View source for Malayalam

{{Short description|Dravidian language of India}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{Distinguish|text=[[Malay language|Malay]], an Austronesian language}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Malayalam
| nativename       = {{langx|ml|മലയാളം|malayāḷaṁ|label=none}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA-ml|mɐlɐjaːɭɐm|}}; {{Audio|Malayalam.ogg|pronunciation|help=}}
| states           = [[Languages of India|India]]
| region           = [[Southern India]]
* [[Kerala]] 
* [[Tamil Nadu]] <small>([[Kanyakumari district]] and other districts bordering with kerala)</small>
* [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]] <small>([[Mahé district|Mahé]])</small>
*[[Lakshadweep]]
* [[Karnataka]] <small>(in the district of [[Dakshina Kannada|Dakshina]] and [[Kodagu district|Kodagu]])</small><ref name="Offlang">{{cite report|url=http://164.100.166.181/annualreport/52ndReport_CLM_English.pdf|page=124|title=52nd Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India|date=9 August 2021|access-date=6 November 2021|work=[[Government of India]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230807223707/http://164.100.166.181/annualreport/52ndReport_CLM_English.pdf|archive-date=7 August 2023 }}</ref><ref name="kerala.gov.in">{{cite web |url=http://www.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2877&Itemid=2330 |title=Official Language (Legislative) Commission |access-date=5 April 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325003422/http://kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2877&Itemid=2330 |archive-date=25 March 2015}}</ref><ref name="P&ARD Official Languages">{{cite web |url=http://www.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1337&Itemid=3311 |title=P&ARD Official Languages |access-date=5 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401153821/http://kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1337&Itemid=3311 |archive-date=1 April 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| ethnicity        = [[Malayali]]
| speakers_label   = Speakers
| speakers         = [[L1 speakers|L1]]: {{sigfig|37.027180|2}} million
| date             = 2011
| ref              = <ref name="mw">{{cite web|url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-16.html|title=Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India|access-date=26 December 2019|archive-date=15 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815035759/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-16.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="malayalam at ethnologue">{{e27|mal}}</ref><ref>Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. [http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/Language-2011/Statement-1.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181114073426/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/Language-2011/Statement-1.pdf |date=14 November 2018 }}</ref>
| speakers2        = [[L2 speakers|L2]]: {{sigfig|711,700|2}}<ref name="malayalam at ethnologue" />
| familycolor      = Dravidian
| fam2             = Southern
| fam3             = [[South Dravidian languages|Southern I]]
| fam4             = Tamil–[[Kannada dialects|Kannada]]
| fam5             = Tamil–[[Kota language (India)|Kota]]
| fam6             = Tamil–[[Toda language|Toda]]
| fam7             = Tamil–Irula
| fam8             = Tamil–[[Kodava language|Kodava]]–[[Urali language|Urali]]
| fam9             = [[Tamiloid languages|Tamil]]–[[Malayalamoid languages|Malayalam]]
| fam10            = [[Malayalamoid languages|Malayalamoid]]
| ancestor         = [[Old Tamil language|Old Tamil]]
| ancestor2        = [[Middle Tamil language|Middle Tamil]]
| ancestor3        = [[Old Malayalam]]
| ancestor4        = [[Middle Malayalam]]
| dialects             = [[Kasaragod district|Kasaragod]]<Br>[[North Malabar]]<Br>[[Wayanad]]<Br>[[Kozhikode]]<Br>[[Eranad]]<Br>[[Kingdom of Valluvanad|Valluvanad]] <small>([[South Malabar]])</small><Br>[[Palakkad]]<Br>[[Thrissur]]-[[Kochi]]<Br>North [[Travancore]]<Br>West [[Vembanad]]<Br>Central [[Travancore]]<br>South [[Travancore]]<Br>[[Lakshadweep]]<Br>[[Beary language|Beary]]<Br>[[Ravula language|Ravula]]<ref name="Dravidian Encyclopedia">Subramoniam, V. I. (1997). Dravidian encyclopaedia. vol. 3, Language and literature. Thiruvananthapuram: International School of Dravidian Linguistics.
Cit-P-487. [http://worldcat.org/isbn/818569222X Dravidian Encyclopedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929131000/http://worldcat.org/isbn/818569222X |date=29 September 2007 }}</ref><br>[[Jeseri]]<br>[[Arabi Malayalam|Arabi]]<br>[[Suriyani Malayalam|Suriyani]]<br>[[Judeo-Malayalam]]<br>[[Byari dialect|Byari]]
| script           = *[[Malayalam script]] ([[Brahmic scripts|Brahmic]])
*[[Malayalam Braille]]
*[[Vatteluttu alphabet|Vatteluttu]] (historical)
*[[Kolezhuthu|Koleluttu]] (historical)
*[[Malayanma]] (historical)
*[[Grantha alphabet|Grantha]] (historical)
*[[Arabi Malayalam script]] (mostly historical)
*[[Suriyani Malayalam]] (historical)
*[[Hebrew script]]
*[[Latin script]] (informal)
| nation           = *[[Official languages of India]]
** [[Kerala]]<ref>{{Citation |url=http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=22495&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20050928184458/http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=22495&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 September 2005 |title=Official languages |access-date=10 May 2007 |publisher=UNESCO}}</ref>
** [[Lakshadweep]]
** [[Mahé, Puducherry]]
| agency           = *[[Kerala Sahitya Akademi]]
*[[Government of Kerala]]
| iso1             = ml
| iso2             = mal
| iso3             = mal
| imagecaption     = ''Malayalam'' in [[Malayalam script]]
| image            = Word Malayalam.svg
| imagescale       = 
| imageheader      = 
| lingua           = 49-EBE-ba
| map              = Malayalam_language_(ml,_Q36236)_distribution.svg
| mapcaption       = Blue = majority or plurality speak Malayalam 
Light blue = A significant minority speak Malayalam or Malayalam languages are spoken alongside other languages
| glotto           = mala1464
| glottorefname    = Malayalam
| notice           = IPA
| notice2          = Indic
}}

{{Malayalam transliteration}}
{{Infobox ethnonym
|person=Malayāḷi
|people=Malayāḷikaḷ
|language=Malayāḷam
|country=Malayāḷa Nāṭu
}}
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Netha speaking Malayalam.webm|thumb|A Malayalam speaker, recorded in [[South Africa]]]]

'''Malayalam''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|m|æ|l|ə|ˈ|j|ɑː|l|ə|m}};<ref>Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh, p. 300.</ref> {{indic|lang=ml|indic=മലയാളം|trans=Malayāḷam|showlang=false}}, {{IPA-ml|mɐlɐjaːɭɐm|IPA|Malayalam.ogg}}) is a [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian language]] spoken in the Indian state of [[Kerala]] and the union territories of [[Lakshadweep]] and [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]] ([[Mahé district]]) by the [[Malayali]] people. It is one of 22 [[Languages with official status in India|scheduled languages]] of India. Malayalam was designated a "[[Classical Languages of India|Classical Language of India]]" in 2013.<ref>{{cite news|date=24 May 2013|title='Classical' status for Malayalam|work=[[The Hindu]]|location=Thiruvananthapuram, India|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/classical-status-for-malayalam/article4744630.ece|url-status=live|access-date=25 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927134256/http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/classical-status-for-malayalam/article4744630.ece|archive-date=27 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2013-05-24|title=Malayalam gets classical language status|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/malayalam-gets-classical-language-status/|access-date=2021-09-07|website=The Indian Express|language=en|archive-date=7 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210907130207/https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/malayalam-gets-classical-language-status/|url-status=live}}</ref> Malayalam has [[official language]] status in Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry ([[Mahé, Puducherry|Mahé]]),<ref name="kerala.gov.in">{{cite web |url=http://www.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2877&Itemid=2330 |title=Official Language (Legislative) Commission |access-date=5 April 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325003422/http://kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2877&Itemid=2330 |archive-date=25 March 2015}}</ref><ref name="P&ARD Official Languages">{{cite web |url=http://www.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1337&Itemid=3311 |title=P&ARD Official Languages |access-date=5 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401153821/http://kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1337&Itemid=3311 |archive-date=1 April 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mapsofindia.com/lakshadweep/languages.html |title=Languages in Lakshadweep |access-date=5 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150411215005/http://www.mapsofindia.com/lakshadweep/languages.html |archive-date=11 April 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep. Malayalam is spoken by 35 million people in India.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mal/| title=Malayalam| publisher=Ethnologue|access-date=3 March 2024}}</ref>
Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with a significant number of speakers in the [[Kodagu]] and [[Dakshina Kannada]] districts of [[Karnataka]], and [[Kanyakumari district|Kanyakumari]], [[Coimbatore district|Coimbatore]] and [[Nilgiris district|Nilgiris]] district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the [[Malayali diaspora|Malayali Diaspora]] worldwide, especially in the [[Arab states of the Persian Gulf|Persian Gulf countries]], due to the large populations of [[Malayali]] expatriates there. They are a significant population in each city in [[India]] including [[Mumbai]], [[Bengaluru]], [[Chennai]], [[Delhi]], [[Hyderabad]] etc.

The origin of Malayalam remains a matter of dispute among scholars. The mainstream view holds that Malayalam descends from a western coastal dialect of early [[Middle Tamil]] and separated from it sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries.<ref name="ayyar-1936">{{cite book |last=Ayyar |first=Ramaswami |url=https://archive.org/stream/TheEvolutionOfMalayalamMorphology/The-Evolution-of-Malayalam-Morphology|pages=1–37 | title=The Evolution of Malayalam Morphology|year=1936 |publisher=Cochin government press |location=Cochin, Kerala |edition=1st}}</ref><ref name="krishnamurti-2003" /> A second view argues for the development of the two languages out of "Proto-Dravidian" or "Proto-Tamil-Malayalam" either in the prehistoric period or in the middle of the first millennium A.D.{{sfn|Asher|Kumari|1997|p=xxiv}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shulman |first=David |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69zdt |title=Tamil: A Biography |date=2016 |publisher=Harvard University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1g69zdt |jstor=j.ctt1g69zdt |isbn=978-0-674-05992-4}}"There has been a tendency among historical linguists to think of Malayalam as having diverged
directly from Tamil (the Tamil spoken from ancient times in what is today
Kerala), perhaps as late as the thirteenth century. But this view is almost
certainly wrong. Tamil and Malayalam must have separated from one another at
a much earlier stage, perhaps around the middle of the first millennium A.D., as
we can see from several surviving archaic features of Malayalam."</ref>{{sfn|Karashima|2014|loc=p. 6|ps=: Other sources date this split to the 7th and 8th centuries.}}, although this is generally rejected by historical linguists.<ref>S.V. Shanmugam (1976). "Formation and Development of Malayalam", ''Indian Literature'', Vol. 19, No. 3 (May–June 1976), pp. 5–30. {{JSTOR|24157306}} "Yet, some scholars of Malayalam still believe that Malayalam should have originated independently from the Proto-Dravidian at a very early stage [...] The native scholars are unwilling to accept Malayalam as an ''ausbau'' language; instead they take it to be an ''abstand'' language 'language by distance' contrary to historical evidence (pp.9–10)".</ref> The [[Quilon Syrian copper plates]] of 849/850 CE are considered by some to be the oldest available inscription written in [[Old Malayalam]]. However, the existence of Old Malayalam is sometimes disputed  by scholars.<ref name="freeman-2003">{{Cite book|last=Freeman|first=Rich|url=https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520228214/literary-cultures-in-history|title=Literary Cultures in History|publisher=University of California Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-520-22821-4|editor-last=Sheldon|editor-first=Pollock|location=|pages=445–46|chapter=The Literary Culture of Premodern Kerala}}</ref> They regard the [[Chera/Perumals of Makotai|Chera Perumal]] inscriptional language as a diverging dialect or variety of contemporary [[Tamil language|Tamil]].<ref name="freeman-2003" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tintu |first=K.J. |date=2019 |title=The Syrian Christian Copper Plate of Tarisāppaḷḷy, and the Jewish and Muslim Merchants of Early Malabar |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27192872 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=80 |pages=184–191 |jstor=27192872 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref> The oldest extant literary work in Malayalam distinct from the Tamil tradition is ''Ramacharitam'' (late 12th or early 13th century).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Malayalam literature {{!}} Facts, Writers, Poetry, & Examples |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Malayalam-literature |access-date=2023-03-21 |website=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en |archive-date=21 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321055126/https://www.britannica.com/art/Malayalam-literature |url-status=live }}</ref>

The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the [[Vatteluttu alphabet|Vatteluttu script]].<ref name="krishnamurti-2003" /> The current [[Malayalam script]] is based on the Vatteluttu script, which was extended with [[Grantha script]] letters to adopt [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] loanwords.<ref name="krishnamurti-2003">{{cite book|last=Krishnamurti|first=Bhadriraju|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54fV7Lwu3fMC&q=grantha+script|title=The Dravidian Languages|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-1-139-43533-8|access-date=16 November 2020|archive-date=29 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729185642/https://books.google.com/books?id=54fV7Lwu3fMC&q=grantha+script|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Guide to OCR for Indic Scripts: Document Recognition and Retrieval – Advances in Pattern Recognition |author=Venu Govindaraju |author2=Srirangaraj Setlur |publisher=Springer |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WdSR9OJ0kxYC |page=126 |isbn=978-1-84800-329-3 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429090130/https://books.google.com/books?id=WdSR9OJ0kxYC |archive-date=29 April 2016 |url-status=live|author-link=Venu Govindaraju }}</ref> 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 District|Malabar region]].<ref name="vinodh rajan" /> The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book ''[[Kerala Panineeyam]]'' written by [[A. R. Raja Raja Varma]] in late 19th century CE.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018a">{{Cite book|title=Mathrubhumi Yearbook Plus – 2019|publisher=P. V. Chandran, Managing Editor, Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited, Kozhikode|year=2018|location=Kozhikode|page=454|id={{ASIN|8182676444|country=in}}|edition=Malayalam}}</ref> The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam ''[[Varthamanappusthakam]]'', written by [[Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar]] in 1785.<ref>{{cite book |last=Menon |first=A. Sreedhara |title=The legacy of Kerala |year=2008 |publisher=D C Books |location=Kottayam, Kerala |isbn=978-81-264-2157-2 |edition=1st DCB}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://nasrani.net/2010/08/23/the-varthamanappusthakam-cathanar-paremmakkal/ |title=August 23, 2010 Archives |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130427073541/http://nasrani.net/2010/08/23/the-varthamanappusthakam-cathanar-paremmakkal/ |archive-date=27 April 2013}}</ref>

[[Robert Caldwell]] describes the extent of Malayalam in the 19th century as extending from the vicinity of [[Kumbla]] in the north where it supersedes with [[Tulu language|Tulu]] to [[Kanyakumari]] in the south, where it begins to be superseded by [[Tamil language|Tamil]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Caldwell |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PPCYBApSnIC |title=A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Or South-Indian Family of Languages |publisher=Asian Educational Services |year=1998 |isbn=978-81-206-0117-8 |pages=6, 16, 17–19, 20, 21–25 |language=en |quote=Malayalam is spoken along the Malabar coast, on the western side of the Ghauts, or Malaya range of mountains, from the vicinity of Kumbla near Mangalore, where it supersedes Tuļu, to Kanyakumari, where it begins to be superseded by Tamil. (Pages 6, 16, 20, 31)}}</ref> beside the inhabited islands of [[Lakshadweep]] in the [[Arabian Sea]].

== Etymology ==
In a 7th century poem written by the Tamil poet [[Sambandar]] the people of Kerala are referred to as ''malaiyāḷar'' (mountain people).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Chevillard |first=Jean-Luc |date=2008-01-01 |title=The concept of ticai-c-col in Tamil grammatical literature and the regional diversity of Tamil classical literature |url=https://www.academia.edu/4045264}} p.12</ref> The word {{transliteration|ml|Malayalam}} is also said to originate from the words {{transliteration|ml|mala}}, meaning '[[mountain]]', and {{transliteration|ml|alam}}, meaning '[[region]]' or '-ship' (as in "township"); {{transliteration|ml|Malayalam}} thus translates directly as 'the [[mountain]] region'. The term ''[[Malabar Coast|Malabar]]'' was used as an alternative term for ''Malayalam'' in foreign trade circles to denote the southwestern coast of the Indian peninsula, which also means ''The land of hills''.<ref>{{cite book
 | author = V. Nagam Aiya | year=1906
 | title=The Travancore State Manual | publisher=Travancore Government Press
 | url= https://archive.org/details/travancorestate00aiyagoog/page/n10/mode/2up
}}</ref><ref>C. A. Innes and F. B. Evans, ''Malabar and Anjengo, volume 1'', Madras District Gazetteers (Madras: Government Press, 1915), p. 2.</ref><ref>M. T. Narayanan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=kHtbkuXruzwC Agrarian Relations in Late Medieval Malabar] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503225405/https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kHtbkuXruzwC& |date=3 May 2022 }}'' (New Delhi: Northern Book Centre, 2003), xvi–xvii.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Sreedhara Menon|first1=A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FAlXPgAACAAJ&q=%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%87%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%B3+%E0%B4%9A%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%A4%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%82|title=''Kerala Charitram''|date=January 2007|publisher=DC Books|isbn=9788126415885|edition=2007|location=Kottayam|access-date=19 July 2020|archive-date=13 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113141403/https://books.google.com/books?id=FAlXPgAACAAJ&q=%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%87%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%B3+%E0%B4%9A%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%A4%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%82|url-status=live}}</ref> The term originally referred to the western hilly [[land]] of the [[Chera dynasty]] (later [[Zamorin]]s and the [[Kingdom of Cochin]]), [[Mushika dynasty|Kingdom of Ezhimala]] (later [[Kolathunadu]]), and [[Ay kingdom]] (later [[Travancore]]), and only later became the name of its language.<ref name="caldwell" /> The language Malayalam was alternatively called {{transliteration|ml|Alealum}}, {{transliteration|ml|Malayalani}}, {{transliteration|ml|Malayali}}, {{transliteration|ml|Malabari}}, {{transliteration|ml|Malean}}, {{transliteration|ml|Maliyad}}, {{transliteration|ml|Mallealle}}, and {{transliteration|ml|Kerala Bhasha}} until the early 19th century CE.<ref name="ethnologuecom">{{cite web |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mal |title=Ethnologue report for language code: mal |publisher=Ethnologue.com |access-date=20 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628195627/http://www.ethnologue.com/language/mal |archive-date=28 June 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007">{{cite book |last1=Sreedhara Menon |first1=A. |title=''Kerala Charitram'' |date=January 2007 |publisher=DC Books |location=Kottayam |isbn=978-81-264-1588-5 |page=27 |edition=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FAlXPgAACAAJ&q=%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%87%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%B3+%E0%B4%9A%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%A4%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%82 |access-date=19 July 2020 |archive-date=13 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113141403/https://books.google.com/books?id=FAlXPgAACAAJ&q=%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%87%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%B3+%E0%B4%9A%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%A4%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%82 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Malabar Manual (1887), William Logan, Calicut</ref>

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 differentiated by the name ''Kerala Bhasha''. The earliest mention of Malayalam as a language is found outside of Kerala in the 15th century [[Telugu language|Telugu]] work Śrībhīmēśvarapurāṇamu by Śrīnātha.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Veluthat |first=Kesavan |date=2018|title=History and historiography in constituting a region: The case of Kerala |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2348448918759852 |journal=Studies in People's History |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=13–31 |doi=10.1177/2348448918759852 |issn=2348-4489}}</ref> The distinctive "Malayalam" named identity of this [[language]] appears to have come into existence in Kerala only around the [[16th century]], when it was known as "Malayayma" or "Malayanma"; the words were also used to refer to the [[Writing system|script]] and the [[region]].<ref name="arvind raghunathan professor of south asian studies sheldon pollock-2003">{{cite book |author1=Sheldon Pollock |author2=Arvind Raghunathan Professor of South Asian Studies Sheldon Pollock |title=Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ak9csfpY2WoC&pg=PA442 |date=19 May 2003 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-22821-4 |pages=441–442 |access-date=18 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226111650/https://books.google.com/books?id=ak9csfpY2WoC&pg=PA442 |archive-date=26 December 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 [[Kumbla]] in north to [[Kanyakumari]] in south had a unique language, which was called "Maliama" by them.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barbosa |first=Duarte |title=The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and their inhabitants (Volume 2) |publisher=Asian Educational Services |year=1989 |isbn=9788120604513 |pages=1–7 |quote=Per Barbosa, Malabar begins at the point where the kingdom of Narasyngua or Vijayanagar ends, that is at Cumbola (Cambola) on the Chandragiri river.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Barbosa |first1=Duarte |last2=Dames |first2=Mansel Longworth |year=1918 |title=PDF.js viewer |url=https://indianculture.gov.in/libraries/pdf.js/web/viewer.html?file=https%3A%2F%2Ffanyv88.com%3A443%2Fhttps%2Findianculture.gov.in%2Fsystem%2Ffiles%2FdigitalFilesICWeb%2Fnlirepository%2F23567%2F61%2520B%2520275%2520%2528ii%2529%252021.pdf#page=301&zoom=60,0,1344 |access-date=2022-04-24 |website=indianculture.gov.in |publisher=Asian Educational Services |pages=194–198 |archive-date=24 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220424123531/https://indianculture.gov.in/libraries/pdf.js/web/viewer.html?file=https%3A%2F%2Ffanyv88.com%3A443%2Fhttps%2Findianculture.gov.in%2Fsystem%2Ffiles%2FdigitalFilesICWeb%2Fnlirepository%2F23567%2F61%2520B%2520275%2520%2528ii%2529%252021.pdf#page=301&zoom=60,0,1344 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Prior to this [[Early modern period|period]], the people of Kerala usually referred to their language as "Tamil", and both terms overlapped into the [[British Raj|colonial period]].{{refn|group=note|"Prior to this relatively modern coining of "Malayalam", the identity is even more fraught, for Kerala folk more usually referred to their language as "Tamil", just as those in the dominant kingdoms of Tamilnadu, east of the Western Ghats, had from the early centuries C.E. Use of the label "Tamil" continued to overlap with that of "Malayalam" into the colonial period".<ref name="arvind raghunathan professor of south asian studies sheldon pollock-2003" />}}

== History ==
[[File:Quilon Syrian copper plates (849 AD).jpg|thumbnail|The [[Quilon Syrian copper plates]] (849/850 CE) are considered as the oldest available inscription written in [[Old Malayalam]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Narayanan|first=M. G. S.|year=2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YDCngEACAAJ&q=Perumals+of+Kerala|title=Perumals of Kerala: Brahmin Oligarchy and Ritual Monarchy|publisher=CosmoBooks|isbn=9788188765072|location=Thrissur (Kerala)|orig-date=1972|access-date=7 June 2021|archive-date=7 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607091744/https://books.google.com/books?id=0YDCngEACAAJ&q=Perumals+of+Kerala|url-status=live}}</ref> Besides [[Old Malayalam]], the copper plate also contains signatures in [[Arabic]] (Kufic script), [[Middle Persian]] (cursive Pahlavi script) and [[Judeo-Persian]] (standard square [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]) scripts.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cereti|first=C. G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3gOdaiXNKkC&q=Exegisti+Monumenta:+Festschrift+in+Honour+of+Nicholas+Sims-+Williams|title=Exegisti Monumenta: Festschrift in Honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams|publisher=Harrassowitz|year=2009|isbn=978-3-447-05937-4|editor-last=Sundermann|editor-first=W.|location=Wiesbaden|chapter=The Pahlavi Signatures on the Quilon Copper Plates|editor-last2=Hintze|editor-first2=A.|editor-last3=de Blois|editor-first3=F.|access-date=7 June 2021|archive-date=5 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505085830/https://books.google.com/books?id=b3gOdaiXNKkC&q=Exegisti+Monumenta:+Festschrift+in+Honour+of+Nicholas+Sims-+Williams|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

Due to the geographical isolation of the [[Malabar Coast]] from the rest of the [[Indian subcontinent|Indian peninsula]] due to the presence of the [[Western Ghats]] mountain ranges which lie parallel to the coast, the dialect of [[Old Tamil]] spoken in [[Kerala]] was different from that spoken in [[Tamil Nadu]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The mainstream view holds that Malayalam began to grow as a distinct literary language from the western coastal dialect of [[Middle Tamil]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages |title=Dravidian languages – History, Grammar, Map, & Facts |access-date=22 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709173402/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages |archive-date=9 July 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the linguistic separation completed sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries.{{sfn|Karashima|2014|loc=p. 6|ps=: Other sources date this split to the 7th and 8th centuries.}}{{sfnp|Gopinathan Nair|2009|p=682|ps=: "[...]&nbsp;Malayalam emerged from Proto-Tamil–Malayalam; divergence occurred over a period of four or five centuries, from the 8th century onward".}} The renowned poets of [[Old Tamil|Classical Tamil]] such as [[Paranar]] (1st century CE), [[Ilango Adigal]] (2nd–3rd century CE), and [[Kulasekhara Alvar]] (9th century CE) were [[Malayali|Keralites]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The [[Sangam literature|Sangam works]] can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018b"/>

Some scholars however believe that both [[Tamil language|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 language|Tamil]] is misplaced.{{sfn|Asher|Kumari|1997|p=xxiv}} This is based on the fact that Malayalam and several [[Dravidian languages]] on the [[Western Coastal Plains|Western Coast]] have common archaic features which are not found even in the oldest historical forms of literary Tamil.<ref>A. Govindankutty (1972) – From proto-Tamil-Malayalam to West Coast dialects. Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. 14 No. (1/2), pp. 52–60</ref> Despite this, Malayalam shares many common innovations with Tamil that emerged during the early [[Middle Tamil]] period, thus making independent descent impossible.<ref name="ayyar-1936" />{{refn|group=note|Linguist K.M Prabhakar Variar further adds: "It is an accepted principle in comparative linguistics that 'innovations' rather than 'retentions' or 'losses' are to be relied on for sub-grouping of genetically related language. Every member of a language family has a stock of 'retentions of a few proto-features' together with a stock 'innovations'. It is the later that would show the relative distances among the member languages. Therefore, retention of a few proto-features in a particular language does not prove the earlier branching of the same from the proto-language. Malayalam, of course, has retained certain phonological and morphological features which can be reconstructed as belonging to the Proto-Dravidian and which have been lost or have suffered shape changes in the other member-languages. Which language in the Dravidian family doesn't have such retentions? Has anyone measured the relative percentages of retentions of archaic features in the twenty and odd Dravidian languages?".<ref>{{cite book |last=Variar |first=K. M. Prabhakara |date=1980|editor-last=S.V.|editor-first=Subramanian|title=Heritage of the Tamils - Language and Grammar |publisher=International Institute of Tamil Studies|pages=382–392 |chapter=Early Malayalam and ancient Tamil works|isbn=}}</ref>}} For example, [[Old Tamil]] lacks the first and second person plural pronouns with the ending ''{{IAST|kaḷ}}''. It is in the Early Middle Tamil stage that ''{{IAST|kaḷ}}'' first appears:<ref>{{cite book |last=Ayyar |first=Ramaswami |url=https://archive.org/stream/TheEvolutionOfMalayalamMorphology/The-Evolution-of-Malayalam-Morphology|pages=35–37 | title=The Evolution of Malayalam Morphology|year=1936 |publisher=Cochin government press |location=Cochin, Kerala |edition=1st}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
!{{shade|80|color=violet|Language}}
!{{shade|80|color=violet| Plural Pronouns}}
|-
!scope=row {{shade|60|color=violet|[[Old Tamil]]}}
|{{shade|60|color=violet|yām, nām, nīr, nīyir}}
|-
!scope=row {{shade|40|color=violet| [[Middle Tamil]]}}
| {{shade|40|color=violet| nānkaḷ, nām, nīnkaḷ, enkaḷ}}
|-
!scope=row {{shade|20|color=violet| Malayalam }}
|{{shade|20|color=violet| ñaṅṅaḷ, nām, niṅṅaḷ, nammaḷ}}
|}

Indeed, most features of Malayalam morphology are derivable from a form of speech corresponding to early Middle Tamil.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ayyar |first=Ramaswami |url=https://archive.org/stream/TheEvolutionOfMalayalamMorphology/The-Evolution-of-Malayalam-Morphology|page=2 | title=The Evolution of Malayalam Morphology|year=1936 |publisher=Cochin government press |location=Cochin, Kerala |edition=1st}}</ref>

[[Robert Caldwell]], in his 1856 book "''A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages"'', opined that literary Malayalam branched from ''Classical Tamil'' and over time gained a large amount of [[Sanskrit]] vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs.<ref name="caldwell">Caldwell, Robert (1875). [https://archive.org/stream/comparativegramm00caldrich#page/ii/mode/2up ''A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316104706/https://archive.org/stream/comparativegramm00caldrich#page/ii/mode/2up |date=16 March 2016 }}, second edition. London: Trübner & Co.</ref> As the language of scholarship and administration, Old-Tamil, which was written in [[Tamil-Brahmi]] and the Vatteluttu alphabet later, greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam as a literary language. The [[Malayalam script]] began to diverge from the ''[[Vatteluttu]]'' and the Western [[Grantha script|Grantha]] scripts in the 8th and 9th centuries of [[Common Era]]. By the end of the 13th century, a written form of the language emerged which was unique from the ''[[Vatteluttu]]'' script that was used to write Tamil on the eastern coast.{{sfn|Mahapatra|1989|p=307}}

=== Old Malayalam ===
[[Old Malayalam]] ({{transl|ml|ISO|Paḻaya Malayāḷam}}), an inscriptional language found in [[Kerala]] from circa 9th to circa 13th century CE,<ref>M. G. S. Narayanan. "Kozhikkodinte Katha". Malayalam/Essays. Mathrubhumi Books. Second Edition (2017) {{ISBN|978-81-8267-114-0}}</ref> is the earliest attested form of Malayalam.<ref name="narayanan-2013">{{Cite book|last=Narayanan|first= M. G. S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YDCngEACAAJ&q=Perumals+of+Kerala|title=Perumals of Kerala|publisher=CosmoBooks|year=2013|isbn=9788188765072|location=Thrissur|pages=380–82 |access-date= 7 June 2021|archive-date=7 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607091744/https://books.google.com/books?id=0YDCngEACAAJ&q=Perumals+of+Kerala|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ayyar|first=L. V. Ramaswami|url=https://archive.org/stream/TheEvolutionOfMalayalamMorphology/The-Evolution-of-Malayalam-Morphology|title=The Evolution of Malayalam Morphology |publisher=Rama Varma Research Institute|year=1936|edition=1st|location=Trichur|page=3}}</ref> The beginning of the development of [[Old Malayalam]] from a western coastal dialect of [[Middle Tamil]] can be dated to circa 8th century CE.{{sfn|Karashima|2014|pp=152–153}}<ref name="krishnamurti-2003" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Krishnamurti|first=Bhadriraju|title=Malayalam language|url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/Malayalam-language|url-status=live|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=27 October 2018|archive-date=16 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116043910/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Malayalam-language}}</ref> It remained a west coast dialect until circa 9th century CE or a little later.<ref name= "krishnamurti">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Krishnamurti|first=Bhadriraju|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages/Literary-languages#ref279622|url-status=live |archive-date =7 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607095036/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages/Literary-languages#ref279622|title = Dravidian Languages}}</ref>{{sfn |Karashima|2014|pp=152–153}} The origin of [[Malayalam calendar]] dates back to year 825 CE.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data1/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005b5f_93.pdf |title= Kollam Era |publisher=Indian Journal History of Science |access-date=30 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527163650/http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data1/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005b5f_93.pdf |archive-date=27 May 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=Time measurement and calendar construction|author=Broughton Richmond|year= 1956 |page=218|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gUlmAAAAMAAJ|access-date=9 June 2021|archive-date=9 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609032538/https://books.google.com/books?id=gUlmAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=History of Kerala|author=R. Leela Devi|publisher=Vidyarthi Mithram Press & Book Depot|year=1986|page=408|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pXpuAAAAMAAJ|access-date=9 June 2021|archive-date=9 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609032523/https://books.google.com/books?id=pXpuAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> It is generally agreed that the western coastal dialect of Tamil began to separate, diverge, and grow as a distinct language due to geographical separation of Kerala from the Tamil country<ref name="krishnamurti" /> and the influence of [[Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit]] from the [[Nambudiri]] [[Brahmin]]s of the [[Malabar Coast]].<ref name="narayanan-2013" /><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" />

The [[Old Malayalam]] language was employed in several official records and transactions (at the level of the [[Chera/Perumals of Makotai|Chera Perumal]] kings, as well as the [[Caste|upper-caste]] ([[Nambudiri]]) village temples).<ref name="narayanan-2013" /> Most of the inscriptions in [[Old Malayalam]] were found from the [[List of districts of Kerala|northern districts of Kerala]], those lie adjacent to [[Tulu Nadu]].<ref name="narayanan-2013" /> [[Old Malayalam]] was mostly written in [[Vatteluttu]] script (with [[Grantha script|Pallava/Southern Grantha]] characters).<ref name="narayanan-2013" /> [[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.<ref name="narayanan-2013" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Veluthat|first=Kesavan|date=2018|title=History and Historiography in Constituting a Region: The Case of Kerala|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2348448918759852|journal=Studies in People's History|volume=5|issue=1|pages=13–31|doi=10.1177/2348448918759852|s2cid=166060066|issn=2348-4489|access-date=7 June 2021|archive-date=13 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210913063330/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2348448918759852|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Narayanan|first=M. G. S.|title=Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala|publisher=Kerala Historical Society|year=1972|location=Kerala|page=18}}</ref> ''[[Ramacharitam]]'' and ''[[Thirunizhalmala]]'' are the possible literary works of [[Old Malayalam]] found so far.

=== Middle Malayalam ===
[[Old Malayalam]] gradually developed into [[Middle Malayalam]] (''Madhyakaala Malayalam'') by the 13th century CE.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R9GbBVfrm4gC&q=%22middle+malayalam%22&pg=PA14|title=A Primer of Malayalam Literature|first=T. K. Krishna|last=Menon|date=1939|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=9788120606036|via=Google Books|access-date=7 June 2021|archive-date=7 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607091742/https://books.google.com/books?id=R9GbBVfrm4gC&q=%22middle+malayalam%22&pg=PA14|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Malayalam literature]] also completely diverged from [[Tamil literature]] during this period. Works including ''Unniyachi Charitham'', ''Unnichiruthevi Charitham'', and ''Unniyadi Charitham'', are written in [[Middle Malayalam]], and date back to the 13th and 14th centuries of the [[Common Era]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006">{{cite book|author=Dr. K. Ayyappa Panicker|url=https://archive.org/details/ASHORTHISTORYOFMALAYALAMLITERATURE|title=A Short History of Malayalam Literature|publisher=Department of Information and Public Relations, Kerala|year=2006|location=Thiruvananthapuram}}</ref><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The ''Sandesha Kavya''s of 14th century CE written in [[Manipravalam]] language include ''[[Unnuneeli Sandesam]]''.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> ''Kannassa Ramayanam'' and ''Kannassa Bharatham'' by ''Rama Panikkar'' of the [[Niranam poets]] who lived between 1350 and 1450, are representative of this language.<ref name="kerala india-2003" /> [[Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer|Ulloor]] has opined that Rama Panikkar holds the same position in [[Malayalam literature]] that [[Edmund Spenser]] does in [[English literature]].<ref name="kerala india-2003">{{Citation|last=Kerala (India)|first=Dept. of Public Relations|title=District Handbooks of Kerala: Pathanamthitta (Volume 7 of District Handbooks of Kerala, Kerala (India). Dept. of Public Relations|year=2003}}</ref> 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.<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /><ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The literary works of this period were heavily influenced by [[Manipravalam]], which was a combination of contemporary [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and [[Sanskrit]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The word ''Mani-Pravalam'' literally means ''Diamond-Coral'' or ''Ruby-Coral''. The 14th-century ''[[Lilatilakam]]'' text states Manipravalam to be a ''Bhashya'' (language) where "Dravida and Sanskrit should combine together like ruby and coral, without the least trace of any discord".<ref name="arvind raghunathan-2003">{{cite book|author1=Sheldon Pollock|author2=Arvind Raghunathan|title=Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ak9csfpY2WoC|date=19 May 2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22821-4|pages=449, 455–472|access-date=18 May 2018|archive-date=27 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227041301/https://books.google.com/books?id=ak9csfpY2WoC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ke rāmacandr̲an nāyar">Ke Rāmacandr̲an Nāyar (1971). ''Early Manipravalam: a study.'' Anjali. Foreign Language Study. pp. 78</ref> 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]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The literary works written in [[Middle Malayalam]] were heavily influenced by [[Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit]], while comparing them with the modern [[Malayalam literature]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" />
[[File:Copy of Ezhuthachan's Adhyathma ramayanam Kilippattu.jpg|thumb|Copy of Ezhuthachan's [[stylus]] and ''[[Adhyathmaramayanam|Adhyatma Ramayanam]]'' preserved at [[Thunchan Parambu, Tirur]]|251x251px]]

=== Modern Malayalam ===
The [[Middle Malayalam]] was succeeded by Modern Malayalam (''Aadhunika Malayalam'') by 15th century CE.<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> 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.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The language used in ''Krishnagatha'' is the modern spoken form of Malayalam.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> 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.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />
{| class="wikitable" align="right" style="margin-left:2em"
|+ Comparison of [[Grantha script|Grantha]], [[Tigalari script|Tigalari]], and [[Malayalam script]]s
|-
! || ! colspan=5 | Letter
|-
! Script !! ka !! kha !! ga !! gha !! ṅa
|-
| Malayalam || ക || ഖ || ഗ || ഘ || ങ
|-
| Grantha || 𑌕 || 𑌖 || 𑌗 || 𑌘 || 𑌙
|-
| Tigalari|| 𑎒 || 𑎓 || 𑎔 || 𑎕 || 𑎖
|-
| Tamil || க ||  ||  ||  || ங
|-
| Sinhala || ක්|| ඛ || ග || ඝ || ණ
|-
| Kannada  || ಕ || ಖ || ಗ || ಘ || ಙ
|}
[[Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan]] is also credited with developing the [[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.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> He further eliminated excess and unnecessary letters from the modified script.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> Hence, Ezhuthachan is also known as ''The Father of modern Malayalam''.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The development of modern [[Malayalam script]] was also heavily influenced by the [[Tigalari script]], which was used to write [[Sanskrit]], due to the influence of [[Tuluva Brahmin]]s in Kerala.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The language used in the [[Arabi Malayalam]] works of the 16th–17th century CE is a mixture of Modern Malayalam and [[Arabic language|Arabic]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> They follow the syntax of modern Malayalam, though written in a modified form of [[Arabic script]], which is known as [[Arabi Malayalam script]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval work ''[[Keralolpathi]]'', which describes the [[Parashurama]] legend and the departure of the final [[Thajuddin|Cheraman Perumal]] king to [[Mecca]], to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.<ref name="history of travancore by shungunny menon">History of Travancore by Shungunny Menon, page 28</ref>

[[Kunchan Nambiar]] introduced a new literary form called ''Thullal'', and [[Unnayi Variyar]] introduced reforms in ''[[Kathakali|Attakkatha literature]]''.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The printing, prose literature, and [[Malayalam journalism]], developed after the latter-half of the 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]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poemhunter.com/kumaran-asan/|title=Kumaran Asan – Kumaran Asan Poems – Poem Hunter|website=poemhunter.com|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729045813/https://www.poemhunter.com/kumaran-asan/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poemhunter.com/ulloor-s-parameswara-iyer/|title=Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer – Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer Poems – Poem Hunter|website=poemhunter.com|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729044216/https://www.poemhunter.com/ulloor-s-parameswara-iyer/|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Vallathol Narayana Menon]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poemhunter.com/vallathol-narayana-menon/|title=Vallathol Narayana Menon – Vallathol Narayana Menon Poems – Poem Hunter|website=poemhunter.com|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729044157/https://www.poemhunter.com/vallathol-narayana-menon/|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref name="subodh kapoor-2002" /><ref name="eg smith for the us library of congress office new delhi-1994" /><ref name="nirmala sadanand publishers-1967" /><ref name="sahitya akademi-1987" /><ref name="kerala sahitya akademi-1993" /> The life and works of [[Edasseri Govindan Nair]] have assumed greater socio-literary significance after his death and Edasseri is now recognised as an important poet of Malayalam.<ref>[https://www.edasseri.org/ "Edasseri Govindan Nair"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230301220347/https://edasseri.org/ |date=1 March 2023 }}. Edasseri.org. Retrieved 7 March 2023.</ref> Later, writers like [[O. V. Vijayan]], [[Kamaladas]], [[M. Mukundan]], [[Arundhati Roy]], and [[Vaikom Muhammed Basheer]], have gained international recognition.<ref name="c gopinathan pillai-2004" /><ref name="ed vinod kumar maheshwari-2002" /><ref name="amit chaudhuri-2008" /> Malayalam has also borrowed a lot of its words from various foreign languages: mainly from the [[Semitic languages]] including [[Arabic]], and the [[Languages of Europe|European languages]] including [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], due to the long heritage of [[Indian Ocean trade]] and the Portuguese-Dutch colonization of the [[Malabar Coast]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /><ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

== Dialects ==
Variations in [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] patterns, vocabulary, and distribution of grammatical and [[phonology|phonological]] elements are observable along the parameters of region, religion, community, occupation, social stratum, style and register.

According to the Dravidian Encyclopedia, the regional [[dialect]]s of Malayalam can be divided into fifteen dialect areas.<ref name="Dravidian Encyclopedia">Subramoniam, V. I. (1997). Dravidian encyclopaedia. vol. 3, Language and literature. Thiruvananthapuram: International School of Dravidian Linguistics.
Cit-P-487. [http://worldcat.org/isbn/818569222X Dravidian Encyclopedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929131000/http://worldcat.org/isbn/818569222X |date=29 September 2007 }}</ref> They are as follows:
{{div col}}
* [[Kasaragod district|Kasaragod]]
* [[North Malabar]]
* [[Wayanad]]
* [[Kozhikode]]
* [[Eranad]]
* [[Kingdom of Valluvanad|Valluvanad]] ([[South Malabar]])
* [[Palakkad]]
* [[Thrissur]]-[[Kochi]]
* North Travancore
* West [[Vembanad]]
* Central [[Travancore]]
* South [[Travancore]]
* [[Lakshadweep]]
* [[Beary language|Beary]]
* [[Ravula language|Ravula]]
{{div col end}}

According to Ethnologue, the dialects are:<ref name="ethnologuecom" /> Malabar, Nagari-Malayalam, North Kerala, Central Kerala, South Kerala, Kayavar, [[Namboodiri]], [[Nair]], [[Arabi Malayalam|Mappila]], [[Beary language|Beary]], [[Jeseri]], [[Ravula language|Yerava]], Pulaya, [[Saint Thomas Christians|Nasrani]], and [[Kasargod]]. The community dialects are: [[Nambudiri|Namboodiri]], [[Nair]], [[Arabi Malayalam]], Pulaya, and [[Saint Thomas Christians|Nasrani]].<ref name="ethnologuecom" /> Whereas both the [[Nambudiri|Namboothiri]] and Nair dialects have a common nature, the [[Arabi Malayalam]] is among the most divergent of dialects, differing considerably from literary Malayalam.<ref name="ethnologuecom" /> [[Jeseri]] is a dialect of Malayalam spoken mainly in the Union territory of [[Lakshadweep]] and [[Beary language|Beary]] is spoken in [[Tulu Nadu]] which are 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 [[Ravula language|''Yerava'']] dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations like ''[[Aranadan language|Eranadan]]''.<ref>[http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/data_on_language.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110230245/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/data_on_language.html|date=10 January 2012}}, ''censusindia.net''</ref>

The dialects of Malayalam spoken in the districts like [[Kasaragod district|Kasaragod]], [[Kannur district|Kannur]], [[Wayanad]], [[Kozhikode]], and [[Malappuram district|Malappuram]] in the former [[Malabar District]] have few influences from [[Kannada]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> For example, the words those start with the sound "V" in Malayalam become "B" in these districts as in [[Kannada]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> 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]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> 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.<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> Similarly the Malayalam spoken in the southern districts of Kerala, i.e., [[Thiruvananthapuram district|Thiruvananthapuram]]-[[Kollam district|Kollam]]-[[Pathanamthitta district|Pathanamthitta]] area is influenced by Tamil.<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" />

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., {{transliteration|ml|viddhi}} meaning 'fool'), {{transliteration|ml|bhosku}} 'lie', {{transliteration|ml|musku}} 'impudence', {{transliteration|ml|dustu}} 'impurity', and {{transliteration|ml|eebhyan}} and {{transliteration|ml|sumbhan}} (both meaning 'good-for-nothing fellow') abound in Nampoothiri dialect.<ref>[https://www.cambridge.org/ Malayalam (Namboodiri Dialect)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028234446/https://www.cambridge.org/ |date=28 October 2020 }} – Cambridge University Press</ref>
* 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 language|Persian]] rather than by Sanskrit or by English. The retroflex continuant {{transliteration|ml|zha}} of the literary dialect is realised in the Muslim dialect as the palatal {{transliteration|ml|ya}}. In some other dialects of Northern Kerala too, {{transliteration|ml|zha}} of the literary dialect is realised as {{transliteration|ml|ya}}.
* 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 language|English]] and [[Syriac language|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.<ref>[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ Abha, why have you forsaken me] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525143336/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ |date=25 May 2019 }}</ref><ref name="a sacredlanguage is vanishing from state archived 10 july 2013 at the wayback machine" /><ref name="prayer from the past archived 4 april 2014 at the wayback machine" />
* The [[Ravula language|Ravula]] is a tribal dialect of Malayalam spoken by the members of [[Ravula]], an indigenous people's tribe who are primarily inhabitants of the [[Kodagu district]] of [[Karnataka]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/language/yea |title=Ravula |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |publisher=Ethnologue |access-date=14 June 2022 |archive-date=21 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921063850/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/yea |url-status=live }}</ref>
* Tamil spoken in the [[Kanyakumari district]] has influences from Malayalam language.<ref>{{Cite news|date=16 January 2017|title=Nagercoil slang was my biggest challenge: Vijay Sethupathi|work=[[The Times of India]]|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/tamil/movies/news/Nagercoil-slang-was-my-biggest-challenge-Vijay-Sethupathi/articleshow/45005117.cms|access-date=16 July 2021|archive-date=17 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211117191951/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/tamil/movies/news/Nagercoil-slang-was-my-biggest-challenge-Vijay-Sethupathi/articleshow/45005117.cms|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 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.{{sfn|Asher|Kumari|1997|pp=xxiv, xxv}} According to [[Sooranad Kunjan Pillai]] who compiled the authoritative Malayalam lexicon, the other principal languages whose vocabulary was incorporated over the ages were [[Arabic]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]], [[Pali]], [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Prakrit]], and [[Syriac language|Syriac]].<ref>S. Kunjan Pillai (1965) – Malayalam Lexicon, pg xxii–xxiv</ref>

* Many medieval [[liturgical]] texts were written in an admixture of [[Sanskrit]] and early Malayalam, called [[Manipravalam]].<ref>[http://www.prd.kerala.gov.in/manipravalam.htm ''Manipravalam''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610042443/http://www.prd.kerala.gov.in/manipravalam.htm |date=10 June 2011 }} The Information & Public Relations Department, [[Government of Kerala]].</ref> The influence of [[Sanskrit]] was very prominent in formal Malayalam used in the medieval literature. Malayalam has a substantially high number of Sanskrit loanwords but these are seldom used.<ref>"Dravidian languages." ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.</ref>
* Some [[Arabic]] loanwords like ''adālattŭ'' (court of justice), ''jāmyaṃ'' (bail), ''japti'' (foreclosure), ''jilla'' (district), ''tālukkŭ'' (subdistrict), etc., are used in the formal literary Malayalam for administrative purposes.
* Loanwords and influences also from [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[Syriac language|Syriac]], and [[Ladino language|Ladino]] abound in the [[Judeo-Malayalam|Jewish Malayalam dialects]], as well as [[English language|English]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Syriac language|Syriac]], and [[Greek language|Greek]] in the Christian dialects, while [[Arabic]] and Persian elements predominate in the [[Muslim]] dialects.
* The Muslim dialect known as [[Mappila Malayalam]] is predominantly in the northern districts of Kerala. Another Muslim dialect called [[Beary bashe]] is used in the extreme northern part of Kerala along with the southern part of Karnataka in a former region called [[Tulu Nadu]].

{| class="wikitable"
|+Examples of vocabulary from various origins

! scope="col" {{ shade|100|color=green| Malayalam word}}
! scope="col" {{ shade|100|color=green| Source }}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|ഉമ്മ|translit=umma|en=mother|ar|أُمّ|fxlit=ʔumm}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|മാമോദീസ|xlit=māmōdīsa|english=baptism|syc|ܡܥܡܘܕܝܬܐ|fxlit=maʿmōdīṯā}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|തപാല്‍|xlit=tapāl|en=post or mail|nl|de paal}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|ആപ്പിൾ|xlit=āppiḷ|en=apple|en|apple}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|നങ്കൂരം|xlit=naṅkūraṁ|en=anchor|grc|ἄγκῡρα|fxlit=ánkūra}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|മിനിയാൻ|xlit=miniyāṉ|en=quorum|he|מניין|fxlit=minyán}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|പഞ്ചായത്ത്|xlit=pañcāyattŭ|english=[[panchayat]]|hi|पंचायत|fxlit=pañcāyat}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|അച്ഛൻ|xlit=acchaṉ|en=father|pmh|𑀅𑀚𑁆𑀚|fxlit=ajja|label=[[Maharashtri Prakrit]]}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|പടക്|xlit=paṭakŭ|en=boat|label=[[Malayo-Polynesian]]|poz|<nowiki>*</nowiki>paʀaqu}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|പത്തേമാരി|xlit=pattēmāri|en=a type of boat|mr|पतेमारी|fxlit=patemārī}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|വാത്ത|xlit=vātta|en=duck|fa|بط|fxlit=baṭ}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|ജനാല|xlit=jaṉāla|pt|janela|en=window}}
{{loan words row|color=green|ml|ലക്ഷം|xlit=lakṣam|en=[[lakh]]|sa|लक्ष|fxlit=lakṣa}}
|}

== Geographic distribution and population ==
{{See also|Kerala Gulf diaspora|States of India by Malayalam speakers}}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"
|-
! scope="col" | State/Union Territory
! scope="col" | Malayalam speakers 2011<ref name="mw" />
! scope="col" | Proportion
|-
!scope="row" style="background:#fde"| [[Kerala]]
|style="background:#fde"| 32,413,213
|style="background:#fde"| 97.03%
|-
!scope="row" style="background:#fde"| [[Lakshadweep]]
|style="background:#fde"| 54,264
|style="background:#fde"| 84.17%
|-
!scope="row" style="background:#fde"| [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]
|style="background:#fde"| 27,475
|style="background:#fde"| 7.22%
|-
!scope="row"style="background:#fde"| [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]]
|style="background:#fde"| 47,973
|style="background:#fde"| 3.84%
|-
!scope="row" style="background:#fde"| [[Karnataka]]
|style="background:#fde"| 701,673
|style="background:#fde"| 1.14%
|-
!scope="row"style="background:#fde"| [[Tamil Nadu]]
|style="background:#fde"| 957,705
|style="background:#fde"| 2.70%
|-
!scope="row" style="background:#fde"| '''[[India]]'''
|style="background:#fde"| '''34,838,819'''
|style="background:#fde"| '''2.88%'''
|}
Malayalam is a language spoken by the native people of southwestern India and the islands of [[Lakshadweep]] in the [[Arabian Sea]]. According to the Indian census of 2011, there were 32,413,213 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 97.03% of the total population of the state. There were a further 701,673 (1.14% of the total number) in [[Karnataka]], 957,705 (2.70%) in [[Tamil Nadu]], and 406,358 (1.2%) in [[Maharashtra]].

The number of Malayalam speakers in [[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.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://lsi.gov.in/| title = South Kanara, The Nilgiris, Malabar and Coimbators Districts| access-date = 29 April 2021| archive-date = 2 October 2022| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221002110639/http://lsi.gov.in/MTSI_APP/(S(d5i44a45mqlxje45spluigat))/default.aspx| url-status = live}}</ref> 25.57% of the total population in the [[Kodagu district]] of [[Karnataka]] are [[Malayali]]s, and they form the single largest linguistic group accounting for 35.5% in the [[Virajpet]] Taluk.<ref name="censusindiagovin">{{cite web |title=Census of India – Language |url=http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-16.html |website=censusindia.gov.in |access-date=17 April 2020 |archive-date=1 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211101020704/https://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-16.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Around one-third of the [[Malayali]]s in [[Kodagu district]] speak the [[Ravula language|Yerava dialect]] according to the 2011 census, which is native to Kodagu and [[Wayanad]].<ref name="censusindiagovin" />

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''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/data_on_language.html |title=Census of India – Data on Language |publisher=Censusindia.gov.in |access-date=30 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110230245/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/data_on_language.html |archive-date=10 January 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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, [[British Malaya|Malaya]] attracted many Malayalis. Large numbers of Malayalis have settled in [[Chennai]], [[Bengaluru]], [[Mangaluru]], [[Hyderabad, Telangana|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]].<ref>[http://40days.homestead.com/Day_22_-_People.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304073622/http://40days.homestead.com/Day_22_-_People.pdf|date=4 March 2016}}. Retrieved 22 November 2014.</ref> There are 144,000 of Malayalam speakers in [[Malaysia]].{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} There were 11,687 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2016.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sbs.com.au/news/census/ |title=Census 2011 Australia – ABS Population Income |publisher=Sbs.com.au |access-date=10 July 2013 |archive-date=17 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130717085953/http://www.sbs.com.au/news/census/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090810095915/http://www.stats.govt.nz/ServicePages/NotFound.aspx Statistics New Zealand:Language spoken (total responses) for the 1996–2006 censuses (Table 16)], ''stats.govt.nz''</ref> 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]], [[Kuwait]] and [[Doha]].

== Phonology ==
[[File:Malayalam vowels.png|upright=1.13|thumb|[[Monophthong]]s of Malayalam, from Namboodiripad, Savithry (2016)<ref name="namboodiripad-2016" />]]
[[File:Ken.ogg|thumb|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.<ref name="haowen jiang-2010" /> The current Malayalam script bears high similarity with [[Tigalari script]], which was used for writing the [[Tulu language]], spoken in [[Tulu Nadu|coastal Karnataka]] ([[Dakshina Kannada]] and [[Udupi district|Udupi]] districts) and the northernmost [[Kasargod district]] of Kerala.<ref name="vinodh rajan">{{cite web|author1=Vaishnavi Murthy K Y|author2=Vinodh Rajan|title=L2/17-378 Preliminary proposal to encode Tigalari script in Unicode|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17378-tigalari.pdf|access-date=28 June 2018|website=unicode.org|archive-date=8 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208134202/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17378-tigalari.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Tigalari script was also used for writing [[Sanskrit]] in [[Malabar District|Malabar region]].

=== Vowels ===
[[File:malayalam.svg|thumb|The first letter in Malayalam]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
!rowspan=2|
!scope="col" colspan=3 | [[Vowel length|Short]]
!scope="col" colspan=3 | Long
|-
!scope="col" | [[Front vowel|Front]]
!scope="col" | [[Central vowel|Central]]
!scope="col" | [[Back vowel|Back]]
!scope="col" | [[Front vowel|Front]]
!scope="col" | [[Central vowel|Central]]
!scope="col" | [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
!scope="row" | [[Close vowel|Close]]
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|i}} '''{{lang|ml|ഇ}}''' i
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|ɨ̆}} '''്''' ŭ
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|u}} '''{{lang|ml|ഉ}}''' u
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|iː}} '''{{lang|ml|ഈ}}''' ī
|
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|uː}} '''{{lang|ml|ഊ}}''' ū
|-
!scope="row" | [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|e}}'''{{lang|ml|എ}}''' e
| style="text-align:center;"|
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|o}} '''{{lang|ml|ഒ}}''' o
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|eː}} '''{{lang|ml|ഏ}}''' ē
|
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|oː}} '''{{lang|ml|ഓ}}''' ō
|-
!scope="row" | [[Open vowel|Open]]
|
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|a}} '''{{lang|ml|അ}}''' a
|
|
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPAslink|aː}} '''{{lang|ml|ആ}}''' ā
|
|}

*⟨{{lang|ml| ്}}⟩ {{IPA|/ɨ̆/}} formed from word final short /u/'s but now there are /u/'s finally as well, mostly in loanwords but also natively like in ''guru'', ''kuru'', ''puẓu'' and native ''pērŭ'', there are minimal pairs as well ''appŭ'' "water", ''appu'' a given name; It is also added to the end of loanwords ending in some consonants, e.g. Sanskrit ''manas'', ''suhr̥t'', Malayalam ''manassŭ'', ''suhr̥ttŭ'', English ''current'' Ml. ''karaṇṭŭ''. It is the {{transliteration|ml|saṁvr̥tōkāram}}, an [[epenthesis|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 {{IPA|/u/}} ⟨{{lang|ml|കു}}⟩, but later on it was just completely omitted (that is, written as an inherent vowel ⟨{{lang|ml|ക}}⟩, thus, ⟨{{lang|ml|പേര്}}⟩ ''pērŭ'' "name" was once written as ⟨{{lang|ml|പേര}}⟩ ''pēra'' which means "guava"). In modern times, it is written in two different ways – the Northern style, in which a [[chandrakkala]] is used ⟨{{lang|ml|ക്}}⟩, and the Southern or [[Travancore]] style, in which the diacritic for a {{IPA|/u/}} is attached to the preceding consonant and a chandrakkala is written above ⟨{{lang|ml|കു്}}⟩. According to one author, this alternative form ⟨{{lang|ml|കു്}}⟩ is historically more correct, though the simplified form without a vowel sign ''u'' is common nowadays.<ref>{{cite web|last=Muller|first=Eric|title=Malayalam cillaksarams|work=JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3126 L2/06-207|url=http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/N3126.pdf|year=2006|access-date=2009-09-10|archive-date=24 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124054804/http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/N3126.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
* {{IPA|/a/}} (phonetically central: {{IPA|[ä]}}) is represented as basic or the "default" vowel in the [[abugida]] script.

Malayalam has also borrowed the [[Sanskrit]] [[diphthongs]] of {{IPA|/ai̯/}} (represented in Malayalam as {{lang|ml|ഐ}}, ai) and {{IPA|/au̯/}} (represented in Malayalam as {{lang|ml|ഔ}}, au) although these mostly occur only in Sanskrit loanwords. Traditionally (as in Sanskrit), four vocalic consonants (usually pronounced in Malayalam as consonants followed by the {{transliteration|ml|saṁvr̥tōkāram}}, which is not officially a vowel, and not as actual vocalic consonants) have been classified as vowels: vocalic r ({{lang|ml|ഋ}}, {{IPA|/rɨ̆/}}, r̥), long vocalic r ({{lang|ml|ൠ}}, {{IPA|/rɨː/}}, r̥̄), vocalic l ({{lang|ml|ഌ}}, {{IPA|/lɨ̆/}}, l̥) and long vocalic l ({{lang|ml|ൡ}}, {{IPA|/lɨː/}}, l̥̄). Except for the first, the other three have been omitted from the current script used in Kerala as there are no words in current Malayalam that use them.

Some authors say that Malayalam has no diphthongs and /ai̯, au̯/ are clusters of V+glide j/ʋ<ref name="krishnamurti-2003" /> while others consider all V+glide clusters to be diphthongs /ai̯, aːi̯, au̯, ei̯, oi̯, i̯a/ as in ''kai, vāypa, auṣadhaṁ, cey, koy'' and ''kāryaṁ''<ref name="haowen jiang-2010">{{cite web |url=http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~hj3/pub/Malayalam.pdf |title=Malayalam: a Grammatical Sketch and a Text |author=Haowen Jiang |website=Department of Linguistics, [[Rice University]] |date=April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911225521/http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~hj3/pub/Malayalam.pdf |access-date=2022-01-08|archive-date=11 September 2012 }}</ref>

Vowel length is phonemic and all of the vowels have minimal pairs for example ''kaṭṭi'' "thickness", ''kāṭṭi'' "showed", ''koṭṭi'' "tapped", ''kōṭṭi'' "twisted, stick, marble", ''er̠i'' "throw", ''ēr̠i'' "lots"<ref name="haowen jiang-2010" />

Some speakers also have /æː/, /ɔː/, /ə/ from English loanwords e.g. /bæːŋgɨ̆/ "bank" but most speakers replace it with /aː/, /eː/ or /ja/; /oː/ or /aː/ and /e/ or /a/.<ref name="krishnamurti-2003" /> <!--(See [[Manglish (Malayalam)]])-->

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
!colspan=2|
! scope="col" |[[Bilabial consonant|Labial]]
! scope="col" |[[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! scope="col" |[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! scope="col" |[[Retroflex]]
! scope="col" |[[Postalveolar]]/<br />[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! scope="col" |[[Velar]]
!scope="col" |[[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
!scope="row" colspan=2|[[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
|{{IPA link|m}} '''{{lang|ml|മ}}''' {{angbr|m}}
|{{IPA link|n̪}} '''{{lang|ml|ന}}''' {{angbr|n}}
|{{IPA link|n}} '''{{lang|ml|ന}}''' / '''{{lang|ml|ഩ}}'''{{Efn|Obsolete}} {{angbr|ṉ}}
|{{IPA link|ɳ}} '''{{lang|ml|ണ}}''' {{angbr|ṇ}}
|{{IPA link|ɲ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഞ}}''' {{angbr|ñ}}
|{{IPA link|ŋ}} '''{{lang|ml|ങ}}''' {{angbr|ṅ}}
|
|-
! rowspan="4" scope="row" |[[Plosive]]/<br />[[Affricate]]
!scope=row| <small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
|{{IPA link|p}} '''{{lang|ml|പ}}''' {{angbr|p}}
|{{IPA link|t̪}} '''{{lang|ml|ത}}''' {{angbr|t}}
|{{IPA link|t}} '''{{lang|ml|റ്റ}}''' {{angbr|ṟṟ}}
|{{IPA link|ʈ}} '''{{lang|ml|ട}}''' {{angbr|ṭ}}
|{{IPA link|t͡ɕ}}~{{IPA link|t͡ʃ}} '''{{lang|ml|ച}}''' {{angbr|c}}
|{{IPA link|k}} '''{{lang|ml|ക}}''' {{angbr|k}}
|
|-
!scope=row| <small>[[Aspirated consonant|aspirated]]</small>
|{{IPA link|pʰ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഫ}}''' {{angbr|ph}}
|{{IPA link|t̪ʰ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഥ}}''' {{angbr|th}}
|
|{{IPA link|ʈʰ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഠ}}''' {{angbr|ṭh}}
|{{IPA link|t͡ɕʰ}}~{{IPA link|t͡ʃʰ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഛ}}''' {{angbr|ch}}
|{{IPA link|kʰ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഖ}}''' {{angbr|kh}}
|
|-
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
|{{IPA link|b}} '''{{lang|ml|ബ}}''' {{angbr|b}}
|{{IPA link|d̪}} '''{{lang|ml|ദ}}''' {{angbr|d}}
|({{IPA link|d}}){{efn|Only occurs after ṉ.}}<br />'''{{lang|ml|ന്റ}}''' {{angbr|nṟ}}
|{{IPA link|ɖ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഡ}}''' {{angbr|ḍ}}
|{{IPA link|d͡ʑ}}~{{IPA link|d͡ʒ}} '''{{lang|ml|ജ}}''' {{angbr|j}}
|{{IPA link|ɡ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഗ}}''' {{angbr|g}}
|
|-
!<small>[[Breathy voice|breathy]]</small>
|{{IPA link|bʱ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഭ}}''' {{angbr|bh}}
|{{IPA link|d̪ʱ}} '''{{lang|ml|ധ}}''' {{angbr|dh}}
|
|{{IPA link|ɖʱ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഢ}}''' {{angbr|ḍh}}
|{{IPA link|d͡ʑʱ~d͡ʒʱ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഝ}}''' {{angbr|jh}}
|{{IPA link|ɡʱ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഘ}}''' {{angbr|gh}}
|
|-
! colspan="2" scope="row" |[[Fricative]]
|{{IPA link|f}} '''{{lang|ml|ഫ}}''' {{angbr|f}}
|
|{{IPA link|s}} '''{{lang|ml|സ}}''' {{angbr|s}}
|{{IPA link|ʂ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഷ}}''' {{angbr|ṣ}}
|{{IPA link|ɕ}}~{{IPA link|ʃ}} '''{{lang|ml|ശ}}''' {{angbr|ś}}
|
|{{IPA link|h}} '''{{lang|ml|ഹ}}''' {{angbr|h}}
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="row" |[[Approximant consonant|Approx.]]
! scope="row" | {{small|central}}
|{{IPA link|ʋ}} '''{{lang|ml|വ}}''' {{angbr|v}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|ɻ}} '''{{lang|ml|ഴ}}''' {{angbr|ḻ}}{{efn|Often transliterated as {{transliteration|ml|zh}} by Malayalis and Tamils, may also be transliterated as {{transliteration|ml|ẓ}} or {{transliteration|ml|r̤}} by some others.}}
|{{IPA link|j}} '''{{lang|ml|യ}}''' {{angbr|y}}
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | {{small|[[Lateral consonant|lateral]]}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|l}} '''{{lang|ml|ല}}''' {{angbr|l}}
|{{IPA link|ɭ}} '''{{lang|ml|ള}}''' {{angbr|ḷ}}
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" scope="row" |[[Tap consonant|Tap]]
|
|
|{{IPA link|ɾ}} '''{{lang|ml|ര}}''' {{angbr|r}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" scope="row" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
|{{IPA link|r}} '''{{lang|ml|റ}}''' {{angbr|ṟ}}
|
|
|
|
|}
* As in other Dravidian languages, the retroflex series are true [[subapical consonant]]s, in which the underside of the tongue contacts the roof.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Hamann |first=Silke |year=2003 |title=The Phonetics and Phonology of Retroflexes |location=Utrecht, Netherlands |url=https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/627/full.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=13 January 2021 |archive-date=16 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116155425/https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/627/full.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref>
* All of the alveolars except /s/ are apical.<ref name="haowen jiang-2010" />
* /{{IPA|ɕ ~ ʃ}}, {{IPA|t͡ɕ ~ t͡ʃ}}, {{IPA|t͡ɕʰ ~ t͡ʃʰ}}, {{IPA|d͡ʑ ~ d͡ʒ}}, {{IPA|d͡ʑʱ ~ d͡ʒʱ}}/ can either be postalveolar or alveolo-palatal depending upon the speaker and dialect; the postalveolar and alveolo-palatal realizations are in free variation.<ref name="namboodiripad-2016">{{cite thesis |first=Savithry |last=Namboodiripad |year=2016 |title=Malayalam (Namboodiri Dialect) |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-international-phonetic-association/article/malayalam-namboodiri-dialect/19CBF6E9E1CE65A84928F7C9C2286A9B |access-date=22 December 2020 |archive-date=2 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302184525/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-international-phonetic-association/article/malayalam-namboodiri-dialect/19CBF6E9E1CE65A84928F7C9C2286A9B |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The [[alveolar nasal]] once had a separate character ⟨ഩ⟩ that is now obsolete 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, {{transliteration|ml|eṉṉāl}} ('by me', first person singular pronoun in the instrumental case) and {{transliteration|ml|ennāl}} ('if that is so'), which are both written {{transliteration|ml|ennāl}} (എന്നാൽ).
* The unaspirated alveolar stop also had a separate character ⟨ഺ⟩ but it has become obsolete, as the sound only occurs in geminate form (when geminated it is written with a {{lang|ml|റ}} below another {{lang|ml|റ}} ⟨റ്റ⟩) or immediately following other consonants (in these cases, {{lang|ml|റ}} or {{lang|ml|ററ}} are usually written in small size underneath the first consonant).
*The proto Dravidian alveolar stop ''*ṯ'' developed into an alveolar trill /r/ in many of the [[Dravidian languages]] and ''*ṉṯ'' became ''nn'' in Malayalam while ''*ṯṯ'' remained.<ref name="krishnamurti-2003" /> Currently Malayalam only has [nd] in the genitive case ending ''-ṉṟe'' and a word formed with it ''taṉṟēṭam''; Malayalam regained it from the older genitive case ending ''-ṉuṭaiya > -ṉuṭe > -ṉṭe > -ṉṟe'', Malayalam still retains both forms in words like eṉṉuṭe and eṉṟe though the former is dated, a similar process happened in some Sri Lankan Tamil dialects.<ref>{{cite book |first=Kamil|last=Zvelebil|title=Some features of Ceylon Tamil|series=Indo-Iranian Journal|year=1965|volume=9|issue=2|pages=113–138|publisher=JSTOR|jstor=24650188|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24650188}}</ref>
* ന്റ is pronounced as [nd] but ൻറ can be pronounced as [nd] or [nr]; [nr] doesn't occur natively but it occurs in loans like എൻറോൾ (''en̠r̠ōḷ'') 'enroll' or ഹെൻറി (''hen̠r̠i'') 'Henry'.<ref>The Unicode Standard Version 13.0 – Core Specification, South and Central Asia-I,Official Scripts of India pg. 514</ref>
* All non geminated voiceless stops and affricate become voiced intervocalically and after a nasal as in Tamil.<ref name="haowen jiang-2010" /><ref name="krishnamurti-2003" />
* The geminated velars /kk/ and /ŋŋ/ are sometimes palatalized word medially after /j, i(:), e(:)/ like in the words {{lang|ml|കിടക്കുക}} [kiɖɐk:ugɐ] vs {{lang|ml|ഇരിക്കുക}} [iɾikʲ:ugɐ] and {{lang|ml|മങ്ങൽ}} [mɐŋ:ɐl] vs. {{lang|ml|മത്തങ്ങ}} [mɐt̪:ɐŋʲ:ɐ], their distribution is unpredictable e.g. it doesn't palatalize in vikkŭ but does in irikkŭ. If the palatalization is from /j/ it is sometimes deleted e.g. poykko can be [pojkʲːo] or [pokʲːo], aḍaykka as [ɐɖɐjkʲːɐ] or [ɐɖɐkʲːɐ]. Some of the northern dialects might pronounce them without palatalization.<ref name="namboodiripad-2016" /><ref name="haowen jiang-2010" />
* The letter ഫ represents both {{IPA|/pʰ/}}, a phoneme occurring in Sanskrit loanwords, and {{IPA|/f/}}, which is mostly found in comparatively recent borrowings from European languages. Though nowadays most people (especially youngsters) pronounce {{IPA|/pʰ/}} as {{IPA|/f/}} like in the word {{lang|ml|ഫലം}} {{IPA|/falam/}}.<ref name="haowen jiang-2010" /> In the Jesari dialect the native word-initial /p/ too spirantized to [f].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vhB60gYvnLgC&q=laccadive | title=A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages | isbn=978-3-447-04455-4 | last1=Andronov | first1=Mikhail Sergeevich | year=2003 | publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag | access-date=25 June 2022 | archive-date=2 October 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002110634/https://books.google.com/books?id=vhB60gYvnLgC&q=laccadive | url-status=live }}</ref>
* {{IPA|/m, n, ɳ, l, ɭ/}} are unreleased word finally.<ref name="haowen jiang-2010" /> Words will never begin or end with a geminated consonant. {{IPA|/ɻ/}} never occur word initially. All consonants appear word medially.<ref name="haowen jiang-2010" />
* The plain stops, affricates, nasals, laterals, the fricatives {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/ʃ/}} and approximants other than {{IPA|/ɻ/}} can be geminated and gemination can sometimes change the meaning of the word, e.g. {{lang|ml|കളം}} /kaɭam/ 'cell', {{lang|ml|കള്ളം}} {{IPA|/kaɭɭam/}} 'lie'.<ref name="haowen jiang-2010" /> {{IPA|/n̪, ɲ, ŋ, t/}} only occur in geminated form intervocalically.<ref name="namboodiripad-2016" />
* The approximant {{IPA|/ɻ/}} has both rhotic and lateral qualities, and is indeterminate between an approximant and a fricative. The articulation of {{IPA|/ɻ/}} 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.<ref>Scobbie, Punnoose & Khattab (2013) "Articulating five liquids: a single speaker ultrasound study of Malayalam". In ''Rhotics: New Data and Perspectives.'' BU Press, Bozen-Bolzano.</ref>
* {{IPA|/n, t, ɾ, l, ɻ/}} are weakly palatalized and have an advanced tongue root while {{IPA|/n̪, r, ɭ/}} are clear or velarized and have a retracted tongue root, particularly noticeable in geminates.<ref name="namboodiripad-2016" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Palatalization and velarization in Malayalam nasals: a preliminary acoustic study of the dental–alveolar contrast |last=Dowla Khan |first=Sameer ud |year=2021 |publisher=Reed College |url=https://www.reed.edu/linguistics/khan/assets/Khan%202021%20Palatalization%20and%20velarization%20in%20Malayalam%20nasals%20-%20a%20preliminary%20acoustic%20study%20of%20the%20dental-alveolar%20contrast.pdf}}</ref>
* /ʋ/ may be realized as [ʋ], [v], [w] or [β̞].<ref name="namboodiripad-2016" />
* Around 75% of ''nk'' and 50% of ''ñc'' and ''nt'' from Old Malayalam got assimilated to ''ṅṅ, ññ'' and ''nn'', almost all of the ''ṉṯ'' merged with ''nn'' suggesting an earlier merger of some of the ''n̠t̠'' and ''nt'' (for e.g. the cognate of Tamil ''nan̠r̠i'' is spelt as ''nandi'' and pronounced nanni); ''mp'' and ''ṇṭ'' were unchanged, e.g. Tamil ''mūṉṟu, maruntu, kañci, teṅku,'' Malayalam ''mūnnŭ, marunnŭ, kaññi, teṅṅŭ.''{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=167}} Word final ''ai, āy and ey'' became ''a'' unless the word is monosyllabic, e.g. Tamil ''avai, māṅgāy, veṇṇey'' Malayalam ''ava, māṅṅa, veṇṇa.'' Final ''āy'' in monosyllabic words became ''āya'' e.g. Tamil ''kāy'', Malayalam ''kāya''.
* Loanwords with /z/ are replaced with /s/ and not with /d͡ʒ/ like in Hindi or Telugu e.g. /brasi:l/ English "Brazil" unless it was loaned through Hindi then the Hindi pronunciation is taken e.g. /d͡ʒilla/ Hi. {{IPA|/d͡ʒilaː/}} Per. {{IPA|/zilʔ/}}, other Perso-Arabic phonemes like {{IPA|/q, x, ɣ, ħ, Cˤ, ʕ, ʔ/}} are replaced with /k, kʰ, g, h, C, ∅, ∅/, sometimes /q, x/ are replaced with /kʰ, k/ e.g. Arabic قطر ''qaṭar'', خَطّ&lrm; ''xaṭṭ'' as ഖത്തർ ''khattaṟ'', കത്ത് ''kattŭ''. English loans with /θ, ð, ʒ/ are replaced with {{IPA|/t̪, d̪, ʃ/}}; the dentals do not clash with English loans with /t, d/, which are replaced with [t, d] or [ʈ, ɖ] though [d] is rare because of the limited distribution natively e.g. "taxi" as ''ṯāksi'' or more commonly ''ṭāksi''. The English /ɹ/ is loaned as either /ɾ/ or /r/ unpredictably, for e.g. 'current' got loaned as ''karaṇḍŭ'' but 'maroon' got loaned as ''mar̠ūṇ'' or ''mer̠ūṇ'' but the cluster /ɹs/ is loaned as /ɻs/ other clusters are loaned as /rC/ or /ɾC/, /ɻ/ only occurs in words with /ɹs/ e.g. 'force' as ''fōḻsŭ''. Speakers with non rhotic English accents don't have /ɹC/ clusters in English loans and pronounce it as ''fōs(ŭ)''. In Sanskrit loans with /t̪C/ and /d̪C/ (unless C is a sonorant or a dental stop) sometimes the /t̪, d̪/ becomes /l/ especially in /t̪s/ e.g. ''utsava > ulsavam, utpādana > ulpādaṉam, udghāṭana > ulghāḍaṉam''. There are some native words with /s/ (''urasŭ'') and /ʃ/ (''vīśŭ'') but rest of the fricatives (except /f/ in native words of Jesari) and aspirates are only found in loans.
* Rarely some speakers pronounce the voiced aspirated consonants as voiceless so words like ''dhaṉam'' as ''thaṉam'', it is more commonly deaspirated so ''dhaṉam'' as ''daṉam'' and ''kharam'' as ''karam'', intervocalically the voiceless aspirate also becomes voiced so ''mukham'' as ''mugam''.{{sfnp|Steever|2015|p=63}}
* The pronunciation of [[#Chillu letters|''chillu'' letters]] is often omitted, in a manner akin to the final single consonants in [[French language|French]].

== Sample text ==
The following text is Article 1 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]].

=== English ===
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

=== Malayalam ===
{{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യരെല്ലാവരും തുല്യാവകാശങ്ങളോടും അന്തസ്സോടും സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യത്തോടുംകൂടി ജനിച്ചിട്ടുള്ളവരാണ്‌. അന്യോന്യം ഭ്രാതൃഭാവത്തോടെ പെരുമാറുവാനാണ്‌ മനുഷ്യന് വിവേകബുദ്ധിയും മനസാക്ഷിയും സിദ്ധമായിരിക്കുന്നത്‌.}}

=== Romanisation (ISO 15919) ===
manuṣyarellāvaruṁ tulyāvakāśaṅṅaḷōṭuṁ antassōṭuṁ svātantryattōṭuṅkūṭi janicciṭṭuḷḷavarāṇ‌ŭ. anyōnyaṁ bhrātr̥bhāvattōṭe perumāṟuvānāṇ‌ŭ manuṣyanŭ vivēkabuddhiyuṁ manasākṣiyuṁ siddhamāyirikkunnat‌ŭ.

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

== Grammar ==
{{Main|Malayalam grammar}}

Malayalam has a canonical word order of [[subject–object–verb|SOV]] (subject–object–verb), as do other [[Dravidian languages]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_mym |title=Wals.info |publisher=Wals.info |access-date=20 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520015202/http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_mym |archive-date=20 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> A rare [[subject–object–verb|OSV]] word order occurs in interrogative clauses when the interrogative word is the subject.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jayaseelan |first1=Karattuparambil |title=IP-internal topic and focus phrases |date=2001 |page=40}}</ref> Both [[adjective]]s and [[possessive adjective]]s precede the [[noun]]s they modify. Malayalam has 6<ref>Asher, R. E. and Kumari, T. C. (1997). Malayalam. Routledge Pub.: London.</ref> or 7<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jaimalayalam.com/papers/socialCaseMalayalam05.pdf |title=The Samyojika Vibhakthi and Its Unique Application in Malayalam Grammar |access-date=20 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120731141301/http://www.jaimalayalam.com/papers/socialCaseMalayalam05.pdf |archive-date=31 July 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=June 2017}} [[grammatical case]]s. 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.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018a"/>

=== Nouns ===
The [[declension]]al 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 plosive]]s and [[Alveolar nasal|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 case|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.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Singular
|-
! rowspan="2" | Case
വിഭക്തി
! rowspan="2" | 1st person
! rowspan="2" | 2nd person informal{{efn-lr|2nd person singular formal is similar to 2nd person plural.}}
! colspan="3" | 3rd person (distal){{efn-lr|For proximal form, replace the initial 'a' with an 'i'.}}
|-
! masculine || feminine || neutral
|-
! Nominative
സംബോധന
| ñāṉ || nī || avaṉ (voc. avaṉē) || avaḷ (voc. avaḷē) || adŭ (voc. athinē)
|-
! [[Accusative case|Accusative]]
പ്രതിഗ്രാഹിക
| eṉṉe || niṉṉe || avaṉe || avaḷe || atiṉe
|-
! [[Genitive case|Genitive]]
സംബന്ധിക
| eṉte (also eṉ, eṉṉute)|| niṉte (also niṉ, niṉṉute) || avaṉte (also avaṉute) || avaḷute || atiṉte
|-
! [[Dative case|Dative]]
ഉദ്ദേശിക
| eṉikkŭ || niṉakkŭ || avaṉŭ || avaḷkkŭ || atiṉŭ
|-
! [[Instrumental case|Instrumental]]
പ്രായോജിക
| eṉṉāl || niṉṉāl || avaṉāl || avaḷāl || atiṉāl
|-
! [[Locative case|Locative]]
ആധാരിക
| eṉṉil || niṉṉil || avaṉil || avaḷil || atil
|-
! [[Sociative case|Sociative]]
സംയോജിക
| eṉṉōḍŭ || niṉṉōḍŭ || avaṉōḍŭ || avaḷōḍŭ || adinōḍŭ
|-
! colspan="7" | Notes:
{{notelist-lr}}
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Plural
|-
! rowspan="2" | Case
വിഭക്തി
! colspan="2" | 1st person
! rowspan="2" | 2nd person
! rowspan="2" | 3rd person
|-
! [[Clusivity|exclusive]]
! inclusive
|-
! Nominative
സംബോധന
| ñaṅṅaḷ || nām/ nammaḷ || niṅṅaḷ || avar̠ (voc. avarē)
|-
! [[Accusative case|Accusative]]
പ്രതിഗ്രാഹിക
| ñaṅṅaḷe || nammaḷe || niṅṅaḷe || avare
|-
! [[Genitive case|Genitive]]
സംബന്ധിക
| ñaṅṅaḷuḍe (also ñaṅṅuḍe) || nammuḍe || niṅṅaḷuḍe || avaruḍe
|-
! [[Dative case|Dative]]
ഉദ്ദേശിക
| ñaṅṅaḷkkŭ || nammaḷkkŭ (also namukkŭ) || niṅṅaḷkkŭ || avar̠kkŭ
|-
! [[Instrumental case|Instrumental]]
പ്രായോജിക
| ñaṅṅaḷāl (also ñaṅṅāl) || nammāl || niṅṅaḷāl || avarāl
|-
! [[Locative case|Locative]]
ആധാരിക
| ñaṅṅaḷil || nammil || niṅṅaḷil || avaril (also avaṟkal)
|-
! [[Sociative case|Sociative]]
സംയോജിക
| ñaṅṅaḷōḍŭ || nammōḍŭ || niṅṅaḷōḍŭ || avarōḍŭ
|}

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

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="row" | Word (translated)
! colspan="2" scope="col" | "Tree"
! colspan="2" scope="col" | "Elephant"
! colspan="2" scope="col" | "Human"
! colspan="2" scope="col" | "Dog"
|-
! scope="col" | Case
! scope="col" | Singular
! scope="col" | Plural
! scope="col" | Singular
! scope="col" | Plural
! scope="col" | Singular
! scope="col" | Plural
! scope="col" | Singular
! scope="col" | Plural
|-
! scope="row" | Nominative
| {{lang|ml|മരം}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maram}}
| {{lang|ml|മരങ്ങൾ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maraṅṅaḷ}}
| {{lang|ml|ആന}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉa}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനകൾ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉakaḷ}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യൻ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaṉ}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യർ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaṟ}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടി}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭi}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടികൾ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭigaḷ}}
|-
! scope="row" | Vocative
| {{lang|ml|മരമേ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maramē}}
| {{lang|ml|മരങ്ങളേ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maraṅṅaḷē}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനേ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉē}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനകളേ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉakaḷē}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യാ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyā}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യരേ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyarē}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടീ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭī}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടികളേ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭikaḷē}}
|-
! scope="row" | Accusative
| {{lang|ml|മരത്തെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maratte}}
| {{lang|ml|മരങ്ങളെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maraṅṅaḷe}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനയെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉaye}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനകളെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉakaḷe}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യനെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaṉe}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യരെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyare}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടിയെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭiye}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടികളെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭikaḷe}}
|-
! scope="row" | Genitive
| {{lang|ml|മരത്തിൻ്റെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|marattiṉd̠e}}
| {{lang|ml|മരങ്ങളുടെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maraṅṅaḷuḍe}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനയുടെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉayuḍe}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനകളുടെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉagaḷuḍe}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യൻ്റെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaṉd̠e}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യരുടെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaruḍe}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടിയുടെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭiyuḍe}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടികളുടെ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭikaḷuḍe}}
|-
! scope="row" | Dative
| {{lang|ml|മരത്തിന്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|marattiṉŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|മരങ്ങൾക്ക്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maraṅṅaḷkkŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനയ്ക്ക്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉaykkŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനകൾക്ക്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉakaḷkkŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യന്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaṉŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യർക്ക്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaṟkkŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടിയ്ക്ക്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭiykkŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടികൾക്ക്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭikaḷkkŭ}}
|-
! scope="row" | Instrumental
| {{lang|ml|മരത്താൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|marattāl}}
| {{lang|ml|മരങ്ങളാൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maraṅṅaḷāl}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനയാൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉayāl}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനകളാൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉakaḷāl}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യനാൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaṉāl}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യരാൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyarāl}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടിയാൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭiyāl}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടികളാൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭikaḷāl}}
|-
! scope="row" | Locative
| {{lang|ml|മരത്തിൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|marattil}}
| {{lang|ml|മരങ്ങളിൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maraṅṅaḷil}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനയിൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉayil}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനകളിൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉakaḷil}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യനിൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaṉil}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യരിൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaril}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടിയിൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭiyil}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടികളിൽ}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭikaḷil}}
|-
! scope="row" | Sociative
| {{lang|ml|മരത്തോട്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|marattōḍŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|മരങ്ങളോട്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maraṅṅaḷōḍŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനയോട്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉayōḍŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|ആനകളോട്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|āṉakaḷōḍŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യനോട്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyaṉōḍŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|മനുഷ്യരോട്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|maṉuṣyarōḍŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടിയോട്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭiyōḍŭ}}
| {{lang|ml|പട്ടികളോട്}}<br />{{transliteration|ml|paṭṭikaḷōḍŭ}}
|}

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

==== Nouns ====
* Masculine [[Sanskrit]] nouns with a [[word stem]] ending in a short /a/ take the ending /an/ in the nominative singular. For example, [[Krishna|Kr̥ṣṇa]] → Kr̥ṣṇan. The final /n/ is dropped before masculine surnames, honorifics, or titles ending in /an/ and beginning with a consonant other than /n/ – e.g., "Krishna Menon", "Krishna Kaniyaan" etc., but "Krishnan Ezhutthachan". Surnames ending with /ar/ or /aḷ/ (where these are plural forms of "an" denoting respect) are treated similarly – "Krishna Pothuval", "Krishna Chakyar", but "Krishnan Nair", "Krishnan Nambiar", as are Sanskrit surnames such "Varma(n)", "Sharma(n)", or "Gupta(n)" (rare) – e.g., "Krishna Varma", "Krishna Sharman". If a name is a compound, only the last element undergoes this transformation – e.g., "Kr̥ṣṇa" + "dēva" = "Kr̥ṣṇadēvan", not "Kr̥ṣṇandēvan".
* Feminine words ending in a long /ā/ or /ī/ are changed to end in a short /a/ or /i/, for example "[[Sita|Sītā]]" → "Sīta" and "[[Lakshmi|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 case|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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Varma |first=A.R. Rajaraja |title=Keralapanineeyam |publisher=D C Books |year=2005 |location=Kottayam |page=303 |isbn=978-81-7130-672-5}}</ref> However, this does not apply to all consonant stems, as "unchangeable" stems such as "manas" ("mind") and "suhr̥t" ("friend") are identical to the Malayalam nominative singular forms (although the regularly derived "manam" sometimes occurs as an alternative to "manas").
* Sanskrit words describing things or animals rather than people with a stem in short /a/ end with an /m/ in Malayalam. For example, "[[Ramayana|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 Shesha|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 "[[Vishnu|Viṣṇu]]", "[[Prajapati|Prajāpati]]" etc. are declined with the Sanskrit stem acting as the Malayalam nominative singular (the Sanskrit nominative singular is formed by adding a visarga, e.g., as in "Viṣṇuḥ")
* The original Sanskrit vocative is often used in formal or poetic Malayalam, e.g. "Harē" (for "[[Hari]]") or "Prabhō" (for "Prabhu" – "Lord"). This is restricted to certain contexts – mainly when addressing deities or other exalted individuals, so a normal man named Hari would usually be addressed using a Malayalam vocative such as "Harī". The Sanskrit genitive is also occasionally found in Malayalam poetry, especially the personal pronouns "mama" ("my" or "mine") and "tava" ("thy" or "thine"). Other cases are less common and generally restricted to the realm of Maṇipravāḷam.
* Along with these [[tatsama]] borrowings, there are also many [[tadbhava]] words in common use. These were incorporated via borrowing before the separation of Malayalam and Tamil. As the language did not then accommodate Sanskrit phonology as it now does, words were changed to conform to the Old Tamil phonological system, for example "Kr̥ṣṇa" → "Kaṇṇan".<ref>{{cite book |last=Varma |first=A.R. Rajaraja |title=Keralapanineeyam |publisher=D C Books |year=2005 |location=Kottayam |pages=301–302 |isbn=978-81-7130-672-5}}</ref> 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|Malayalam script|Malayalam braille}}

Aside from the Malayalam script, the Malayalam language has been written in other scripts like [[Latin script|Latin]], [[Suriyani Malayalam|Syriac]]<ref name="suriyani malayalam archived 11 june 2014 at the wayback machine">[http://www.nasranifoundation.org/articles/SyriacMalayalam.html Suriyani Malayalam] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611020933/http://www.nasranifoundation.org/articles/SyriacMalayalam.html |date=11 June 2014 }}, Nasrani Foundation</ref><ref name="a sacredlanguage is vanishing from state archived 10 july 2013 at the wayback machine">[http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/11/stories/2008081164350500.htm A sacredlanguage is vanishing from State] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130710100809/http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/11/stories/2008081164350500.htm |date=10 July 2013 }}, The Hindu</ref><ref name="prayer from the past archived 4 april 2014 at the wayback machine">[http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/tiny-village-in-kerala-one-of-the-last-bastions-of-syriac-in-the-world/1/276352.html Prayer from the Past] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140404193804/http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/tiny-village-in-kerala-one-of-the-last-bastions-of-syriac-in-the-world/1/276352.html |date=4 April 2014 }}, India Today</ref> and [[Arabi Malayalam|Arabic]]. [[Suriyani Malayalam]] was used by [[Saint Thomas Christians]] (also known as Nasranis) until the 19th century.<ref name="suriyani malayalam archived 11 june 2014 at the wayback machine" /><ref name="a sacredlanguage is vanishing from state archived 10 july 2013 at the wayback machine" /><ref name="prayer from the past archived 4 april 2014 at the wayback machine" /> Arabic scripts particularly were taught in [[madrasah]]s in Kerala and the [[Lakshadweep Islands]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gaṅgopādhyāẏa |first=Subrata |title=Symbol, Script, and Writing: From Petrogram to Printing and Further |publisher=Sharada Pub. House |year=2004 |page=158 |url=https://books.google.com/books? |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151108170235/https://books.google.com/books |archive-date=8 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lakshadweep.nic.in/depts/education/profile.htm |title=Education in Lakshadweep – Discovering the past chapters |access-date=24 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101005155923/http://lakshadweep.nic.in/depts/education/profile.htm |archive-date=5 October 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Malayalam script ===
[[File:St angelo fort Arakkal Museum.JPG|thumbnail|A Malayalam signboard from [[Kannur]], Kerala. Malayalam is official language in the [[India]]n state of [[Kerala]] and the union territories of [[Lakshadweep]] and [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puduchery]]]]
[[File:Malayalam board with old style Malayalam letter (cropped).jpg|thumb|A Board in Malayalam which uses the complex letters in traditional 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 [[South Canara|Coastal Karnataka]] ([[Dakshina Kannada]] and [[Udupi district|Udupi]] districts) and the northernmost [[Kasaragod district]] of Kerala.<ref name="vinodh rajan" /> It is syllabic in the sense that the sequence of graphic elements means that syllables have to be read as units, though in this system the elements representing individual vowels and consonants are for the most part readily identifiable. In the 1960s Malayalam dispensed with many special letters representing less frequent conjunct consonants and combinations of the vowel /u, u:/ with different consonants.

Malayalam script consists of a total of 578 characters. The script contains 52 letters including 16 vowels and 36 consonants, which forms 576 syllabic characters, and contains two additional diacritic characters named [[anusvāra]] and [[visarga]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Malayalam Self-Taught |author=Don M. de Z. Wickremasinghe |author2=T.N. Menon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vX9Vk95OqNoC |page=7 |year=2004 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-1903-6 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528191159/https://books.google.com/books?id=vX9Vk95OqNoC |archive-date=28 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://kerala.gov.in/language%20&%20literature/language.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011052626/http://kerala.gov.in/language%20%26%20literature/language.htm |archive-date=11 October 2007 |title=Language |work=kerala.gov.in |access-date=28 May 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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 [[typeface|fonts]] containing the entire character repertoire of more than 900 [[glyph]]s. 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 General Public License|GPL]] license by [[Richard Stallman]] of the [[Free Software Foundation]] at the [[Cochin University of Science and Technology]] in Kochi, Kerala.

=== Chillu letters ===
A ''chillu'' ({{lang|ml|ചില്ല്}}, {{transliteration|ml|cillŭ}}), or a ''chillaksharam'' ({{lang|ml|ചില്ലക്ഷരം}}, {{transliteration|ml|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. [[#Anusvaram|Anusvara]] and [[#Visargam|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.<ref>{{cite web |year=1991–2007 |title=South Asian Scripts-I |url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.0.0/ch09.pdf |access-date=2009-09-08 |work=The Unicode Standard 5.0 – Electronic Edition |publisher=Unicode, Inc |pages=42–44 |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225042158/http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.0.0/ch09.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In Unicode 5.1 and later, ''chillu'' letters are treated as independent characters, encoded atomically.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left:30px"
|+''Chillu'' letters
! scope="col" | Letter
! scope="col" | Unicode name
! scope="col" | Base
! scope="col" | Remarks
! scope="col" | Examples
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|ml|ൺ}}
| {{mono|CHILLU NN}} || {{transliteration|ml|ṇa}} '''{{lang|ml|ണ}}'''|| || {{lang|ml|കൂൺ}} (kūṇ, "mushroom")
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|ml|ൻ}}
| {{mono|CHILLU N}} || {{transliteration|ml|ṉa}} '''{{lang|ml|ന}}'''|| Chillu of dental – alveolar nasal ''ṉa''.|| {{lang|ml|അവൻ}} (avaṉ, "he")
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|ml|ർ}}
| {{mono|CHILLU RR}} || {{transliteration|ml|ṟa}} '''{{lang|ml|റ}}'''|| Historically stood for {{transliteration|ml|ra}} {{lang|ml|ര}}, not {{transliteration|ml|ṟa}} {{lang|ml|റ}}. || {{lang|ml|അവർ}} (avar̠, "they")
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|ml|ൽ}}
| {{mono|CHILLU L}} || {{transliteration|ml|la}} '''{{lang|ml|ല}}'''|| || {{lang|ml|കാൽ}} (kāl, "foot")
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|ml|ൾ}}
| {{mono|CHILLU LL}} || {{transliteration|ml|ḷa}} '''{{lang|ml|ള}}'''|| || {{lang|ml|അവൾ}} (avaḷ, "she")
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|ml|ൿ}}
| {{mono|CHILLU K}} || {{transliteration|ml|ka}} '''{{lang|ml|ക}}'''|| Not in modern use || {{lang|ml|വാൿചാതുരി}} (doesn't occur word finally.)
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|ml|ൔ}}
| {{mono|CHILLU M}} || {{transliteration|ml|ma}} '''{{lang|ml|മ}}'''|| Not in modern use ||
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|ml|ൕ}}
| {{mono|CHILLU Y}} || {{transliteration|ml|ya}} '''{{lang|ml|യ}}'''|| Not in modern use ||
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|ml|ൖ}}
| {{mono|CHILLU LLL}} || {{transliteration|ml|ḻa}} '''{{lang|ml|ഴ}}'''|| Not in modern use ||
|}

=== Number system and other symbols ===
{| class="wikitable" style="width:80%;margin-left:30px;"
|-
! scope="row" | Praślēṣam
| {{lang|ml|ഽ}} || Corresponds to [[Devanagari]] [[avagraha]], used when a Sanskrit phrase containing an {{transliteration|ml|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 (:').<br />({{indic|lang=ml|indic=പ്രശ്ലേഷം|trans=praślēṣam}})
|-
! scope="col" | Malayalam date mark
| {{lang|ml|൹}}
| Used in an abbreviation of a date.
|-
! scope="col" | [[Danda]]
| {{lang|ml|।}}
| rowspan="2" | Archaic punctuation marks.
|-
! scope="col" | Double danda
| {{lang|ml|॥}}
|}

=== Numerals ===
{{Main|Malayalam numerals}}
Malayalam numbers and fractions are written as follows. These are archaic and no longer used. Instead, the common [[Hindu–Arabic numeral system|Hindu-Arabic numeral system]] is followed. There is a confusion about the glyph of Malayalam digit zero. The correct form is oval-shaped, but occasionally the glyph for {{frac|1|4}} ({{lang|ml|൳}}) is erroneously shown as the glyph for 0.
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left:30px;"
|-
! scope="col" | 0
! scope="col" | 1
! scope="col" | 2
! scope="col" | 3
! scope="col" | 4
! scope="col" | 5
! scope="col" | 6
! scope="col" | 7
! scope="col" | 8
! scope="col" | 9
! scope="col" | 10
! scope="col" | 100
! scope="col" | 1000
! scope="col" | {{frac|1|4}}
! scope="col" | {{frac|1|2}}
! scope="col" | {{frac|3|4}}
|- style="font-size:medium;" lang="ml"
| ൦ || ൧ || ൨ || ൩ || ൪ || ൫ || ൬ || ൭ || ൮ || ൯ || ൰ || ൱ || ൲ || ൳ || ൴ || ൵
|}

Number "11" is written as "൰൧" and not "൧൧". "32" is written as "൩൰൨" similar to the [[Tamil numerals|Tamil numeral system]].

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left:30px"
|-
! scope="col" | 11
! scope="col" | 20
! scope="col" | 21
! scope="col" | 30
! scope="col" | 110
! scope="col" | 10,099
|- style="font-size:medium" lang="ml"
| {{lang|ml|൰൧}} || {{lang|ml|൨൰}}
| {{lang|ml|൨൰൧}} || {{lang|ml|൩൰}}
| {{lang|ml|൱൰}} || {{lang|ml|൰൲൯൰൯}}
|}
For example, the number "2013" is read in Malayalam as {{lang|ml|രണ്ടായിരത്തി പതിമൂന്ന്}} ({{transliteration|ml|raṇḍāyiratti padimūnnŭ}}). It is split into:

* {{lang|ml|രണ്ട്}} ({{transliteration|ml|raṇḍŭ}}) : 2 – '''{{lang|ml|൨}}'''
* {{lang|ml|ആയിരം}} ({{transliteration|ml|āyiram}}) : 1000 – '''{{lang|ml|൲}}'''
* {{lang|ml|പത്ത്}} ({{transliteration|ml|pattŭ}}) : 10 – '''{{lang|ml|൰}}'''
* {{lang|ml|മൂന്ന്}} ({{transliteration|ml|mūnnŭ}}) : 3 – '''{{lang|ml|൩}}'''

Combine them together to get the Malayalam number '''{{lang|ml|൨൲൰൩}}.<ref>{{cite web |last=Alex |first=Shiju |date=2013-08-22 |title=മലയാള അക്കങ്ങൾ |url=https://shijualex.in/malayalam-numerals-old-system/ |access-date=2020-04-12 |website=ഗ്രന്ഥപ്പുര |language=ml |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202175239/https://shijualex.in/malayalam-numerals-old-system/ |url-status=live }}</ref>'''

And 1,00,000 as "{{lang|ml|൱൲}}" = hundred({{lang|ml|൱}}), thousand({{lang|ml|൲}}) (100×1000), 10,00,000 as "{{lang|ml|൰൱൲}}" = ten({{lang|ml|൰}}), hundred({{lang|ml|൱}}), thousand({{lang|ml|൲}}) (10×100×1000) and 1,00,00,000 as "{{lang|ml|൱൱൲}}" = hundred({{lang|ml|൱}}), hundred({{lang|ml|൱}}), thousand({{lang|ml|൲}}) (100×100×1000).

Later on this system got reformed to be more similar to the Hindu-Arabic numerals so 10,00,000 in the reformed numerals it would be {{lang|ml|൧൦൦൦൦൦൦}}.<ref name="alex-2013">{{cite web |last=Alex |first=Shiju |date=2013-08-22 |title=മലയാള അക്കങ്ങൾ |url=https://shijualex.in/malayalam-numerals-old-system/ |access-date=2020-04-12 |website=ഗ്രന്ഥപ്പുര |language=en-US |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202175239/https://shijualex.in/malayalam-numerals-old-system/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Fractions ===
In Malayalam you can transcribe any fraction by affixing ({{transliteration|ml|-il}}) after the denominator followed by the numerator, so a fraction like {{frac|7|10}} would be read as '''{{lang|ml|പത്തിൽ ഏഴ്}}''' ({{transliteration|ml|pattil ēḻŭ}}) 'out of ten, seven' but fractions like {{frac|1|2}} {{frac|1|4}} and {{frac|3|4}} have distinct names ({{transliteration|ml|ara}}, {{transliteration|ml|kāl}}, {{transliteration|ml|mukkāl}}) and {{frac|1|8}} ({{transliteration|ml|arakkāl}}) 'half quarter'.<ref name="alex-2013" />

=== Vattezhuthu alphabet ===
{{further|Vatteluttu}}
[[File:Tigalari-sanskrit-manuscript.jpg|thumbnail|A medieval [[Tigalari script|Tigalari]] manuscript (Bears high similarity with modern Malayalam script)]]
Vatteluttu ({{indic|lang=ml|indic=വട്ടെഴുത്ത്|trans=Vaṭṭezhuthŭ}}, "round writing") is a script that had evolved from [[Tamil-Brahmi]] and was once used extensively in the southern part of present-day [[Tamil Nadu]] and in [[Kerala]].

Malayalam was first written in Vattezhuthu. The [[Vazhappally]] inscription issued by [[Rajashekhara Varman]] is the earliest example, dating from about 830 CE.<ref name="ager-1998">{{cite web|title=Malayalam alphabet, pronunciation and language|first=Simon|last=Ager|work=Omniglot|url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/malayalam.htm|year=1998|access-date=2009-09-08|archive-date=10 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510202326/https://www.omniglot.com/writing/malayalam.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Vazhapally Temple|url=http://www.vazhappallytemple.org/history.html|publisher=Vazhappally Sree Mahadeva Temple|access-date=2009-10-31|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109014543/http://www.vazhappallytemple.org/history.html|archive-date=2011-01-09}}</ref> During the medieval period, the [[Tigalari script]] that was used for writing [[Tulu language|Tulu]] in [[South Canara]], and [[Sanskrit]] in the adjacent [[Malabar District|Malabar region]], had a close similarity to the modern Malayalam script.<ref name="vinodh rajan" /> In the Tamil country, the modern [[Tamil script]] had supplanted Vattezhuthu by the 15th century, but in the [[Malabar Coast|Malabar]] region, Vattezhuthu remained in general use up to the 17th century,<ref>Burnell (1874), p. 39.</ref> or the 18th century.<ref name="malayalam resource centre">{{cite web|title=The Script|url=http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/evol_lang.htm#The%20Script|access-date=2009-11-20|publisher=Malayalam Resource Centre|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725044626/http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/evol_lang.htm#The%20Script|archive-date=2011-07-25|url-status=dead}}</ref> A variant form of this script, [[Kolezhuthu]], was used until about the 19th century mainly in the [[Malabar District|Malabar]]-[[Kingdom of Cochin|Cochin]] area.<ref name="government of kerala">{{cite web|title=Alphabets|publisher=Government of Kerala|url=http://www.kerala.gov.in/language%20&%20literature/alphabets.htm|access-date=2009-10-29|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091109222758/http://www.kerala.gov.in/language%20%26%20literature/alphabets.htm|archive-date=2009-11-09}}</ref>

Vatteluttu was in general use, but was not suitable for literature where many Sanskrit words were used. Like Tamil-Brahmi, it was originally used to write [[Tamil language|Tamil]], and as such, did not have letters for voiced or aspirated consonants used in Sanskrit but not used in Tamil. For this reason, Vatteluttu and the Grantha alphabet were sometimes mixed, as in the [[Manipravalam]]. One of the oldest examples of the Manipravalam literature, ''Vaishikatantram'' ({{lang|ml|വൈശികതന്ത്രം}}, ''Vaiśikatantram''), dates back to the 12th century,<ref>Nampoothiri, N. M. (1999), [http://malabarandkeralastudies.net/downloadingfiles/pdffiles/culturaltraditionsinmedeivalkerala.pdf "Cultural Traditions in Medieval Kerala"]{{dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (PDF) in Cherian, P. J., ''Perspectives on Kerala History: The Second Millennium'', Kerala Council for Historical Research, {{ISBN|81-85499-35-7}}, retrieved 2009-11-20.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Development of Literature|url=http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/devliterature.htm|access-date=2009-11-20|publisher=Malayalam Resource Centre|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130704044944/http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/Tutor/devliterature.htm|archive-date=4 July 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> where the earliest form of the Malayalam script was used, which seems to have been systematized to some extent by the first half of the 13th century.<ref name="ager-1998" /><ref name="malayalam resource centre" />

Another variant form, [[Malayanma]], was used in the south of [[Thiruvananthapuram]].<ref name="government of kerala" /> By the 19th century, old scripts like Kolezhuthu had been supplanted by Arya-eluttu – that is the current Malayalam script. Nowadays, it is widely used in the press of the Malayali population in Kerala.<ref>Andronov, Mikhail Sergeevich. ''A Grammar of the Malayalam Language in Historical Treatment''. Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1996.</ref>

=== Grantha ===
{{further|Grantha script}}
[[File:9th century Tamil Grantha script Sanskrit Chera era font.jpg|thumb|left|A [[Chera dynasty|Chera era]] [[Grantha script|Grantha inscription]]|251x251px]]
According to [[Arthur Coke Burnell]], one form of the Grantha alphabet, originally used in the [[Chola dynasty]], was imported into the southwest coast of India in the 8th or 9th century, which was then modified in course of time in this secluded area, where communication with the east coast was very limited.<ref name="burnell">Burnell (1874), p. 35.</ref> It later evolved into Tigalari-Malayalam script was used by the [[Malayali]], Havyaka Brahmins and Tulu Brahmin people, but was originally only applied to write [[Sanskrit]]. This script split into two scripts: Tigalari and Malayalam. While Malayalam script was extended and modified to write vernacular language Malayalam, the Tigalari was written for Sanskrit only.<ref name="burnell" /><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2009 |title=Grantha alphabet |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/241814/Grantha-alphabet |access-date=2009-10-28 |archive-date=16 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216230938/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/241814/Grantha-alphabet |url-status=live }}</ref> In Malabar, this writing system was termed Arya-eluttu ({{lang|ml|ആര്യ എഴുത്ത്}}, ''Ārya eḻuttŭ''),<ref>{{cite web |title=EPIGRAPHY – Inscriptions in Grantha Script |url=http://www.tnarch.gov.in/epi/ins3.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111183842/http://www.tnarch.gov.in/epi/ins3.htm |archive-date=2010-01-11 |access-date=2009-11-11 |publisher=Department of Archaeology, [[government of Tamil Nadu]]}}</ref> meaning "Arya writing" (Sanskrit is [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan language]] while Malayalam is a [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian language]]).

=== Karshoni ===
[[File:East Syriac Script Thaksa.jpg|thumb|East Syriac Script Thaksa ([[Chaldean Syrian Church]], [[Thrissur]], [[Kerala]], India)]]
[[Suriyani Malayalam]] (സുറിയാനി മലയാളം, ܣܘܪܝܢܝ ܡܠܝܠܡ), also known as ''Karshoni'', ''Syro-Malabarica'' or ''Syriac Malayalam'', is a version of Malayalam written in a variant form of the [[Syriac alphabet]] which was popular among the [[Saint Thomas Christians]] (also known as Syrian Christians or Nasranis) of [[Kerala]] in [[India]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/Bengaluru-Youth-Learn-Dying-Language-Preserve-It/2016/05/09/article3422438.ece|title=City Youth Learn Dying Language, Preserve It|publisher=[[The New Indian Express]]|date=9 May 2016|access-date=9 May 2016|archive-date=3 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603040415/http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/Bengaluru-Youth-Learn-Dying-Language-Preserve-It/2016/05/09/article3422438.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="suriyani malayalam archived 11 june 2014 at the wayback machine" /><ref name="a sacredlanguage is vanishing from state archived 10 july 2013 at the wayback machine" /><ref name="prayer from the past archived 4 april 2014 at the wayback machine" /> It uses Malayalam grammar, the [[Madnhaya|Maḏnḥāyā]] or "Eastern" Syriac script with special [[orthography|orthographic]] features, and vocabulary from Malayalam and East Syriac. This originated in the South Indian region of the [[Malabar Coast]] (modern-day Kerala). Until the 20th century, the script was widely used by Syrian Christians in Kerala.

=== Ponnani script ===
[[File:ArabiMalayalam alphabet.png|thumb|right|[[Arabi Malayalam]] alphabet with Malayalam alphabet correspondences]]
The [[Arabi Malayalam script]], otherwise known as the [[Ponnani]] script,<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Kunnath |first=Ammad |date=15 September 2015 |title=The rise and growth of Ponnani from 1498 AD To 1792 AD |type=PhD |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10603/49524 |publisher=Department of History |hdl=10603/49524 |access-date=27 May 2021 |archive-date=2 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002110659/https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in:8443/jspui/handle/10603/49524 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Panakkal |first=Abbas |url=http://myto.upm.edu.my/find/Record/iium.u537621 |title=Islam in Malabar (1460–1600) : a socio-cultural study / |date=2016 |publisher=Kulliyyah Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia |access-date=27 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527064123/http://myto.upm.edu.my/find/Record/iium.u537621 |archive-date=27 May 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite conference |last=Randathani |first=Hussain |title=Trade and Culture: Indian ocean interaction on the coast of Malabar in medieval period |conference=2nd International IBNU Batuta Conference |date=4–6 December 2018 |url=https://www.academia.edu/22105661 |language=en |access-date=27 May 2021 |archive-date=15 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415022327/https://www.academia.edu/22105661 |url-status=live }}</ref> is a writing system – a variant form of the [[Arabic script]] with special [[orthography|orthographic]] features – which was developed during the early medieval period and used to write [[Arabi Malayalam]] until the early 20th century CE.<ref>Miller, Roland. E., "Mappila" in "The Encyclopedia of Islam". Volume VI. E. J. Brill, Leiden. 1987. pp. 458–56.</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20120912185758/http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/literature/contribution.html Malayalam Resource Centre]</ref> Though the script originated and developed in [[Kerala]], today it is predominantly used in [[Malaysia]] and [[Singapore]] by the migrant [[Muslim]] community.<ref>Menon. T. Madhava. "A Handbook of Kerala, Volume 2", International School of Dravidian Linguistics, 2002. pp. 491–493.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/april/Malayalam.html#writ |title=National Virtual Translation Center – Arabic script for malayalam |access-date=27 May 2021 |archive-date=17 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090117202844/http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/april/Malayalam.html#writ |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Literature ==
{{Main|Malayalam literature}}

The [[Sangam literature]] can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018b">{{Cite book|title=Mathrubhumi Yearbook Plus – 2019|publisher=P. V. Chandran, Managing Editor, Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited, Kozhikode|year=2018|location=Kozhikode|page=450|id={{ASIN|8182676444|country=in}}|edition=Malayalam}}</ref> According to [[Iravatham Mahadevan]], the earliest Malayalam inscription discovered until now is the Edakal-5 inscription (ca. late 4th century – early 5th century) reading {{transliteration|ml|ī pazhama}} ({{translation}} 'this is old').<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/the-earliest-inscription-in-malayalam/article3501408.ece |title=The earliest inscription in Malayalam |first=Iravatham |last=Mahadevan |date=7 June 2012 |work=The Hindu |access-date=28 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619184807/http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/the-earliest-inscription-in-malayalam/article3501408.ece |archive-date=19 June 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Although this has been disputed by many scholars who regard it as a regional dialect of Old Tamil.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/Historians-contest-antiquity-of-Edakkal-inscriptions/articleshow/14789313.cms |title=Historians contest antiquity of Edakkal inscriptions |first=Gayathri |last=Sasibhooshan |date=12 July 2012 |work=The Hindu |access-date=21 October 2020 |archive-date=6 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206114100/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/Historians-contest-antiquity-of-Edakkal-inscriptions/articleshow/14789313.cms |url-status=live }}</ref> The use of the pronoun {{transliteration|ml|ī}} and the lack of the literary Tamil {{transliteration|ta|-ai}} ending are archaisms from Proto-Dravidian rather than unique innovations of Malayalam.{{refn|group=note|"*aH and *iH are demonstrative adjectives reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian, as they show variation in vowel length. When they occur in isolation they occur as ā, and ī but when they are followed by a consonant initial word then they appear as a- and i- as in Ta. appoẓutu 'that time'., : Te. appuḍu id. and Ta. ippoẓutu 'that time'., : Te.ippuḍu id. However, Modern Tamil has replaced ā, and ī with anda and inda but most Dravidian languages have preserved it."{{sfn|Krishnamurti|2003}}{{page needed|date=May 2022}}}}

The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition:<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />
Malayalam Nada, Tamil Nada and Sanskrit Nada.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />
* Classical songs known as [[Music of Kerala|Nadan Pattu]]<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />
* [[Manipravalam]] of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam. [[Niranam poets]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.prd.kerala.gov.in/theniranampoets.htm |title=official website of INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATION DEPARTMENT |publisher=prd.kerala.gov.in |access-date=5 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141014202734/http://www.prd.kerala.gov.in/theniranampoets.htm |archive-date=14 October 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Manipravalam Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar wrote Manipravalam poetry in the 14th century.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />
* The folk song rich in native elements
[[Malayalam literature]] has been profoundly influenced by poets [[Cherusseri Namboothiri]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Cherussery (Krishnagadha) malayalam author books|url=http://keralaliterature.com/old/author.php?authid=1473|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407052549/http://keralaliterature.com/old/author.php%3Fauthid%3D1473|archive-date=7 April 2019|website=keralaliterature.com}}</ref><ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> [[Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan]],<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> and [[Poonthanam Nambudiri]],<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref>{{cite news|last=Arun Narayanan|date=25 October 2018|title=The Charms of Poonthanam Illam|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/the-charms-of-poonthanam-illam/article25308319.ece/amp/|access-date=6 April 2021|archive-date=21 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121225855/https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/the-charms-of-poonthanam-illam/article25308319.ece/amp/|url-status=live}}</ref> in the 15th and the 16th centuries of Common Era.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref>Freeman, Rich (2003). "Genre and Society: The Literary Culture of Premodern Kerala". In Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia</ref> [[Unnayi Variyar]], a probable 17th–18th century poet,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Krishna Kaimal|first=Aymanam|url=http://mgucat.mgu.ac.in/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=133514&shelfbrowse_itemnumber=132435|title=Attakatha sahithyam|date=1989|location=Trivandrum |publisher=State Institute of Language|access-date=1 May 2021|archive-date=21 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121234617/http://mgucat.mgu.ac.in/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=133514&shelfbrowse_itemnumber=132435|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Kunchan Nambiar]], a poet of 18th century,<ref>{{cite web|date=2006-03-23|title=prd-Kunchan Nambiar (1705–1770)|url=http://www.prd.kerala.gov.in/prd2/mala/lit21.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060323102704/http://www.prd.kerala.gov.in/prd2/mala/lit21.htm|archive-date=2006-03-23|access-date=2019-03-02|publisher=Department of Public Relations, Government of Kerala}}</ref> also greatly influenced [[Malayalam literature]] in its early form.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> 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.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref>{{cite web|date=15 October 2017|title=New university centre for Arabi Malayalam|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/151017/new-university-centre-for-arabi-malayalam.html|access-date=20 October 2020|website=Deccan Chronicle|language=en|archive-date=24 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024080256/https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/151017/new-university-centre-for-arabi-malayalam.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 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]].<ref name="south asian arts" /> [[Malayalam literature]] has been presented with six [[Jnanpith Award|Jnanapith awards]], the second-most for any Dravidian language and the third-highest for any Indian language.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Naha|first=Abdul Latheef|date=24 September 2020|title=Jnanpith given to Akkitham|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/jnanpith-given-to-akkitham/article32685581.ece|access-date=12 June 2021|archive-date=22 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211122000924/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/jnanpith-given-to-akkitham/article32685581.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=ANI|date=29 November 2019|title=Celebrated Malayalam poet Akkitham wins 2019 Jnanpith Award|work=Business Standard|url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/celebrated-malayalam-poet-akkitham-wins-2019-jnanpith-award-119112900926_1.html|access-date=12 June 2021|archive-date=21 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121233820/https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/celebrated-malayalam-poet-akkitham-wins-2019-jnanpith-award-119112900926_1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/literature/champu.html |title=History of Malayalam Literature |access-date=19 March 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130704062535/http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/literature/champu.html |archive-date=4 July 2013}}</ref><ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, ''Bhashakautalyam'' (12th century) on [[Chanakya]]'s ''[[Arthashastra]]''. [[Adhyathmaramayanam|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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Kamil Zvelebil |title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA155 |year=1973 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-03591-1 |page=3 |access-date=18 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330135647/https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA155 |archive-date=30 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[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.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> 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.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The basin of the river [[Bharathappuzha]], which is otherwise known as [[Ponnani|River Ponnani]], and its tributaries, have played a major role in the development of modern Malayalam Literature.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The river sutra|url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/rivers-have-nurtured-malayalam-literature-and-poetry-since-time-immemorial/article25058214.ece|last=Binoy|first=Rasmi|date=27 September 2018|access-date=24 January 2021|work=The Hindu|archive-date=21 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121233925/https://www.thehindu.com/society/rivers-have-nurtured-malayalam-literature-and-poetry-since-time-immemorial/article25058214.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

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]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.syromalabarchurch.in/museum.php |title=Syro Malabar Church |access-date=5 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317013801/http://www.syromalabarchurch.in/museum.php |archive-date=17 March 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018a"/>

=== 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'').<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> Folk songs are the oldest literary form in Malayalam.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018a"/> They were just oral songs.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018a"/> Many of them were related to agricultural activities, including ''Pulayar Pattu'', ''Pulluvan Pattu'', ''Njattu Pattu'', ''Koythu Pattu'', etc.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018a"/> Other [[Ballad]]s of Folk Song period include the ''[[Vadakkan Pattukal]]'' (Northern songs) in [[North Malabar]] region and the ''Thekkan Pattukal'' (Southern songs) in [[Southern Division (Travancore)|Southern Travancore]].<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018a"/> Some of the earliest [[Mappila song]]s (Muslim songs) were also folk songs.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018a"/>

=== Old and Middle Malayalam ===
{{Main|Old Malayalam|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.<ref>{{Citation| last=S. Parameshwara Aiyer| first=Ulloor| title=Kerala Sahithya Chrithram (History of literature of Kerala)| publisher=University of Kerala| place=Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala|year=1990}}</ref> However the claim that it was written in Southern Kerala is expired on the basis of new discoveries.<ref name="school of distance education">{{Cite web|url=http://sdeuoc.ac.in/sites/default/files/sde_videos/SLM-MA-Mal-Aadyakala%20Malayala%20kavitha%20%281%29.pdf|title=School of Distance Education, University of Calicut|access-date=8 June 2021|archive-date=8 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608091936/http://sdeuoc.ac.in/sites/default/files/sde_videos/SLM-MA-Mal-Aadyakala%20Malayala%20kavitha%20%281%29.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Other experts, like Chirakkal T Balakrishnan Nair, K.M. George, M. M. Purushothaman Nair, and P.V. Krishnan Nair, state that the origin of the book is in [[Kasaragod district]] in [[North Malabar]] region.<ref name="school of distance education" /> 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]].<ref>{{Citation| last=Leelavathi| first=M.| title=Malayala Kavitha Sahithya Chrithram (History of Malayalam poetry)}}</ref> The influence of ''[[Ramacharitam]]'' is mostly seen in the contemporary literary works of Northern Kerala.<ref name="school of distance education" /> 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).<ref name="school of distance education" /> Furthermore, the [[Thiruvananthapuram]] mentioned in ''Ramacharitham'' is not the Thiruvananthapuram in Southern Kerala.<ref name="school of distance education" /> But it is [[Ananthapura Lake Temple]] of [[Kumbla]] in the northernmost [[Kasaragod district]] of Kerala.<ref name="school of distance education" /> The word ''Thiru'' is used just by the meaning ''Honoured''.<ref name="school of distance education" /> Today it is widely accepted that ''Ramacharitham'' was written somewhere in [[North Malabar]] (most likely near [[Kasaragod]]).<ref name="school of distance education" />

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''.{{sfn|Mahapatra|1989|p=307}}

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]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The ''Sandesha Kavya''s of 14th century CE written in [[Manipravalam]] language include ''[[Unnuneeli Sandesam]]''<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The literary works written in [[Middle Malayalam]] were heavily influenced by [[Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit]], while comparing them with the modern [[Malayalam literature]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> 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".<ref name="arvind raghunathan-2003" /><ref name="ke rāmacandr̲an nāyar" /> 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.<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /><ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

=== 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.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The language used in ''Krishnagatha'' is the modern spoken form of Malayalam.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> It appears to be the first literary work written in the present-day language of Malayalam.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> 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.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> 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.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval work ''[[Keralolpathi]]'', which describes the [[Parashurama]] legend and the departure of the final [[Legend of Cheraman Perumals|Cheraman Perumal]] king to [[Mecca]], to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.<ref name="history of travancore by shungunny menon" />
[[File:THUNCHAN MEMORIAL.jpg|thumbnail|300px|The [[Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University]] is situated at [[Thunchan Parambu]], [[Tirur]], [[Malappuram district|Malappuram]]]]

[[Kunchan Nambiar]], the founder of ''Thullal'' movement, was a prolific literary figure of the 18th century.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

==== Impact of European scholars ====
[[File:Samkshepavedartham 1772.pdf|thumb|Cover page of ''Nasranikal okkekkum ariyendunna samkshepavedartham'' which is the first book to be printed in Malayalam in 1772.]]
The British printed Malabar English Dictionary<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/14/stories/2005101407670300.htm| title = Malabar English Dictionary| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060907144316/http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/14/stories/2005101407670300.htm| archive-date = 7 September 2006}}</ref> by Graham Shaw in 1779 was still in the form of a Tamil-English Dictionary.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/14/stories/2005101407670300.htm |title=Kerala / Kozhikode News : Copy of first book printed in Kerala released |date=14 October 2005 |access-date=30 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327203823/http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/14/stories/2005101407670300.htm |archive-date=27 March 2010 |work=[[The Hindu]] |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar]] wrote the first Malayalam travelogue called ''[[Varthamanappusthakam]]'' in 1789.

[[Hermann Gundert]], (1814–1893), a German missionary and scholar of exceptional linguistic talents, played a distinguishable role in the development of Malayalam literature. His major works are Keralolpathi (1843), Pazhancholmala (1845), Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1851), ''Paathamala (1860) the first Malayalam school text book'', Kerala pazhama (1868), ''the first Malayalam dictionary (1872)'', Malayalarajyam (1879) – Geography of Kerala, ''Rajya Samacharam (1847 June) the first Malayalam news paper'', Paschimodayam (1879) – Magazine.<ref>[http://www.pressacademy.org/tags/rajyasamacharam Rajyasamacharam | Kerala Press Academy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130712090109/http://www.pressacademy.org/tags/rajyasamacharam |date=12 July 2013 }}. Pressacademy.org. Retrieved 28 July 2013.</ref> He lived in [[Thalassery]] for around 20 years. He learned the language from well established local teachers Ooracheri Gurukkanmar from Chokli, a village near [[Thalassery]] and consulted them in works. He also translated the Bible into Malayalam.<ref>[http://www.pressacademy.org/content/herman-gundert Herman Gundert | Kerala Press Academy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514003031/http://pressacademy.org/content/herman-gundert |date=14 May 2013 }}. Pressacademy.org. Retrieved 28 July 2013.</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TDCKdPpbFPAC |title=Land and people of Indian states and union territories |page=289 |quote=This Bungalow in Tellicherry ... was the residence of Dr. Herman Gundert .He lived here for 20 years |author=S. C. Bhatt and Gopal K. Bhargava |isbn=978-81-7835-370-8 |year=2005 |publisher=Gyan Publishing House |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527102140/https://books.google.com/books?id=TDCKdPpbFPAC |archive-date=27 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1821, the [[Church Mission Society]] (CMS) at [[Kottayam]] in association with the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]] started a seminary at [[Kottayam]] in 1819 and started printing books in Malayalam when Benjamin Bailey, an [[Anglican]] priest, made the first Malayalam types. In addition, he contributed to standardizing the prose.<ref>[http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/05/stories/2010020551770300.htm# "Banjamin Bailey"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100210130555/http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/05/stories/2010020551770300.htm |date=10 February 2010 }}, ''The Hindu'', 5 February 2010</ref> [[Hermann Gundert]] from [[Stuttgart]], Germany, started the first Malayalam newspaper, ''Rajya Samacaram'' in 1847 at [[Thalassery|Talasseri]]. It was printed at [[Basel Mission]].<ref>[http://www.kerala.gov.in/kerala_callingoct/pg31-33.pdf Rajya Samacaram, "1847 first Newspaper in Malayalam"]{{dead link|date=February 2024|bot=medic}}, Kerala Government</ref> Malayalam and [[Sanskrit]] were increasingly studied by Christians of [[Kottayam]] and [[Pathanamthitta]]. The [[Marthomite]] movement in the mid-19th century called for replacement of [[Syriac language|Syriac]] by Malayalam for liturgical purposes. By the end of the 19th century Malayalam replaced [[Syriac language|Syriac]] as language of [[Liturgy]] in all Syrian Christian churches.

==== 1850–1904 ====
{{See also|Malayalam journalism|Venmani School}}
[[File:Travancore Rupee - Reverse.jpg|thumb|Malayalam letters on old [[Travancore Rupee]] coin]]
[[Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar]], (1861–1914) from [[Thalassery]] was the author of first Malayalam short story, Vasanavikriti. After him innumerable world class literature works by was born in Malayalam.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

[[O. Chandu Menon]] wrote his novels "Indulekha" and "Saradha" while he was the judge at Parappanangadi Munciff Court. ''Indulekha'' is also the first Major Novel written in Malayalam language.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Visakham thirunal.|date=2012|publisher=Duc|isbn=978-613-9-12064-2|location=[Place of publication not identified]|oclc=940373421}}</ref>

[[File:Shakuntala RRV.jpg|thumb|Shakuntala writes to Dushyanta. Painting by [[Raja Ravi Varma]]. The poetry was translated by [[Kerala Varma Valiya Koil Thampuran|Kerala Varma]] as [[Abhijnanasakuntalam]]]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

The third quarter of the 19th century CE bore witness to the rise of a new school of poets devoted to the observation of life around them and the use of pure Malayalam. The major poets of the [[Venmani School]] were [[Venmani Achhan Nambudiripad]] (1817–1891), [[Venmani Mahan Nambudiripad]] (1844–1893), [[Poonthottam Achhan Nambudiri]] (1821–1865), [[Poonthottam Mahan Nambudiri]] (1857–1896) and the members of the [[Kodungallur Kovilakam]] (Royal Family) such as [[Kodungallur Kunjikkuttan Thampuran]]. The style of these poets became quite popular for a while and influenced even others who were not members of the group like [[Velutheri Kesavan Vaidyar]] (1839–1897) and Perunlli Krishnan Vaidyan (1863–1894). The Venmani school pioneered a style of poetry that was associated with common day themes, and the use of pure Malayalam (''Pachcha Malayalam'') rather than Sanskrit.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

=== Twentieth century ===
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]], [[Edasseri Govindan Nair]] and [[Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri]], had made valuable contributions to the modern Malayalam literature.<ref name="subodh kapoor-2002">{{cite book |author=Subodh Kapoor |title=The Indian Encyclopaedia: Biographical, Historical, Religious, Administrative, Ethnological, Commercial and Scientific. Mahi-Mewat |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mc6C5dVHbGAC&pg=PA4542 |access-date=18 November 2012 |year=2002 |publisher=Cosmo |isbn=978-8177552720 |page=4542 |archive-date=27 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527070907/http://books.google.com/books?id=mc6C5dVHbGAC&pg=PA4542 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="eg smith for the us library of congress office new delhi-1994">{{cite book |title=Accessions List, South Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lPcoAQAAIAAJ |access-date=18 November 2012 |year=1994 |publisher=E.G. Smith for the U.S. Library of Congress Office, New Delhi |page=21 |archive-date=2 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102114016/http://books.google.com/books?id=lPcoAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="nirmala sadanand publishers-1967">{{cite book |title=Indian Writing Today |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1wUtAQAAIAAJ |access-date=18 November 2012 |year=1967 |publisher=Nirmala Sadanand Publishers |page=21 |archive-date=2 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102114455/http://books.google.com/books?id=1wUtAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="sahitya akademi-1987">{{cite book |author1=Amaresh Datta |author2=Sahitya Akademi |title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: K to Navalram |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QaIRAQAAMAAJ |access-date=18 November 2012 |year=1987 |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |page=2394 |isbn=978-0-8364-2423-2 |archive-date=27 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527085255/http://books.google.com/books?id=QaIRAQAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="kerala sahitya akademi-1993">{{cite book |title=Malayalam Literary Survey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5JkAAAAMAAJ |access-date=18 November 2012 |year=1993 |publisher=Kerala Sahitya Akademi |page=19}}</ref> Later, writers like [[O. V. Vijayan]], [[Kamaladas]], [[M. Mukundan]], [[Arundhati Roy]], and [[Vaikom Muhammed Basheer]], have gained international recognition.<ref name="c gopinathan pillai-2004">{{cite book |author1=Eṃ Mukundan |author2=C. Gopinathan Pillai |title=Eng Adityan Radha And Others |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1N5QcHakKdoC&pg=PP3 |access-date=18 November 2012 |year=2004 |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |isbn=978-8126018833 |page=3 |archive-date=27 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527171236/http://books.google.com/books?id=1N5QcHakKdoC&pg=PP3 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ed vinod kumar maheshwari-2002">{{cite book |author=Ed. Vinod Kumar Maheshwari |title=Perspectives on Indian English Literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JcY2-ldWIKsC&pg=PA126 |access-date=18 November 2012 |year=2002 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist |isbn=978-8126900930 |page=126 |archive-date=2 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102114358/http://books.google.com/books?id=JcY2-ldWIKsC&pg=PA126 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="amit chaudhuri-2008">{{cite book |author=Amit Chaudhuri |title=Clearing a Space: Reflections on India, Literature, and Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQeN2PoAx2IC&pg=PA44 |access-date=18 November 2012 |year=2008 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-1-906165-01-7 |pages=44–45 |archive-date=27 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527095742/http://books.google.com/books?id=AQeN2PoAx2IC&pg=PA44 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Indian's First Novel Wins Booker Prize in Britain |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=15 October 1997 |access-date=11 November 2007 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E6DD173FF936A25753C1A961958260 |first=Sarah |last=Lyall |archive-date=21 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121224622/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/15/world/indian-s-first-novel-wins-booker-prize-in-britain.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Prose ====
The travelogues written by [[S. K. Pottekkatt]] were turning point in the travelogue literature.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The writers like [[Kavalam Narayana Panicker]] have contributed much to Malayalam drama.<ref name="p v chandran managing editor mathrubhumi printing publishing company limited kozhikode-2018a"/>

[[Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai]] turned away from party politics and produced a moving romance in ''[[Chemmeen (novel)|Chemmeen]]'' (Shrimps) in 1956. For [[S. K. Pottekkatt]] and [[Vaikom Muhammad Basheer]], who had not dabbled in politics, the continuity is marked in the former's ''Vishakanyaka'' (Poison Maid, 1948) and the latter's ''[[Ntuppuppakkoranendarnnu]]'' (My Grandpa had an Elephant, 1951). The non-political social or domestic novel was championed by [[Uroob|P. C. Kuttikrishnan (Uroob)]] with his ''[[Ummachu]]'' (1955) and ''[[Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum]]'' (Men and Women of Charm, 1958).<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

In 1957 Basheer's ''[[Pathummayude Aadu]]'' (Pathumma's Goat) brought in a new kind of prose tale, which perhaps only Basheer could handle with dexterity. The fifties thus mark the evolution of a new kind of fiction, which had its impact on the short stories as well. This was the auspicious moment for the entry of [[M. T. Vasudevan Nair]] and [[T. Padmanabhan]] upon the scene. Front runners in the post-modern trend include [[Kakkanadan]], [[O. V. Vijayan]], [[E. Harikumar]], [[M. Mukundan]] and [[Anand (writer)|Anand]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />

[[Kerala]] has the [[Indian states ranking by media exposure|highest media exposure in India]] with newspapers publishing in nine languages, mainly [[English language|English]] and Malayalam.<ref>{{cite web |title=The DHS Program – India: Standard DHS, 2015–16 |url=https://dhsprogram.com/what-we-do/survey/survey-display-355.cfm |website=dhsprogram.com |access-date=12 June 2021 |archive-date=21 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021080422/https://www.dhsprogram.com/what-we-do/survey/survey-display-355.cfm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=National Family Health Survey|url=http://rchiips.org/nfhs/NFHS-4Report.shtml|website=rchiips.org|access-date=12 June 2021|archive-date=3 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211003131317/http://rchiips.org/NFHS/NFHS-4Report.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Poetry ====
Contemporary Malayalam poetry deals with social, political, and economic life context. The tendency of the modern poetry is often towards [[political radicalism]].<ref name="south asian arts">{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556016/South-Asian-arts/65212/Tamil#toc65213|title=South Asian arts|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=10 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910083744/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556016/South-Asian-arts/65212/Tamil#toc65213|url-status=live}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|India|Languages}}
<!-- Please respect alphabetical order -->
* [[Arabi Malayalam]]
* [[Jeseri]]
* [[Judeo-Malayalam]]
* [[Malayalam (Unicode block)]]
* [[Malayalam Braille]]
* [[Malayalam calendar]]
* [[Malayalam cinema]]
* [[Malayalam languages]]
* [[Malayalam literature]]
* [[Malayalam poetry]]
* [[Malayali]]
* [[Manipravalam]]
* [[Mulabhadra]]
* [[Mygurudu]]
* [[Suriyani Malayalam]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite book |last=Gopinathan Nair |first=B. |year=2009 |chapter=Malayalam |editor1=Keith Brown |editor2=Sarah Ogilvie |title=Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World |pages=680–683}}
* {{cite book |last1=Karashima |first1=Noboru |author-link1=Noboru Karashima |title=A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-809977-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fpdVoAEACAAJ |language=en }}
* {{cite book |last1=Mahapatra |first1=B. P. |title=Constitutional Languages |series=The Written Languages of the World: A Survey of the Degree and Modes of Use |volume=2 |date=1989 |publisher=Presses Université Laval |isbn=978-2-7637-7186-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yU8nq-C6wnoC |language=en }}
* {{cite book |last1=Asher |first1=R. E. |last2=Kumari |first2=T. C. |title=Malayalam |date=1997 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-02242-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uFQG2DCaIsIC |language=en }}
* Govindankutty, A. "From Proto-Tamil-Malayalam to West Coast Dialects", 1972. Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. XIV, Nr. 1/2, pp.&nbsp;52–60.
* {{cite book |last=Steever |first=Sanford B. |title=The Dravidian Languages |date=15 April 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-91171-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6WDxBwAAQBAJ}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
; English
* {{Cite book|title=A Grammar of the Malayalim Language|author=Joseph Peet|publisher=Church Missionary Society|location=[[Kottayam|Cottayam]]|year=1841|url=https://archive.org/details/1841_A_Grammar_Of_The_Malayalim_Language}}
* {{Cite book|title=Catechism of Malayalam Grammar|author=[[Hermann Gundert]]|publisher=Government Book Depot|location=[[Cannanore]]|year=1867|translator=L. Grathwaite|url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Catechism_of_Malayalam_Grammar_Gundert_1867.pdf|access-date=5 February 2023|archive-date=15 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315121241/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Catechism_of_Malayalam_Grammar_Gundert_1867.pdf|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book|title=A Malayalam and English Dictionary|author=[[Hermann Gundert]]|publisher=C. Stolz|location=[[Mangalore]]|year=1872|url=https://archive.org/details/amalayalamanden00gundgoog}}
* {{Cite book|title=A Primer of Malayalam Literature|author=T. K. Krishna Menon|publisher=Asian Educational Services|location=[[New Delhi]]|year=1939|isbn=9788120606036|url=https://archive.org/details/primerofmalayala0000kris}}
* {{Cite book|title=Evolution of Malayalam|author=A. C. Sekhar|publisher=[[Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute|Deccan College]]|location=[[Poona]]|year=1953|series=Deccan College Dissertation Series|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.285276}}
* {{Cite book|title=History of Malayalam Literature|author=[[P. K. Parameswaran Nair]]|publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi]]|location=[[New Delhi]]|year=1967|translator=E. M. J. Venniyoor|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmalayal0000unse}}
* {{cite book|author=[[A. Sreedhara Menon]] |title=A Survey of Kerala History|url=|year=1967|publisher=[[Sahithya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society|S.P.C.S.]]|location=[[Kottayam]]|isbn=9788126415786}}
* {{cite book |title= A Survey of Malayalam Literature |author=[[K. M. George (writer)|K. M. George]] |url= |year=1968 |location=[[Bombay]] |publisher=Asia Publishing House}}
* {{cite book |title=Social Novels in Malayalam |author=Verghese Ittiavira |url=https://archive.org/details/socialnovelsinma0000itti |year=1968 |location=[[Bangalore]] |publisher=Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society }}
* {{cite thesis |type=PhD Thesis |author=T. Bhaskaran |date=1970 |title=Malayalam poetics with special reference to Krishnagatha |publisher=[[University of Kerala|Kerala University]] |location=[[Trivandrum]] |hdl=10603/147356 |url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/147356 |access-date=5 February 2023 |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205045057/https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/147356 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |title=A History of Malayalam Literature |author=Krishna Chaitanya |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmalayal0000chai |year=1971 |location=[[New Delhi]] |publisher=[[Orient Longman]] |isbn=9788125004882 }}
* {{cite book |title=Western Influence on Malayalam Language and Literature |author=[[K. M. George (writer)|K. M. George]] |year=1972 |location=[[New Delhi]] |publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi]] |isbn=9788126004133 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MZqqyxVkufQC }}
* {{cite book |title=A Short History of Malayalam Literature |author=[[K. Ayyappa Panicker]] |url=https://archive.org/details/ASHORTHISTORYOFMALAYALAMLITERATURE |year=1977 |location=[[Trivandrum]] |publisher=Department of Information and Public Relations, Kerala }}
* {{cite book |title=History of Malayalam Literature |author=R. Leela Devi |url= |year=1977 |location=[[Trivandrum]] |publisher=Educational Supplies Depot}}
* {{cite book |title=A History of Malayalam Metre |author=[[N. V. Krishna Warrier]] |url= |year=1977 |location=[[Trivandrum]] |publisher=Dravidian Linguistics Association}}
* {{cite book |title= History of Malayalam Language |editor=K. M. Prabhakara Variar |url= |year=1985 |location=[[Madras]] |publisher=[[University of Madras|Madras University]]}}
* {{cite book |title= International Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature |volume=6 |author=Ganga Ram Garg |url= |year=1988 |location=Delhi |publisher=Mittal Publications}}
* {{cite book |title= A Brief Survey of Malayalam Literature |author=[[K. M. Tharakan]] |url= |year=1990 |location=[[Kottayam]] |publisher=[[Sahithya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society|N.B.S.]]}}
* {{cite book |title=A Perspective of Malayalam Literature |author=[[K. Ayyappa Panicker]] |url= |year=1990 |location=[[Madras]] |publisher=Annu Chithra Publications}}
* {{cite book |author1=[[R. E. Asher]] |author2=T. C. Kumari |title=Malayalam |date=1997 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[London]] |isbn=978-0-415-02242-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/malayalam0000ashe |language= }}

; Malayalam
* {{cite book|author=P. Govindapilla|title=മലയാളഭാഷാചരിത്രം [Malayala Bhasha Charitram]|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.277954|year=1881}}
* {{cite book|author=[[Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer]]|title=കേരളസാഹിത്യചരിത്രം [Kerala Sahitya Charitram]|url=http://ax.sayahna.org/ulloor/index.html|year=1953|publisher=[[Travancore University]]|location=[[Trivandrum]]|access-date=5 February 2023|archive-date=5 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205040807/http://ax.sayahna.org/ulloor/index.html|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|author=[[P. K. Parameswaran Nair]] |title=മലയാള സാഹിത്യചരിത്രം [Malayala Sahitya Charitram]|url=|year=1956|publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi]]|location=[[New Delhi]]}}
* {{cite book|author=[[Erumeli Parameswaran Pillai]] |title=മലയാളസാഹിത്യം കാലഘട്ടങ്ങളിലൂടെ [Malayala Sahityam Kalaghattangaliloode]|url=|year=1966|publisher=Vidyarthi Mithram|location=[[Kottayam]]}}
{{Refend}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
{{reflist|group=note}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Malayalam-language Malayalam language] at ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''
* [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0D00.pdf Unicode Code Chart for Malayalam (PDF Format)]

{{sister bar|Malayalam|wikt=Category:Malayalam language|voy=Malayalam phrasebook|iw=ml|auto=1}}
{{Malayalam language}}
{{Languages of India}}
{{Languages of South Asia}}
{{Dravidian languages}}
{{Languages spoken in Kerala}}
{{Kerala topics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient languages]]
[[Category:Christian liturgical languages]]
[[Category:Classical Language in India]]
[[Category:Languages attested from the 9th century]]
[[Category:Languages written in Brahmic scripts]]
[[Category:Malayalam language|*]]
[[Category:Official languages of India]]
[[Category:Subject–object–verb languages]]