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 and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Mahé. It is spoken by around 37 million people. Malayalam is also spoken in the Kanyakumari district and Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu, Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts of Karnataka. Overseas it is also used by a ...
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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 and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Mahé. It is spoken by around 37 million people. Malayalam is also spoken in the Kanyakumari district and Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu, Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts of Karnataka. Overseas it is also used by a large population of Indian expatriates living around the globe in the Persian Gulf, United States, Singapore, Australia, and Europe.
Malayalam is derived from 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...
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