Malayalam

Malayalam (/ˌmæləˈjɑːləm/; മലയാളം, Malayāḷam, IPA: [mɐlɐjaːɭɐm] ^ⓘ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was designated a "Classical Language of India" in 2013. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé), and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep and is spoken by 34 million people in India. 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, Coimbatore and Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the Malayali Diaspora worldwide, especially in the 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, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune etc. Malayalam is closely related to the Tamil language.

The origin of Malayalam remains a matter of dispute among scholars. The mainstream view holds that Malayalam descends from early Tamil around 9 century AD .A second view argues for the development of the two languages out of "Proto-Dravidian" in the prehistoric era."Yet, some scholars of Malayalam still believe that Malayalam should have originated indipendently from proto-dravidian".This claim was proved true by the discovery of the edakkal 5 inscription in wayanad district of kerala which is estimated to be from CE 4th or 5th century.The indipendent origin of malayalam was also proved with the discovery of a "veerakkal" Meaning heroe stone which dates back to 2nd or 3rd centuryBCE .These discoveries confirmed that malayalam is atleest 1700 to 2000 years old .which granted malayalam the classical language status in 2013 by the government of india (pp.9–10)".</ref> It is generally agreed that the Quilon Syrian copper plates of 849/850 CE is the oldest available inscription written in Old Malayalam. The oldest extant literary work in Malayalam distinct from the Tamil tradition is Ramacharitam (late 12th or early 13th century).

The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu script. The current Malayalam script is based on the Vatteluttu script, which was extended with Grantha script letters to adopt Indo-Aryan loanwords. It bears high similarity with the Tigalari script, a historical script that was used to write the Tulu language in South Canara, and Sanskrit in the adjacent Malabar region. The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE. The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785.

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 to Kanyakumari in the south, where it begins to be superseded by Tamil, besides the inhabited islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.