Language & Literature of Kerala
Malayalam is the official language of Kerala, ranks eighth among the fifteen major Indian languages in total number of speakers. About 31.8 million people, 96 percent of the population consider Malayalam as their mother tongue.(Malayalam is spoken all over the world, as Keralites, Malayalies are every where). Not only is Malayalam widely spoken, but it and other languages are also quite heavily read in Kerala; the state boasts a literacy rate of between 90 and 100 percent Possessing an independent written script, it also has a rich modern literature. There are at least five main regional dialects of Malayalam and a number of communal dialects. The language has 54 alphabets. There are 37 consonants and 16 vowels in the script. Many words have been borrowed from Sanskrit. Has a written traditional dating back from the late 9th century and the earliest work dates from 13th century. The script used is called Kolezhethu (Rod-script) which is derived from ancient Grandha Script. Malayalam differs from other Dravidian language as the absence of personal endings on verbs. It has a one to one correspondence with the Indo Aryan Devanagari syllabarry.
The term ‘Malayalam’ as referring to the language of Kerala is of comparatively recent origin. To begin with, it denoted the land itself. It is probable that the term is the resultant of a combination of two words, mala meaning mountain and alam meaning the land or locality (which lies along side the mountain).
The earlier forms of literature include a rich collection of folk songs and ballads. The advent of printing promoted the concept of newspapers. Dr. Herman Gundert, a German missionary, compiled the first Malayalam-English lexicon and started the first Malayalam newspaper. Malayalam first appeared in writing in the vazhappalli inscription which dates from about 830 AD. In the early thirteenth century the Malayalam script began to develop from a script known as vattezhuthu (round writing), a descendant of the Brahmi script.
Evidently Malayalam, the youngest of all developed languages in the Dravidian family, belongs to the South Dravidian family of languages, but there is considerable difference of opinion about the exact nature of its relationship with the other languages of the stock, with Tamil in particular towards which it bears the closest affinity. Quite a few scholars are of the opinion that Malayalam is but an offshoot of Tamil, or rather, a daughter. This view, first held by Bishop Caldwell, has since been elaborated and substantiated by a well-known grammarian of Kerala, A.R.Raja Raja Varma. The intimacy that subsisted between the two languages all through the centuries, the identity that the grammars and vocabularies of both the languages evince, and the old practice of using the term ‘Tamil’ as a synonym for Malayalam have all lent considerable support to this theory. But in the light of the increasing application of scientific methodologies in the assessment of affinities between languages and the comparative studies since carried out in respect of the two languages, this theory would seem to require further examination. But Malayalam has evolved greatly with the influx of various foreign cultures and languages into Keralan society. Malayalam now includes literally hundreds of words and idiomatic expressions taken from such languages as English, Syriac, Latin, and Portuguese.
Jewish Malayalam: Since the development of Malayalam as distinct from Tamil, Jews in Kerala have used some variety of Malayalam as their everyday spoken language. The Jewish variety has differed by the use of Hebrew loanwords and Dravidian archaisms in lexicon, phonology, and syntax. And like most Jews around the world, Kerala Jews use Hebrew for liturgical purposes. One of the most notable features of Jewish Malayalam is the presence of fossilized elements from the pre-Malayalam layer. These archaisms exist at several levels, including lexicon, morphology, phonology, and semantics. A semantic example can be found in one of the wedding songs: the bride is described as covering her head with three types of flowers that have NaRRam. The word NaRRam exists in contemporary Tamil, Malayalam, and other local languages with the meaning 'bad smell'. However, in this case the word is used with its old Tamil sense: 'good smell'. This is just one example of the many elements of Jewish Malayalam that may seem like contemporary Tamil borrowings but are actually archaic remnants from before Malayalam split off from Tamil. Another significant feature is the abundance of archaic Dravidian derivatives to denote Jewish concepts. The best examples are names for God, many of which are loan translations from Hebrew. Jews, Muslims, and Christians share the most popular form Thampuran 'Lord'. Jews and Muslims share Padachavan 'creator'. But Mulamudayon 'the one at the beginning', Oruvanayavan 'the only one', Sadakan 'the doer', Adimulamvayavan 'the one who is the root cause', and Adiperiyon 'the great beginner' are words for God used only by Jews. The typical Jewish concept of redemption is expressed by a special word coined from a Dravidian root "mil," according to well-accepted morphological rules: Milcha 'redemption' and Mirchakaran 'redeemer' are frequently found , but are non-existent in general Malayalam.
Hebrew Borrowings: Like Jewish languages around the world, Jewish Malayalam includes a number of Hebrew words and idioms, such as tora ('Torah'), shalom ('peace'), shir ('song'), and aliya ('ascension') . In a few instances Hebrew words appear as part of Malayalam compounds, such as alam padacavanthe 'world-created-he' and shalom ayi 'died' (lit. 'entered the state of peace').
