| Also Known As: Malayal,Maliyad,Alealum,Mopla,Malayali,Malayalani,Mallealle,Malean,Malayalam
Description:
Malayalam (മലയാളം malayāḷaṁ) is one of the four major Dravidian languages of South India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala, spoken by around 37 million people. Malayalam is also widely used in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Mahé, the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, and Dakshina Kannada, and Kodagu districts of Karnataka. It is also used by a large population of Indian expatriates living around the globe and in the Persian Gulf, United States, Singapore, Australia, and Europe.
Malayalam and Tamil are the closest relatives, which is not disputed by scholars. Malayalam is speculated to be a daughter language of Middle Tamil in the 6th century, of which Modern Tamil was also derived. An alternative theory proposes a split in more ancient times. Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and courts of a region called Tamilakam, a famous example being Silappadikaram. The oldest literature works in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated certainly to the 11th century, perhaps to the 9th century. Important literature was also written in Sanskrit, as many works of the..... full article at Wikipedia |
