankunju to realise this dream. This is on a condition that the haul by the boat will be sold only to him. Karuthamma's mother Chakki (Adoor Bhavani) comes to know about the love affair of her daughter with Pareekutty, and reminds her daughter about the life they lead within the boundaries of strict social tradition and warns her to keep away
from such a relationship. The fisherfolks believe that a fisherwoman has to lead a life within the boundaries of strict social traditions. Karuthamma sacrifices her love for Pareekutty and marries Palani (Sathyan), an orphan discovered by Chembankunju in the course of one of his fishing expeditions. Following the marriage, Karuthamma accompanies
her husband to his village, despite her mother's sudden illness and her father's requests to stay. In his fury, Chembankunju disowns her. On acquiring a boat and a net and subsequently adding one more, Chembankunju becomes more greedy and heartless. With his dishonesty, he drives Pareekutty to bankruptcy. After the death of his wife,
Chembankunju marries Pappikunju (C. R. Rajakumari), the widow of the man from whom he had bought his first boat. Panchami (Lata), Chembankunju's younger daughter, leaves home to join Karuthama, on arrival of her step mother. Chembankunju's savings is manipulated by his second wife. The setbacks in life turns Chembankunju mad.
Meanwhile, Karuthamma has endeavoured to be a good wife and mother, but scandal about her old love for Pareekutty spreads in the village. Palani's friends ostracise him and refuse to take him fishing with them. By a stroke of fate, Karuthamma and Pareekutty meet one night and their old love is awakened. Palani, at sea alone and baiting a shark
(Jerrardh Josekutty), is caught in a huge whirlpool and is swallowed by the sea. Next morning, Karuthamma and Parekutty, are also found dead hand in hand, washed ashore. At a distance, there lies a baited dead shark and Palani. Cast Sheela as Karuthamma Madhu as Pareekkutty Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair as Chembankunju Sathyan as Palani
Adoor Bhavani as Chakki Latha Raju as Panchami Adoor Pankajam as Nalla Pennu S. P. Pillai as Achankunju Rajakumari Venu as Pappikkunju Philomina Paravoor Bharathan Nilambur Ayisha Jerrardh Josekutty as Shark Production Novel adaptation Main article: Chemmeen (novel) Kariat bought the rights from Thakazhi for ₹ 8000, a comparatively
large sum for a Malayalam novel then.[6][7] With adapting the novel, Ramu Kariat was taking a big risk as everybody in the film circle was almost certain that the film would be no patch on the novel.[8] Filming Once Ramu Kariat had decided to make a film based on the novel, he approached several people including the Kerala State Government for
funds to produce the film. On one of these journeys, he met Babu Ismail Sait (Kanmani Babu). Then in his early twenties, Kanmani Babu agreed to finance the film.[6] Although the novel was set in the coastal area of Alappuzha, The film was shot from Nattika beach in Thrissur and Varkala Beach in Thiruvananthapuram .[9] Ramu Kariat wanted to
shoot the film in the exact locations mentioned in Thakazhi's novel. But some people at Purakkad demanded rent for their boats, forcing Kariat to shift the location to Nattika, a place he was familiar with.[6] In the 40th anniversary of the release of the film, Madhu described how the fisherfolk of Nattika cooperated by offering their homes and clothing
for the filming. He also described how Sathyan escaped being drowned in the sea during the shooting.[10] After the outdoor shoot was done Marcus Bartley had to leave as he had to complete a Dilip Kumar film. Rajagopal gave the finishing touches to the film.[6] Awards National Film Award for Best Feature Film[11] Certificate of Merit at the
Chicago International Film Festival Gold Medal at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Cinematography – Marcus Bartley[12] Significance The film was included in the list of 100 greatest Indian films by IBN Live.[4][13][14] Soundtrack ChemmeenSoundtrack album by Salil ChowdhuryReleased1965GenreWorld MusicLabelHMVProducerBabu Ismail
SaitSalil Chowdhury chronology Chand Aur Suraj(1965) Chemmeen(1965) 'Ezhuraathrikal'(1968) The music was composed by Salil Chowdhary and the lyrics were written by Vayalar Ramavarma. Chemmeen marked Salil Chowdhary's debut in South Indian music. No. Song Singers Lyrics Length (m:ss) 1 "Kadalinakkare Ponore" K. J. Yesudas Vayalar
Ramavarma 3:48 2 "Maanasamaine Varoo" Manna Dey Vayalar Ramavarma 3:12 3 "Pennaale Pennaale" K. J. Yesudas, P. Leela, Chorus Vayalar Ramavarma 5:39 4 "Puthan Valakkare" K. J. Yesudas, P. Leela, Chorus, K. P. Udayabhanu, Shantha P. Nair Vayalar Ramavarma 3:19 5 Theme Music Instrumental 2:20 Footnotes ^ a b Pradeep, K (13 August
2015). "Behind the scenes of Chemmeen". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 11 April 2017. ^ Venkiteswaran, C. S. (13 August 2015). "Chemmeen: 50 Years of a Classic". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 14 June 2021. ^ Gupta 1980, Chemmeen (1965), by Ramu Kariat in Kerala, is usually cited as the first notable creative film in the
South. ^ a b "'Mayabazar' is India's greatest film ever: IBNLive poll" Archived 4 February 2015 at WebCite. IBN Live. 12 May 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013. ^ ^ a b c d ^ "                                                     ". Malayala Manorama. 1 June 2011. Archived from the original on 4 April 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2011. ^ "Cinema limits freedom of viewers". The Hindu.
Chennai, India. 28 January 2008. Archived from the original on 29 January 2008. Retrieved 27 May 2011. ^ "Thrissur " Nattika Beach". Keralatourism.com. Retrieved 29 May 2011. ^ G. Jayakumar (25 November 2005). "Remembering a classic". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2011. ^
"Chemmeen won the National Award". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 27 June 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2012. ^ "Fifty and still refreshing" Archived 9 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine. The Hindu. 11 August 2006. Retrieved 24 May 2011. ^ "100 Years of Indian Cinema: The 100 greatest Indian films of all time". IBN Live. 26
April 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013. ^ "IBNLive Poll: Vote for India's greatest film of all time". IBN Live. 26 April 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013. Bibliography Gupta, CD (1980). "New Directions in Indian Cinema". Film Quarterly. 34 (1): 32–42. doi:10.1525/fq.1980.34.1.04a00070. JSTOR 1211852. B. Vijayakumar (22 November 2010). "Chemmeen
1965". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. "Celebrating 40 years of a movie classic". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 13 October 2005. Archived from the original on 3 November 2005. External links Chemmeen at IMDb Retrieved from " Dravidian language Not to be confused with Malay language.
Malayalam             , MalayalamMalayalam in Malayalam scriptPronunciation[mɐlɐjäːɭɐm]; pronunciation (help·info)Native toIndia MalaysiaRegionKerala with border communities in the Kodagu, and Dakshina Kannada of Karnataka, Nilgiris, Kanyakumari districts of Tamil Nadu, Lakshadweep and Mahé (Puducherry)EthnicityMalayaliNative speakers35
million (2011–2019)[1][2][3][4]L2 speakers: 700,000[3]Language familyDravidian Southern Dravidian[5]Tamil–KannadaTamil–KodaguTamil-MalayalamMalayalam languagesMalayalamEarly formsKarintamil Old Malayalam Middle Malayalam Dialects Jeseri (Lakshadweep), Arabi Malayalam, Suriyani, Judeo-Malayalam, Beary Writing system Malayalam
script (Brahmic) Malayalam Braille Vattezhuth (historical) Kolezhuthu (historical) Malayanma (historical) Grantha (historical) Arabi Malayalam script (historical/rarely used now) Suriyani Malayalam (historical) Hebrew script Latin script (informal) Official statusOfficial language in India Kerala[6] Lakshadweep Puducherry (Mahé) Regulated byKerala
Sahitya Akademi, Government of KeralaLanguage codesISO 639-1mlISO 639-2malISO 639-3malGlottologmala1464Linguasphere49-EBE-ba 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. Play media A Malayalam speaker, recorded in South Africa
Malayalam (/ˌmæləˈjɑːləm/;[7] Malayalam:                 , Malayāḷam ?, [mɐlɐjäːɭɐm] (listen)) is a Dravidian language[8] spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India and is spoken by 2.88% of Indians. Malayalam has official
language status in Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé),[9][10][11] and is spoken by 34 million people worldwide.[12] Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Nilgiris and Kanyakumari, districts of Tamil
Nadu. Due to Malayali expatriates in the Persian Gulf, Malayalam is also widely spoken in the Gulf countries. Malayalam was designated a "Classical Language of India" in 2013.[13] The mainstream view holds that Malayalam descends from early Middle Tamil and separated from it sometime after the c. 9th century CE.[14] A second view argues for
the development of the two languages out of "Proto-Dravidian" or "Proto-Tamil-Malayalam" in the prehistoric era,[15] although this is generally rejected by historical linguists.[16] It is generally agreed that the Quilon Syrian copper plates of 849/850 CE is the available oldest inscription written in Old Malayalam. The oldest literary work in Malayalam,
distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated from between the 9th and 11th centuries.[15] The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu script.[8] The current Malayalam script is based on the Vatteluttu script, which was extended with Grantha script letters to adopt Indo-Aryan loanwords.[8][17] 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.[18] The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE.[19] The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam
Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785.[20][21] Etymology The word Malayalam originated from the words mala, meaning 'mountain', and alam, meaning 'region' or '-ship' (as in "township"); Malayalam thus translates directly as 'the mountain region'. The term originally referred to the land of the Chera dynasty,
and only later became the name of its language.[22] The language Malayalam is alternatively called Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malabari, Malean, Maliyad, Mallealle, and Kerala Bhasha.[23][24][25] Kerala was usually known as Malabar in the foreign trade circles in the medieval era.[24] Earlier, the term Malabar had also been used to denote
Tulu Nadu and Kanyakumari which lie contiguous to Kerala in the southwestern coast of India, in addition to the modern state of Kerala.[26][27] The people of Malabar were known as Malabars. Until the arrival of the East India Company, the term Malabar was used as a general name for Kerala, along with the term Kerala.[24] From the time of
Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century CE) itself, the Arab sailors used to call Kerala as Male. The first element of the name, however, is attested already in the Topography written by Cosmas Indicopleustes. This mentions a pepper emporium called Male, which clearly gave its name to Malabar ('the country of Male'). The name Male is thought to come
from the Malayalam word Mala ('hill').[28][29] Al-Biruni (973–1048 CE) is the first known writer to call this country Malabar.[24] The Arab writers had called this place Malibar, Manibar, Mulibar, and Munibar. Malabar is reminiscent of the word Malanad which means the land of hills.[25] According to William Logan, the word Malabar comes from a
combination of the Malayalam word Mala (hill) and the Persian/Arabic word Barr (country/continent).[25] Hence the natives of Malabar Coast were known as Malabarese or Malabari in the foreign trade circles.[24][25] The words Malayali and Malabari are synonymous to each other.[24][25] Similarly the words Malayalam and Malabar are also
synonymous to each other.[24][25] The language spoken in the hilly region of ancient Tamilakam later came to be known as Malayalam (meaning The land of hills).[25] The term Malayalam actually denotes the geographical peculiarity of Malabar Coast which lies west to the mountain ranges of Western Ghats.[24][25] The earliest extant literary works
in the regional language of present-day Kerala probably date back to as early as the 12th century. At that time the language was known by the name Kerala Bhasha. The named identity of this language appears to have come into existence only around the 16th century, when it was known as "Malayayma" or "Malayanma"; the words were also used to
refer to the script and the region. According to Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese visitor who visited Kerala in the early 16th century CE, the people in the southwestern Malabar coast of India from Mangalore in north to Kanyakumari in south had a unique language, which was called "Maliama" by them.[30] Despite having similar names, Malayalam has
no relationship whatsoever with the Malay language. History The Quilon Syrian copper plates (849/850 CE) is the available oldest inscription written in Old Malayalam.[31] 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.[32] Malayalam script in mobile phone The western dialect of Old Tamil spoken in the southwestern Malabar Coast of India was known as Malanaattu Tamil/Malabar Tamil (Meaning the Tamil of the hilly region/the Tamil of Malabar) since the ancient Sangam period (300 BCE - 300 CE).[24] Due to the geographical separation of the Malabar
Coast from Tamil Nadu, and the presence of Western Ghats mountain ranges in between these two geographical regions, the dialect of Tamil spoken in the territory of the western Malabar Coast of the ancient Chera kingdom was different from that spoken in the Tamil-mainland.[24] The generally held view is that Malayalam was the western coastal
dialect of Medieval Tamil (Karintamil)[33] and separated from Middle Tamil (Proto-Tamil-Malayalam) sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries.[34][35] The renowned poets of Classical Tamil such as Paranar (1st century CE), Ilango Adigal (2nd-3rd century CE), and Kulasekhara Alvar (9th century CE) were Keralites.[24] The Sangam works can
be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.[36] 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.[15] 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.[37] Some linguists, on the other hand, claim that an inscription found from Edakkal Caves, Wayanad, which is assigned to the 4th century or early 5th century,[38] is the oldest available inscription in
Malayalam, as they contain two modern Malayalam words, Ee (This) and Pazhama (Old), those are not found even in the Oldest form of Tamil.[39] Robert Caldwell, in his 1856 book "A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages", opined that Malayalam branched from Classical Tamil and over time gained a large
amount of Sanskrit vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs.[22] 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. The Malayalam script began to diverge from the Tamil-Brahmi script in the 8th and
9th centuries. And by the end of the 13th century a written form of the language emerged which was unique from the Tamil-Brahmi script that was used to write Tamil.[40] Old Malayalam (Pazhaya Malayalam), an inscriptional language found in Kerala from c. 9th to c. 13th century CE,[41] is the earliest attested form of Malayalam.[42][43] The start
of the development of Old Malayalam from a western coastal dialect of contemporary Tamil (Karintamil) can be dated to c. 7th - 8th century CE.[44][8][45] It remained a west coast dialect until c. 9th century CE or a little later.[46][44] The origin of Malayalam calendar dates back to year 825 CE.[47][48][49] The formation of the language is mainly
attributed to geographical separation of Kerala from the Tamil country[46] and the influence of immigrant Tulu-Canarese Brahmins in Kerala (who also knew Sanskrit and Prakrit).[42] 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.[24] The Old Malayalam language was employed in several official records and transactions (at the level of the Chera Perumal kings as well as the upper-caste (Nambudiri) village temples).
[42] Most of the inscriptions in Old Malayalam were found from the northern districts of Kerala, those lie adjacent to Tulu Nadu.[42] Old Malayalam was mostly written in Vatteluttu script (with Pallava/Southern Grantha characters).[42] 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.[42][50][51] Ramacharitam and Thirunizhalmala are the possible literary works of Old Malayalam found so far. The Old Malayalam got gradually developed into Middle Malayalam (Madhyakaala Malayalam) by 13th century CE.
[52] The traces of the adjuncts of verbs had disappeared by this period.[53] The Jains also seemed to have encouraged the study of the Malayalam language by this period.[54] The Malayalam literature also completely got diverged from Tamil literature by this period. The works including Unniyachi Charitham, Unnichiruthevi Charitham, and Unniyadi
Charitham, are written in Middle Malayalam, those date back to 13th and 14th centuries of Common Era.[55][24] The Sandesha Kavyas of 14th century CE written in Manipravalam language include Unnuneeli Sandesam.[55][24] Kannassa Ramayanam and Kannassa Bharatham by Rama Panikkar of the Niranam poets who lived between 1350 and
1450, give a clear idea of this language.[56] Ulloor has opined that Rama Panikkar holds the same position in Malayalam literature that Edmund Spenser does in English literature.[56] The Champu Kavyas written by Punam Nambudiri, one among the Pathinettara Kavikal (Eighteen and a half poets) in the court of the Zamorin of Calicut, also belong to
Middle Malayalam.[24][55] The literary works of this period were heavily influenced by Manipravalam, which was a combination of contemporary Malayalam and Sanskrit.[24] The word Mani-Pravalam literally means Diamond-Coral or Ruby-Coral. The 14th-century Lilatilakam text states Manipravalam to be a Bhashya (language) where "Malayalam
and Sanskrit should combine together like ruby and coral, without the least trace of any discord".[57][58] The scripts of Kolezhuthu and Malayanma were also used to write Middle Malayalam, in addition to Vatteluthu and Grantha script those were used to write Old Malayalam.[24] The literary works written in Middle Malayalam were heavily
influenced by Sanskrit and Prakrit, while comparing them with the modern Malayalam literature.[55][24] Copy of Ezhuthachan's stylus and Adhyatma Ramayanam preserved at Thunchan Parambu, Tirur The Middle Malayalam was succeeded by Modern Malayalam (Aadhunika Malayalam) by 15th century CE.[24] 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.[55] The language used in Krishnagatha is the modern spoken form of Malayalam.[55] 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.[55] Grantha, Tigalari, and Malayalam scripts It is
Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan who is also credited with the development of Malayalam script into the current form through the intermixing and modification of the erstwhile scripts of Vatteluttu, Kolezhuthu, and Grantha script, which were used to write the inscriptions and literary works of Old and Middle Malayalam.[55] He further eliminated excess
and unnecessary letters from the modified script.[55] Hence, Ezhuthachan is also known as The Father of modern Malayalam.[55] The development of modern Malayalam script was also heavily influenced by the Tigalari script, which was used to write the Tulu language, due to the influence of Tuluva Brahmins in Kerala.[55] The language used in the
Arabi Malayalam works of 16th-17th century CE is a mixture of Modern Malayalam and Arabic.[55] They follow the syntax of modern Malayalam, though written in a modified form of Arabic script, which is known as Arabi Malayalam script.[55] 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.[59] Kunchan Nambiar introduced a new literary form called Thullal, and Unnayi Variyar introduced reforms in Attakkatha literature.[55] The printing, prose literature, and Malayalam journalism, developed after the latter-
half of 18th century CE. Modern literary movements in Malayalam literature began in the late 19th century with the rise of the famous Modern Triumvirate consisting of Kumaran Asan,[60] Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer[61] and Vallathol Narayana Menon.[62] In the second half of the 20th century, Jnanpith winning poets and writers like G. Sankara
Kurup, S. K. Pottekkatt, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, O. N. V. Kurup, and Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, had made valuable contributions to the modern Malayalam literature.[63][64][65][66][67] Later, writers like O. V. Vijayan, Kamaladas, M. Mukundan, Arundhati Roy, Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, have gained international
recognition.[68][69][70] 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.[24][55] Examples of
vocabulary from various origins Main article: List of loanwords in Malayalam Word Original word Language of origin Meaning                                 (Kattŭ) Khaṭ Arabic letter       or     (Jaṉāla or Jaṉal) Janela Portuguese window                     (Kakkūsŭ) Kakhuis Early Modern Dutch toilet 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 thirteen dialect areas.[71] They are as follows: Kasaragod North Malabar Wayanad Kozhikode
Eranad Valluvanad (South Malabar) Palakkad Thrissur-Kochi North Travancore West Vembanad Central Travancore South Travancore Lakshadweep According to Ethnologue, the dialects are:[23] Malabar, Nagari-Malayalam, North Kerala, Central Kerala, South Kerala, Kayavar, Namboodiri, Nair, Mappila, Pulaya, Nasrani, and Kasargod. The
community dialects are: Namboodiri, Nair, Arabi Malayalam, Pulaya, and Nasrani.[23] Whereas both the Namboothiri and Nair dialects have a common nature, the Arabi Malayalam is among the most divergent of dialects, differing considerably from literary Malayalam.[23] Jeseri is a dialect of Malayalam spoken mainly in the Union territory of
Lakshadweep which is nearer to Kerala. Of the total 33,066,392 Malayalam speakers in India in 2001, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke the Yerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations like Eranadan.[72] The dialects of Malayalam spoken in the districts like Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, and
Malappuram in the former Malabar District have few influences from Kannada.[24] For example, the words those start with the sound "V" in Malayalam become "B" in these districts as in Kannada.[24] 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.[24] 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.[24] Similarly the Malayalam spoken in the southern districts of Kerala, i.e., Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam-Pathanamthitta area is influenced by Tamil.[24]
Concerning 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 example, 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. 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 differences.[citation needed] Divergence among dialects of Malayalam embraces 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 with 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 Malappuram, Palakkad, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram 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 Trissur Idukki 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 Thiruvananthapuram), 'katirpu' (Kottayam), 'krali' (Pathanamthitta), 'pattachi', 'gnannil' (Kollam), 'pochata' (Palakkad) etc. referring to the same item.[citation needed] Labels such as
"Nampoothiri Dialect", "Mappila Dialect", and "Nasrani Dialect" refer to overall patterns constituted by the sub-dialects spoken by the subcastes or sub-groups of each such caste. The most outstanding features of the major communal dialects of Malayalam are summarized below: Lexical items with phonological features reminiscent of Sanskrit (e.g.,
viddhi meaning 'fool'), bhosku 'lie', musku 'impudence', dustu 'impurity', and eebhyan and sumbhan (both meaning 'good-for-nothing fellow') abound in Nampoothiri dialect.[73] The dialect of the Nair said to be proper Malayalam dialect. The Sanskrit 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 with the parameter of time.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] The Muslim dialect, also known as Arabi Malayalam, shows maximum divergence from the literary Standard Dialect of Malayalam. It is very much influenced by Arabic and Persian rather than by Sanskrit or by English. The
retroflex continuant zha of the literary dialect is realised in the Muslim dialect as the palatal ya. In some other dialects of Northern Kerala too, zha of the literary dialect is realised as ya.[74][75] The Syrian Christian or Nasrani 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.[76][77][78] Tamil spoken in the
Kanyakumari district has influences from Malayalam language.[79] 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.[80] According to Sooranad Kunjan Pillai who compiled the authoritative Malayalam lexicon, the other
principal languages whose vocabulary was incorporated over the ages were Pali, Prakrit, Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, Chinese, Syriac, Dutch, and Portuguese.[81] Many medieval liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam.[82] The influence of Sanskrit was very prominent in formal Malayalam
used in literature. Malayalam has a substantially high number of Sanskrit loanwords but these are seldom used.[83] Loanwords 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 northern region of Kerala. Another Muslim dialect called Beary bashe is used in the extreme northern part of Kerala and the southern part of Karnataka. For a comprehensive list of loan words, see Loan words in Malayalam. Geographic distribution and population
See also: Kerala Gulf diaspora and States of India by Malayalam speakers Rank State/Union Territory Malayalam speakers 2011[84] State's proportion 2011 — India 34,838,819 2.88% 1 Kerala 32,413,213 97.03% 2 Lakshadweep 54,264 84.17% 3 Andaman and Nicobar Islands 27,475 7.22% 4 Puducherry 47,973 3.84% 5 Karnataka 701,673 1.14% 6
Tamil Nadu 957,705 2.70% Malayalam is a language spoken by the native people of southwestern India (from Mangalore to Kanyakumari) and the islands of Lakshadweep in 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 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. Malayalam was the most spoken language in erstwhile Gudalur taluk (now Gudalur and Panthalur taluks) of Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu which accounts for 48.8% population and it was the second most spoken language in Mangalore and Puttur taluks of South Canara accounting for 21.2% and 15.4% respectively according to 1951
census report.[85] 25.57% of the total population in the Kodagu district of Karnataka are Malayalis, in which Malayalis form a majority in Virajpet Taluk.[86] 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.[87] As per the 1991 census data, 28.85% of all Malayalam speakers in India spoke a second language and 19.64% of the total knew three or more languages. Just before independence, Malaya attracted many Malayalis. Large numbers of Malayalis have settled in
Chennai, Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Mysuru and Delhi. Many 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.[88] There are 344,000 of Malayalam speakers in Malaysia.[citation needed] There were 11,687 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2016.[89]The 2001 Canadian census reported 7,070 people who listed Malayalam as their mother tongue, mainly in Toronto. The 2006 New Zealand census reported 2,139 speakers.[90] 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 and Doha. The faster growth of languages spoken in the southern parts of India, like Malayalam, compared to those spoken in the north of the country, like Hindi, shows exactly which regions
Indian immigrants to the US are coming from.[91] Malayalam is 8th in the list of top ten fastest-growing foreign first languages spoken in English schools in UK, according to a report. [92] Phonology Spoken Malayalam For the consonants and vowels, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbol is given, followed by the Malayalam character and
the ISO 15919 transliteration.[93] The current Malayalam script bears high similarity with Tigalari script, which was used for writing the Tulu language, spoken in coastal Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts) and the northernmost Kasargod district of Kerala.[18] 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/ i / /̆ * ŭ /u/ u /iː/ ī /uː/ ū Mid /e/ e /ə/ * a /o/ o /eː/ ē /oː/ ō Open /a/ a /aː/ ā */ /̆ is the saṁvr̥ tōkāram, 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 ⟨                      ⟩. According to one author, this alternative form ⟨         ⟩ is historically more correct, though the simplified form without a vowel sign u is common nowadays.[94] */a/ (phonetically central: [ä]) is represented as basic or the
"default" vowel in the Abugida script. Malayalam has also borrowed the Sanskrit diphthongs of /äu/ (represented in Malayalam as , au) and /ai/ (represented in Malayalam as , ai), although these mostly occur only in Sanskrit loanwords. Traditionally (as in Sanskrit), four vocalic consonants (usually pronounced in Malayalam as consonants followed
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ̄ 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
by the saṁvr̥ tōkāram, which is not officially a vowel, and not as actual vocalic consonants) have been classified as vowels: vocalic r ( , /r /̆ , r̥ ), long vocalic r ( , /rɨː/, r̥ )̄ , vocalic l ( , /l /̆ , l̥) and long vocalic l ( , /lɨː/, l̥).
that use them. Some authors say that Malayalam has no diphthongs and /aj, aw/ are clusters of V+glide j/w[95] while others consider all V+glide clusters to be diphthongs /aj, aw, ej, oj, ja/ as in kai, auṣadhaṁ, deivam, poikko and kāriaṁ[96] Vowel length is phonemic and all of the vowels have minimal pairs for example paṭṭŭ "silk", pāṭṭŭ "song", koḍi
"flag", kōḍi "crore" (10 million), er̠ i "throw", ēr̠ i "lots"[93] Consonants The word Malayāḷalipi (Meaning: Malayalam script) written in the Malayalam script Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Postalveolar/Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n̪ ⟨n⟩ n ⟨ṉ⟩ ɳ ⟨ṇ⟩ ɲ ⟨ñ⟩ ŋ ⟨ṅ⟩ Stop/Affricate plain p ⟨p⟩ b ⟨b⟩ t̪ ⟨t⟩ d̪ ⟨d⟩ t                                         ⟨ṯ⟩ (d)[97]    ⟨ḏ⟩ ʈ ⟨ṭ⟩ ɖ ⟨ḍ⟩
t͡ɕ~t͡ʃ ⟨c⟩ d͡ʑ~d͡ʒ ⟨j⟩ k ⟨k⟩ ɡ ⟨g⟩ aspirated pʰ ⟨ph⟩ bʱ ⟨bh⟩ t̪ʰ ⟨th⟩ d̪ ʱ ⟨dh⟩ ʈʰ ⟨ṭh⟩ ɖʱ ⟨ḍh⟩ t͡ɕʰ~t͡ʃʰ ⟨ch⟩ d͡ʑʱ~d͡ʒʱ ⟨jh⟩ kʰ ⟨kh⟩ ɡʱ ⟨gh⟩ Fricative f ⟨f⟩ s ⟨s⟩ ʂ ⟨ṣ⟩ ɕ~ʃ ⟨ś⟩ h ⟨h⟩ Approx. central ʋ ⟨v⟩ ɻ ⟨ḻ⟩[98] j ⟨y⟩ lateral l ⟨l⟩ ɭ ⟨ḷ⟩ Tap ɾ ⟨r⟩ Trill r ⟨ṟ⟩ Like in other Dravidian languages the retroflex series are true sub apical retroflex ie it's the
bottom part of the tongue which contacts the roof.[99] All of the alveolars except /s/ are apical.[93] /ca, cha, ja, jha/ can either be postalveolar or alveolo-palatal depending upon the speaker, dialect and the word; they are allophones.[100] The alveolar nasal once had a separate character ⟨ ⟩ that is now obsolete (it can be seen in the ⟨ṉ⟩ row here [8])
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, eṉṉāl ('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 unaspirated alveolar stop also had a separate character ⟨ ⟩ but it has become obsolete, as the sound only occurs in geminate form (when geminated it is written with a below another ⟨                                           ⟩) or immediately following other
consonants (in these cases, or          are usually written in small size underneath the first consonant). The archaic letter can be found in the ⟨ṯ⟩ row here [9]. The alveolar stop *ṯ developed into an alveolar trill /r/ in many of the Dravidian languages. The stop sound is retained in Kota and Toda (Subrahmanyam 1983). Malayalam still retains the original
(alveolar) stop sound in gemination (ibid).[8] The alveolar trill (ṟ) is pronounced as a [d] when its prenasalized. For example, in the word                         [ende] my, often transcribed as (ṯ).[100] All non geminated voiceless stops and affricate (except for the alveolar one which is often geminated) become voiced at the intervocalic position like most other
Dravidian languages.[93] The geminated velars /k:/ and /ŋ:/ are sometimes but not always palatalized in word medial positions like in the words                                 /kiɖɐk:ugɐ/ vs            /iɾikʲ:ugɐ/ and             /mɐŋ:ɐl/ vs.           /mɐt̪:ɐŋʲ:ɐ/. Although some of the northern dialects might pronounce them as the same.[100][93] The letter represents both /pʰ/, a
phoneme occurring in Sanskrit loanwords, and /f/, which is mostly found in comparatively recent borrowings from European languages. Though nowadays there is a increase in the number of people (especially youngsters) who pronounce /pʰ/ as /f/ like in the word                                            /falam/.[93] Words can only end with either /m, n, ɳ, l, ɭ, r/ (represented with the
Chillu letters) and /m, n, ɳ, l, ɭ/ are unreleased word finally.[101] Words will never begin or end with a geminated consonant. /ɻ, ɭ, ʂ, ŋ, ɳ, t, t̪ʰ, t͡ɕʰ, d͡ʑʱ/ never occur word initially. All consonants appear word medially.[93] The plain stops, affricates, nasals, laterals, the fricatives /s/ and /ɕ/ and approximants other than /ɻ/ can be geminated and
gemination can sometimes change the meaning of the word, e.g.                 /kaɭam/ 'cell',        /kaɭ:am/ 'lie'.[93] /n̪ , ɲ/ only occur in geminated form intervocalically.[100] The retroflex lateral is clearly retroflex, but may be more of a flap [ ] (= [ɺ̢]) 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.[102] /ɾ, l, ɻ/ are very weakly palatalized while /r, ɭ/ are clear.[100] In a
few dialects consonants are no longer aspirated and have merged with the modal voice. Chillu letters A chillu (                        , cillŭ), or a chillaksharam (              , 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.[103] In Unicode 5.1 and later, chillu letters are treated as independent characters, encoded atomically. Chillu letters Letter Unicode name
Base Remarks Examples CHILLU NN ṇa                      (kūṇ, "mushroom") CHILLU N na Chillu of alveolar nasal na.                     (avan, "he") CHILLU RR ṟa Historically stood for ra , not ṟa .                     (avar, "they") CHILLU L la            (kāl, "foot") CHILLU LL ḷa         (avaḷ, "she") CHILLU K ka Not in modern use                        (doesn't occur word finally.)
CHILLU M ma Not in modern use CHILLU Y ya Not in modern use CHILLU LLL ḻa Not in modern use Number system and other symbols Praślēṣam 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 + an apostrophe (:').(Malayalam:                              , 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. Note that there is a confusion about the glyph of Malayalam digit zero. The correct form is oval-shaped, but occasionally the glyph for 1⁄4 ( ) 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
                          Number "11" is written as " " and not " ". "32" is written as "           " similar to the Tamil numeral system. 11 20 21 30 110 10,099                                     For example, the number "2013" is read in Malayalam as                                        (raṇḍāyiratti padimūnnŭ). It is split into:        (raṇḍŭ) : 2 -           (āyiram) : 1000 -
(pattŭ) : 10 -             (mūnnŭ) : 3 - Combine them together to get the Malayalam number                   .[104] And 1,00,000 as " " = hundred( ), thousand( ) (100×1000), 10,00,000 as "                      " = ten( ), hundred( ), thousand( ) (10×100×1000) and 1,00,00,000 as "              " = hundred( ), hundred( ), thousand( ) (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                              . [105] 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                              (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'.[106] Grammar Main article: Malayalam grammar Malayalam has a canonical word order of SOV (subject–object–verb), as do other Dravidian languages.[107] A rare OSV word order occurs in interrogative clauses when the interrogative word is the subject.[108] Both
adjectives and possessive adjectives precede the nouns they modify. Malayalam has 6[109] or 7[110][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.[19] 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 ñāṉ nī avaṉ (voc. avaṉē) avaḷ (voc. avaḷē) ñaṅṅaḷ nām/nammaḷ niṅṅaḷ avar (voc. avarē) Accusative eṉṉe niṉṉe avaṉe avaḷe
ñaṅṅaḷe namme niṅṅaḷe avare Genitive eṉṯe (also eṉ, eṉṉuṭe) niṉṯe (also niṉ, niṉṉuṭe) avaṉṯe (also avaṉuṭe) avaḷuṭe ñaṅṅaḷuṭe (also ñaṅṅuṭe) nammuṭe niṅṅaḷuṭe avaruṭe Dative eṉikku niṉakku avaṉu avaḷkku ñaṅṅaḷkku namukku niṅṅaḷkku avaṟkku Instrumental eṉṉāl niṉṉāl avaṉāl avaḷāl ñaṅṅaḷāl (also ñaṅṅāl) nammāl niṅṅaḷāl (also niṅṅāl) avarāl
Locative eṉṉil (also eṅkal) niṉṉil (also niṅkal) avaṉil (also avaṅkal) avaḷil (also avaḷkal) ñaṅṅaḷil nammil niṅṅaḷil avaril (also avaṟkal) Sociative eṉṉōṭu niṉṉōṭu avaṉōṭu avaḷōṭu ñaṅṅaḷōṭu nammōṭu niṅṅaḷōṭu avarōṭu 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                 maram            maraṅṅaḷ        āṉa        āṉakaḷ            maṉuṣyaṉ            maṉuṣyaṟ         paṭṭi              paṭṭikaḷ Vocative          maramē          maraṅṅaḷē       āṉē      āṉakaḷē           maṉuṣyā            maṉuṣyarē            paṭṭī            paṭṭikaḷē Accusative
         maratte            maraṅṅaḷe       āṉaye           āṉakaḷe            maṉuṣyaṉe               maṉuṣyare                paṭṭiye             paṭṭikaḷe Genitive               marattiṉṯe             maraṅṅaḷuṭe                āṉayuṭe            āṉakaḷuṭe              maṉuṣyaṉṯe               maṉuṣyaruṭe              paṭṭiyuṭe                paṭṭikaḷuṭe Dative             marattinŭ
               maraṅṅaḷkkŭ              āṉaykkŭ              āṉakaḷkkŭ             maṉuṣyaṉŭ                   maṉuṣyaṟkkŭ                       paṭṭiykkŭ                paṭṭikaḷkkŭ Instrumental             marattāl                maraṅṅaḷāl          āṉayāl          āṉakaḷāl           maṉuṣyaṉāl              maṉuṣyarāl             paṭṭiyāl              paṭṭikaḷāl Locative           marattil
            maraṅṅaḷil         āṉayil        āṉakaḷil              maṉuṣyaṉil               maṉuṣyaril               paṭṭiyil               paṭṭikaḷil Sociative           marattōṭŭ              maraṅṅaḷōṭŭ                āṉayōṭŭ           āṉakaḷōṭŭ                maṉuṣyaṉōṭŭ               maṉuṣyarōṭŭ              paṭṭiyōṭŭ              paṭṭikaḷōṭŭ 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, Kr̥ ṣṇa → Kr̥ ṣṇan. 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., "Kr̥ ṣṇa" + "dēva" = "Kr̥ ṣṇadēvan", not "Kr̥ ṣṇandēvan". 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.[111] However, this does not apply to all consonant stems, as "unchangeable" stems such as "manas" ("mind") and "suhr̥ t" ("friend") are identical to the Malayalam nominative singular forms (although the regularly derived "manam" sometimes occurs as an
alternative to "manas"). Sanskrit words describing things or animals rather than people with a stem in short /a/ end with an /m/ in Malayalam. For example,"Rāmāyaṇa" → "Rāmāyaṇam". In most cases, this is actually the same as the Sanskrit accusative case ending, which is also /m/ (or, allophonically, anusvara due to the requirements of 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 "Kr̥ ṣṇa" → "Kaṇṇan".[112] 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 script and Malayalam braille A medieval Tigalari manuscript (Bears high similarity with modern 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 Letters in Malayalam script A signboard including Malayalam at Mina, Saudi Arabia The currently adopted Malayalam script is the only script in India that can be used to write any other language of India as it contain letters to denote both of the Voiced retroflex approximant (/ɻ/) (which is unique to Tamil and
Malayalam in India) and the letters unique to Sanskrit (those are not there in the Tamil script). Historically, several scripts were used to write Malayalam. Among these were the Vatteluttu, Kolezhuthu and Malayanma scripts. But it was the Grantha script, another 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.[18] 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.[113][114] 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. The Arabi Malayalam script, otherwise known as the Ponnani script,[115][116][117] is a writing system - a variant form of the Arabic script with special
orthographic features - which was developed during the early medival period and used to write Arabi Malayalam until the early 20th century CE.[118][119] Though the script originated and developed in Kerala, today it is predominantly used in Malaysia and Singapore by the migrant Muslim community.[120][121] Malayalam has been written in other
scripts like Roman, Syriac[122][77][78] and Arabic. Suriyani Malayalam was used by Saint Thomas Christians (also known as Nasranis) until the 19th century.[122][77][78] Arabic scripts particularly were taught in madrasahs in Kerala and the Lakshadweep Islands.[123][124] Literature Main article: Malayalam literature The Sangam literature can be
considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.[36] 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 (English: 'this is old').[125] Although this has been disputed by other scholars.[126] 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 1] The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition:[55] Malayalam Nada, Tamil Nada and Sanskrit Nada.[55] Classical songs known as Nadan Pattu[55] Manipravalam of the Sanskrit tradition, which
permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam. Niranam poets[128] Manipravalam Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar wrote Manipravalam poetry in the 14th century.[55] The folk song rich in native elements Malayalam literature has been profoundly influenced by poets Cherusseri Namboothiri,[129][55]
Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan,[55] and Poonthanam Nambudiri,[55][130] in the 15th and the 16th centuries of Common Era.[55][131] Unnayi Variyar, a probable 17th-18th century poet,[132] and Kunchan Nambiar, a poet of 18th century,[133] also greatly influenced Malayalam literature in its early form.[55] The words used in many of the Arabi
Malayalam works those date back to 16th-17th centuries of Common Era are also very closer to the modern Malayalam language.[55][134] The prose literature, criticism, and Malayalam journalism began after the latter half of 18th century CE. Contemporary Malayalam literature deals with social, political, and economic life context. The tendency of
the modern poetry is often towards political radicalism.[135] Malayalam literature has been presented with six Jnanapith awards, the second-most for any Dravidian language and the third-highest for any Indian language.[136][137] 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.[138][55] The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, Bhashakautalyam (12th century) on Chanakya's Arthashastra. Adhyatmaramayanam by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan
(known as the father of modern Malayalam literature) 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.[139] 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.[55] 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.[55] 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.[140][55] 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[141] 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.[19] Folk Songs For the
first 600 years of the Malayalam calendar, Malayalam literature remained in a preliminary stage. During this time, Malayalam literature consisted mainly of various genres of songs (Pattu).[55] Folk songs are the oldest literary form in Malayalam.[19] They were just oral songs.[19] Many of them were related to agricultural activites, including Pulayar
Pattu, Pulluvan Pattu, Njattu Pattu, Koythu Pattu, etc.[19] Other Ballads of Folk Song period include the Vadakkan Pattukal (Northern songs) in North Malabar region and the Thekkan Pattukal (Southern songs) in Southern Travancore.[19] Some of the earliest Mappila songs (Muslim songs) were also folk songs.[19] 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.[142] However the claim that it was written in Southern Kerala is expired on the basis of new discoveries.[143] Other experts, like Chirakkal T Balakrishnan Nair, Dr. 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.[143] 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.[144] The influence of Ramacharitam is mostly seen in the contemporary literary works of Northern Kerala.[143] 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).[143] Furthermore, the Thiruvananthapuram mentioned in Ramacharitham is not the Thiruvananthapuram in Southern Kerala.[143] But it is Ananthapura Lake Temple of Kumbla in the northernmost
Kasaragod district of Kerala.[143] The word Thiru is used just by the meaning Honoured.[143] Today it is widely accepted that Ramacharitham was written somewhere in North Malabar (most likely near Kasaragod).[143] 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.[40] 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.[55] 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 literature. Till this time Malayalam indicated two different courses of development depending on its relationship with either Sanskrit or Tamil–Kannada languages.[55] The
earliest literary work in Malayalam now available is a prose commentary on Chanakya's Arthashastra, 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.[55] "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. 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. The Niranam poets also belong to this period of Middle Malayalam.[55][24] The works including Unniyachi Charitham, Unnichirudevi Charitham, and Unniyadi Charitham,
are written in Middle Malayalam, those date back to 13th and 14th centuries of Common Era.[55][24] The Sandesha Kavyas of 14th century CE written in Manipravalam language include Unnuneeli Sandesam[55][24] The literary works written in Middle Malayalam were heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Prakrit, while comparing them with the
modern Malayalam literature.[55][24] The word Manipravalam literally means Diamond-Coral or Ruby-Coral. The 14th-century Lilatilakam text states Manipravalam to be a Bhashya (language) where "Malayalam and Sanskrit should combine together like ruby and coral, without the least trace of any discord".[57][145] The Champu Kavyas written by
Punam Nambudiri, one among the Pathinettara Kavikal (Eighteen and a half poets) in the court of the Zamorin of Calicut, also belong to Middle Malayalam.[24][55] 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.[55] The language used in Krishnagatha is the modern spoken form of Malayalam.[55] It appears to be the first literary work written in the present-day language of Malayalam.[55] 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.[55] 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.[55] 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.[146] The Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam
University is situated at Thunchan Parambu, Tirur, Malappuram It was during the 16th and 17th centuries that later Champu Kavyas were written by the court poets of the Zamorin of Calicut. Their specialty was that they contained both Sanskritic and indigenous elements of poetry to an equal degree, and in that manner were unique.[55] 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.[55] 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.[55] 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