Not to be confused with the Malay language. Malayalam മലയാളം Malayaałam Spoken in India Region Kerala, Lakshadweep, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mahé, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Total speakers 35,893,990.1 33,015,420 in India (2001),2 1,847,902 in other countries (2007):3 • 773,624 in UAE • 447,440 in Saudi Arabia • 134,728 in Kuwait • 134,019 in Oman • 105,655 in USA •  94,310 in Qatar •  58,146 in Bahrain •  26,237 in UK •  15,600 in other Europe •  11,346 in Canada •  10,636 in Malaysia •   7,800 in Singapore •   7,094 in Australia and New Zealand Language family Dravidian Southern Tamil-Kannada Tamil-Kodagu Tamil-Malayalam Malayalam Official status Official language in  India (Kerala),4 Regulated by No official regulation Language codes ISO 639-1 ml ISO 639-2 mal ISO 639-3 mal Linguasphere – Distribution of native Malayalam speakers in India This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More... Malayalam is written in a non-Latin script. Malayalam text used in this article is transliterated into the Latin script according to the ISO 15919 standard. Malayalam (pronounced /mæləˈjɑːləm/; Malayalam: മലയാളം malayāḷam pronounced [mɐləjaːɭɐm]( listen)), 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 Mahé. It is spoken by 35.9 million people.1 Malayalam is also spoken in the Nilgiris district, Kanyakumari district and Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu, Dakshina Kannada, Bangalore and Kodagu districts of Karnataka.1567 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.8 An alternative theory proposes a split in even more ancient times.8 In either case, Malayalam was heavily Sanskritised through the ages and has the highest proportion of Sanskrit words among the four Dravidian languages.91011 Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and courts of a region called Tamilakam, a famous example being Silappatikaram. While Dravidian Tamil used to be the ruling language of the Chera Dynasty12 Ai and Pandyan kingdoms.13 Sanskrit/Prakrit derived Buddhist Pali Language and the Jain Kalpasutra were known to Keralites from 500 BC. The Grantha Bhasha or Sanskrit mixed Tamil which was written in Grantha Script (Arya Ezhuthu) was used by Brahmins residing in Tamil areas.14 The Dravidian component of Malayalam-Tamil has words similar to ancient Sangam Literature. During the Later Chera dynasty the inscriptions included some lines from Grantha Bhasha in Grantha Script along with Malayalam-Tamil written in Vattezhuttu. The oldest literature works in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated certainly to the 11th century, perhaps to the 9th century.8 For cultural purposes Malayalam and Sanskrit formed a language known as Manipravalam, where both languages were used in an alternating style. Malayalam is the only among the major Dravidian languages without diglossia. This means, that the Malayalam which is spoken doesn't differ from the written variant, while the Kannada and Tamil languages use a classical type for the latter.

The word "Malayalam" is spelled as a palindrome in English. However, it is not a palindrome in its own script, for three reasons: the third a is long and should properly be transliterated aa or ā (an a with a macron) while the other a’s are short; the two l consonants represent different sounds, the first l being dental ([l̪], Malayalam ല, Roman l) (although the consonant chart below lists that sound as alveolar) and the second retroflex ([ɭ], Malayalam ള, Roman ḷ); and the final m is written as an anusvara, which denotes the same phoneme /m/ as in the initial m in this case, but the two m’s are spelled differently (the first m is a normal ma മ with an inherent vowel a, while the last m  ം is a pure consonant). Contents 1 Evolution 2 Development of literature 3 Phonology 3.1 Vowels 3.2 Consonants 4 Grammar 5 Writing system 6 Dialects and external influences 6.1 Words adopted from Sanskrit 6.1.1 Nouns 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links Evolution The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints. Please improve the article or discuss the issue. (January 2011) The word 'Malayalam' is formed from two words, Mala meaning mountain and alam meaning region (derived from the root al meaning to posses to rule etc). Malayalam would thus translate as mountain region 15. The origin of Malayalam, whether it was a from a dialect of Tamil or an independent off shoot of the Proto Dravidian language, has been and continues to be an engaging pursuit among comparative historical linguists.16 Robert Caldwell, in his book A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Languages opines that Malayalam branched from classical Tamil that over time gained a large amount of Sanskrit vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs.15. Either way, its generally agreed that by the end of 13th century a written form of the language emerged which was definitely different from Tamil.16 The earliest known poem in Malayalam Ramacharitam, dated to 12th century C.E, was completed before the introduction of Sanskrit alphabet and shows the same phase of the language as in Jewish and Syrian Saasanas 15 (dated to mid eighth century C.E). 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,Paattu, on various subjects and occasions like harvesting, love songs, heroes, Gods etc. A form of writing called, Champu emerged from the 14th century onwards, which mixed poetry with prose and used a heavily Sanskritized vocabulary with themes from epics and Puranas. 16 In the 16th - 17th centuries Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan was the first to substitute the Tamil Vatteluttu with Grantha-Malayalam script. Ezhuthachan, regarded as the father of modern Malayalam language, undertook an elaborate translation of the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata into Malayalam. His Adhyatma Ramayana and Mahabharata are still read with religious reverence by Malayalis. Kunchan Nambiar, the founder of Thullal was another prolific literary figure of the 18th century. Together with Tamil, Toda, Kannada and Tulu, Malayalam belongs to the southern group of Dravidian languages. Some believe Proto-Tamil, the common stock of ancient Tamil and Malayalam, apparently diverged over a period of four or five centuries from the 9th century on, resulting in the emergence of Malayalam as a language distinct from Proto-Tamil. As the language of scholarship and administration, Proto-Tamil which was written in Tamil-Brahmi script and Vatteluttu later, greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam. Later the irresistible inroads the Namboothiris made into the cultural life of Kerala, the Namboothiri-Nair dominated social and political setup, the trade relationships with Arabs, and the invasion of Kerala by the Portuguese, establishing vassal states accelerated the assimilation of many Roman, Semitic and Indo-Aryan features into Malayalam at different levels spoken by religious communities like Muslims, Christians, Jews and Jainas.

T.K. Krishna Menon, in his book A Primer of Malayalam Literature describes four distinct epochs concerning the evolution of the language:17 Karintamil (3100 BCE - 100 BCE): Malayalam from this period is represented by the works of Kulashekara Alvar and Pakkanar. There is a strong Tamil element, and Sanskrit has not yet made an influence on the language. Kulasekhara Alwar who wrote Perumal Thirumozhi, a Tamil Alwar saint, founder of the Later Chera Dynasty lived at 800 AD. Old Malayalam (100 BCE - 325 CE): Malayalam seems to have been influenced by Sanskrit as there are numerous Sanskrit words in the language. There are personal terminations for verbs that were conjugated according to gender and number.Tamil Sangams produced Tamil Sangam literature in the same era.Tamil-Brahmiscript was used to write inscriptions in that era. Middle Malayalam (325 CE - 1425 CE): Malayalam from this time period is represented by works such as Ramacharitram. Traces of the adjuncts of verbs have disappeared by this period. The Jains also seemed to have encouraged the study of the language. Kulasekhara Alwar wrote Perumal Thirumozhi in Tamil while writing Mukundamala in Sanskrit. Modern Malayalam (1425 CE onwards): Malayalam seems to have established itself as a language separate from classical Tamil and Sanskrit by this point in time. This period can be divided into two categories: from 1425 CE to 1795 CE, and from 1795 CE, onwards. 1795 CE is the year the British gained complete control over Kerala. Doctrina Christam written by Henrique in Lingua Malabar-Tamul with transliteration and translation in Malayalam(Grantha Bhasha)and printed by Portuguese in 1578 was the first printed book in Kerala.1819 Church Mission Society(CMS) at Kottayam started printing books in Malayalam when Benjamin Bailey a Anglican priest in 1821 made the first Malayalam types and contribuited to standardize the prose.20 Hermann Gundert from Stuttgart, Germany started the first Malayalam newspaper, Rajya Samacharam in 1847 at Thalassery printed at Basel Mission.21 Development of literature Main article: Malayalam literature The earliest written record resembling Malayalam is the Vazhappalli inscription (ca. 830 CE). The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition: Malayalam Nada, Tamil Nada and Sanskrit Nada. Classical songs known as Naadan Paattu Manipravalam of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam.Niranam poets Manipravalam Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar wrote Manipravalam poetry in the 14th century. The changed political situation in the 14th century after the invasion of Malik Kafur in 1310 led to the decline of Tamil dynasties leading to the dominance of people with Prakrit and Sanskrit heritage, the languages of Ahichatra in Uttarkhand, the original home town of Aryans and Nagavanshi people. The folk song rich in native elements 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. The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, Bhashakautaliyam (12th century) on Chanakya’s Arthasastra. Adhyathmaramayanam by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan (known as the father of the Malayalam language) who was born in Tirur, one of the most important works in Malayalam literature. Unnuneeli Sandesam written in the 14th century is amongst the oldest literary works in Malayalam language.

By the end of 18th century some of the Christian missionaries from Kerala started writing in Malayalam but mostly travelogues, Dictionaries and Religious books. Varthamana Pusthakam (1778), written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar is considered to be the first travelogue in an Indian language. Church Mission Society which started a seminary at Kottayam in 1819 also started a press which printed Malayalam books in 19th century. Malayalam and Sanskrit were increasingly studied by Christians of Kottayam and pathanamthitta by the end of 19th century Malayalam replaced Syriac as language of Liturgy in the church. Phonology 22 For the consonants and vowels, the IPA is given, followed by the Malayalam character and the ISO 15919 transliteration. Vowels File:Malayalam.gif Malayalam The first letter in Malayalam   Short Long Front Central Back Front Central Back Close /i/ ഇ i /ɨ̆/ * ŭ /u/ ഉ u /iː/ ഈ ī   /uː/ ഊ ū Mid /e/ എ e /ə/ * a /o/ ഒ o /eː/ ഏ ē   /oː/ ഓ ō Open   /a/ അ a     /aː/ ആ ā   */ɨ̆/ is the saṁvr̥tōkāram, an epenthentic vowel in Malayalam. Therefore, it has no independent vowel letter (because it never occurs at the beginning of words) but, when it comes after a consonant, there are various ways of representing it. In medieval times, it was just represented with the symbol for /u/, but later on it was just completely omitted (that is, written as an inherent vowel). In modern times, it is written in two different ways - the Northern style, in which a chandrakkala is used, and the Southern or Travancore style, in which the diacritic for a /u/ is attached to the preceding consonant and a chandrakkala is written above. */a/ (phonetically central: [ä]) and /ə/ are both represented as basic or "default" vowels in the abugida script (although /ə/ never occurs word-initially and therefore does not make use of the letter അ), but they are distinct vowels. Malayalam has also borrowed the Sanskrit diphthongs of /äu/ (represented in Malayalam as ഔ, au) and /ai/ (represented in Malayalam as ഐ, ai), although these mostly occur only in Sanskrit loanwords. Traditionally (as in Sanskrit), four vocalic consonants (usually pronounced in Malayalam as consonants followed by the saṁvr̥tōkāram, which is not officially a vowel, and not as actual vocalic consonants) have been classified as vowels: vocalic r (ഋ, /rɨ̆/, r̥), long vocalic r (ൠ, /rɨː/, r̥̄), vocalic l (ഌ, /lɨ̆/, l̥) and long vocalic l (ൡ, /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. Consonants Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal Stop Unaspirated /p/ പ p /b/ ബ b /t̪/ ത t /d̪/ ദ d /tʰʲ/ * t /ʈ/ ട ṭ /ɖ/ ഡ ḍ /t͡ʃ/ ച c /d͡ʒ/ ജ j /k/ ക k /ɡ/ ഗ g Aspirated /pʰ/ ഫ ph /bʱ/ ഭ bh /t̪ʰ/ ഥ th /d̪ʱ/ ധ dh /ʈʰ/ ഠ ṭh /ɖʱ/ ഢ ḍh /t͡ʃʰ/ ഛ ch /d͡ʒʱ/ ഝ jh /kʰ/ ഖ kh /ɡʱ/ ഘ gh Nasal /m/ മ m /n̪/ ന n /n/ ന * n /ɳ/ ണ ṇ /ɲ/ ഞ ñ /ŋ/ ങ ṅ Approximant /ʋ/ വ v /ɻ/ ഴ l /j/ യ y Trill /r/ റ r Fricative /f/ ഫ* f /s̪/ സ s /ʂ/ ഷ ṣ /ɕ/ ശ ś /h/ ഹ h Tap /ɾʲ/ ര r Lateral approximant /l/ ല l /ɭ/ ള ḷ The unaspirated alveolar plosive stop used to have a separate character but it has become obsolete because it only occurs in geminate form (when geminated it is written with a റ below another റ) or immediately following other consonants (in these cases, റ or ററ is usually written in small size underneath the first consonant). To see how the archaic letter looked, find the Malayalam letter in the row for t here. The alveolar nasal used to have a separate character but this is now obsolete (to see how it looked, find the Malayalam letter in the row for n here) 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 there is no distinction made in the spelling. The letter ഫ represents both /pʰ/, a native phoneme, and /f/, which only occurs in adopted words. The voiceless unaspirated plosives the nasals (other than /ŋ/) and the laterals can be geminated.22 Grammar

Malayalam has a canonical word order of SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) as do other Dravidian languages.23 Both adjectives and possessive pronouns precede the nouns they modify. Malayalam has 624 or 725 grammatical cases. Writing system Main article: Malayalam script A public notice board in Malayalam written using Malayalam script. Malayalam language possesses official recognition in the state of Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry Historically, several scripts were used to write Malayalam. Among these scripts were Vattezhuthu, Kolezhuthu and Malayanma scripts. But it was the Grantha script, another Southern Brahmi variation, which gave rise to the modern Malayalam script. It is syllabic in the sense that the sequence of graphic elements means that syllables have to be read as units, though in this system the elements representing individual vowels and consonants are for the most part readily identifiable. In the 1960s Malayalam dispensed with many special letters representing less frequent conjunct consonants and combinations of the vowel /u/ with different consonants. Malayalam language script consists of 53 letters including 16 vowels and 37 consonants.26 The earlier style of writing is now substituted with a new style from 1981. This new script reduces the different letters for typeset from 900 to fewer than 90. This was mainly done to include Malayalam in the keyboards of typewriters and computers. In 1999 a group named "Rachana Akshara Vedi", produced a set of free fonts containing the entire character repertoire of more than 900 glyphs. This was announced and released along with a text editor in the same year at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala. In 2004, the fonts were released under the GNU GPL license by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation at the Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kochi, Kerala. Though not popular, Malayalam has been written in other scripts like Roman and Arabic scripts; Arabic script particularly were taught in Madrassas in the Lakshadweep Islands.2728 Dialects and external influences Variations in intonation patterns, vocabulary, and distribution of grammatical and phonological elements are observable along the parameters of region, religion, community, occupation, social stratum, style and register. Influence of Sanskrit is very prominent in formal Malayalam used in literature. Malayalam has a substantially high amount of Sanskrit loan words.29 Loan words and influences also from Hebrew, Syriac and Ladino abound in the Jewish Malayalam dialects, as well as English, Portuguese, Syriac and Greek in the Christian dialects, while Arabic and Persian elements predominate in the Muslim dialects. This Muslim dialect known as Mappila Malayalam is used in the Malabar region of Kerala. Another Muslim dialect called Beary bashe is used in the extreme northern part of Kerala. The regional dialects of Malayalam can be divided into thirteen dialect areas.30 They are as follows: South Travancore Central Travancore West Vempanad North Travancore Kochi (Cochin) South Malabar South Eastern Palghat North Western Palghat Central Malabar Wayanad North Malabar Kasaragod Lakshadweep The Central Travancore dialect is called "Achadi malayalam" since it has the closest resemblance to written malayalam. Words adopted from Sanskrit When words are adopted from Sanskrit, their endings are usually changed to conform to Malayalam norms: Nouns Masculine Sanskrit nouns ending in a short "a" in the nominative singular change their ending to "an". For example, Kr̥ṣṇa -> Kr̥ṣṇan. The "an" reverts to an "a" 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 "aL" (where these are plural forms of "an" denoting respect) are treated similarly - Krishna Pothuval, Krishna Chakyar, but Krishnan Nair, Krishnan Nambiar. "an" also reverts to "a" before Sanskrit surnames like "Varma(n)", "Sarma(n)", or "Gupta(n)" (rare) - e.g. Krishna Varma, Krishna Sharman.citation needed If a name is a compound of multiple names, only the last name in the compound undergoes this transformation - e.g. Krishnadevan. Feminine words ending in a long "ā" or "ī" are changed so that they now end in a short "a" or "i", for example Sītā -> Sīta and Lakṣmī -> Lakṣmi. However, the long vowel still appears in compound words like Sītādēvi or Lakṣmīdēvi. Some vocative case forms of both Sanskrit and native Malayalam words end in ā or ī, and there are also a small number of nominative ī endings that have not been shortened - a prominent example being the word Śrī, Masculine words ending in a long "ā" in the nominative singular have a "vŭ" added to them, for example Brahmā -> Brahmāvŭ. This is again omitted when forming compounds.citation needed Words whose roots are different from their nominative singular forms - 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.31 Sanskrit words describing things or animals rather than people which end in a short "a" take an additional "m" in Malayalam. For example, Rāmāyaṇa -> Rāmāyaṇam. "Things and animals" and "people" are not always differentiated based on whether or not they are sentient beings - for example Narasimha becomes Narasimham and not Narasimhan whilst Ananta becomes Anantan even though both are sentient. This can be explained by saying that "Ananta" can also be a man's name and does not necessarily have to refer to the Hindu serpent-god, whereas "Simha" actually means lion and therefore must be of the neuter gender.citation needed Nouns ending in short vowels like "Viṣṇu", "Prajāpati" etc. stay the same.citation needed Along with these tatsama borrowings, there are also many tadbhava words in common use. These were borrowed into Malayalam before it became distinct from 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.32

Malayalam also has been influenced by Portuguese, as is evident from the use of words like mesa for a small table, janala for window, varaanda for an open porch, and alamaara for cupboard.33 For a comprehensive list of loan words, see Loan words in Malayalam. See also Demographics of India for a list of the official languages of India Kerala Malayalam calendar Malayalam cinema Malayalam journalism Malayalam literature Malayalam script Kasaragod Malayalam Tulu Script Manipravalam Lingua Malabar Tamul Languages of India List of Indian languages by total speakers Languages with official status in India Malayalam poetry, Poetry in Malayalam language Malayali, people with Malayalam language as their mother tongue. Mappila dialect of Malayalam, a sub dialect of Malayalam language spoken by Muslim communities of Kerala. Judeo-Malayalam, a sub dialect of Malayalam spoken by Cochin Jews. Arabi Malayalam, a system in which Malayalam language is written using modified Arabic script. References ^ a b c "Malayalam". Ethnologue. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mal. Retrieved 2007-05-28.  ^ "Census of India - Statement 1". Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-21.  33,066,392 if the number of the speakers of Yerava (Ravula) and other minority languages closely related to Malayalam is included. ^ Zachariah, K. C. & Rajan, S. Irudaya (2008), Kerala Migration Survey 2007 (PDF), Department of Non-resident Keralite Affairs, Government of Kerala, p. 48. This is the number of emigrants from Kerala, which is closely related to but different from the actual number of Malayalam speakers. ^ "Official languages", UNESCO, http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=22495&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html, retrieved 2007-05-10  ^ http://www.karnatakavision.com/dakshin-kannada.php ^ "‘Kodagu-Kerala association is ancient'". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 2008-11-26. http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/26/stories/2008112656840300.htm.  ^ "Virajpet Kannada Sahitya Sammelan on January 19". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 2008-12-09. http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/09/stories/2008120951660300.htm.  ^ a b c Malayalam, R. E. Asher, T. C. Kumari, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-02242-8, 1997 ^ Narayan, Shyamala; Jha (1997). Non-fictional Indian prose in English, 1960-1990. Sahitya Akademi. p. 224. ISBN 9788126002948. http://books.google.com/books?ei=Q_QZTLCzNNKWccCl9P8J.  ^ Malayalam literary survey, Volume 15. Kēraḷa Sāhitya Akkādami. 1993. p. 76. http://books.google.com/books?ei=Q_QZTLCzNNKWccCl9P8J.  ^ Gupta, Balarama (2007). The Journal of Indian writing in English, Volume 35. p. 8. http://books.google.com/books?ei=Q_QZTLCzNNKWccCl9P8J.  ^ [1] ^ http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:Es-3_Q0KFWsJ:www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/BookLibrary/books/bibliographie/P/Plinyelder/elder/pliny-india.html+plini+pandion&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in# The Pandyan of Purakkadu Ambalapuzha ^ [2]# Arya Ezhuthu or Grandha Script ^ a b c Caldwell, Robert (1875). A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Languages. London.... pp. 23. http://books.google.com/books?id=oG0IAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA18&dq=malayalam+language+origin&as_brr=1#PPR3,M1.  ^ a b c The Written Languages of the World: A Survey of the Degree and Modes of Use : India : Book 1 Constitutional Languages. 1978. pp. 307. http://books.google.com/books?id=yU8nq-C6wnoC&pg=PA307&dq=malayalam+origin&hl=en&ei=8xtoTYiHNMP38Abh1OSdCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=malayalam%20origin&f=false.  ^ Menon, T.K. Krishna (1990). A Primer of Malayalam Literature. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 8120606035.  ^ Copy of first book printed in Kerala released Publisher:The Hindu dated:Friday, Oct 14, 2005 ^ Flos Sanctorum in Tamil and Malaylam in 1578 ^ Banjamin Bailey Publisher:The Hindu dated:Feb 05, 2010 ^ Rajya Samacharam 1847 first News paper in Malayalam ^ a b www.owlnet.rice.edu/~hj3/pub/Malayalam.pdf ^ Wals.info ^ Asher, R. E. and Kumari, T. C. (1997). Malayalam. Routledge Pub.: London. ^ www.jaimalayalam.com/papers/socialCaseMalayalam05.pdf ^ "Language". kerala.gov.in. http://www.kerala.gov.in/language%20&%20literature/language.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-28.  ^ Gaṅgopādhyāẏa, Subrata (2004). Symbol, script, and writing: from petrogram to printing and further. Sharada Pub. House. p. 158. http://books.google.co.in/books?ei=SRkjTNjrGM2OkQWI5egq.  ^ "Education in Lakshadweep - Discovering the past chapters". http://lakshadweep.nic.in/depts/education/profile.htm.  ^ "Dravidian languages." Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008. ^ Subramoniam, V. I. (1997). Dravidian encyclopaedia. vol. 3, Language and literature. Thiruvananthapuram: International School of Dravidian Linguistics. Cit-P-487.Dravidian Encyclopedia ^ Varma, A.R. Rajaraja (2005). Keralapanineeyam. Kottayam: D C Books. pp. 303. ISBN 81-713-0672-1.  ^ Varma, A.R. Rajaraja (2005). Keralapanineeyam. Kottayam: D C Books. pp. 301–302. ISBN 81-713-0672-1.  ^ Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo; Soares, Anthony Xavier (1998). Portuguese Vocables in Asiatic Languages: From the Portuguese Original of Monsignor Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado. Asian Educational Services. pp. 489. ISBN 9788120604131.  Further reading Pillai, Anitha Devi (2010). Singaporean Malayalam. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller. ISBN 3639213335.  External links Malayalam edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Find more about Malayalam on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary Images and media from Commons Learning resources from Wikiversity News stories from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Malayalam Malayalam Keyboard and text editor Ethnologue report for Malayalam Unicode Code Chart for Malayalam (PDF Format) Malayalam typing,Free malayalam keyboard download v · d · e (Official) Languages of India Union-level Official languages

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