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Malayalam

NameMalayalam
Nativenameമലയാളം  
StatesIndia
RegionKerala, Lakshadweep, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mahé, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Speakers35,893,990.
FamilycolorDravidian
Fam2Southern
Fam3Tamil � Kannada
Fam4Tamil � Kodagu
Fam5Tamil � Malayalam
ScriptMalayalam script
NationIndia (Kerala)
Imagesize130px
ImagecaptionMalayalam in Malayalam script
MapcaptionNumber of Malayalam speakers by country
Iso1ml|iso2=mal|iso3=mal
NoticeIndic|notice2=IPA

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Malayalam (pronounced -enmæləˈjɑːləm; , -mlmɐləjaːɭəm), is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people. Malayalam is also spoken in the Nilgiris district, Kanyakumari district and Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu, Dakshina Kannada, Mangalore and Kodagu districts of Karnataka. Overseas it is also used by a large population of Indian expatriates living around the globe in the Middle East, North America, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and Europe.

Malayalam most likely originated from ancient Tamil in the 6th century, of which Modern Tamil was also derived. An alternative theory proposes a split in even more ancient times. In either case, Malayalam imbibed many elements from Sanskrit through the ages and today over eighty percent of the vocabulary of Malayalam in scholarly usage is from Sanskrit. Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and courts of a region called Tamilakam, a famous example being Silappatikaram. The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vattezhuttu script, and later the Kolezhuthu, which derived from it. As Malayalam began to freely borrow words as well as the rules of grammar from Sanskrit, Grantha script was adopted for writing and came to be known as Arya Ezhuthu. This developed into the modern Malayalam script. Many medieval liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, termed as Manipravalam. The oldest literature in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated between the 9th and 11th century.


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