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Malayalis (speakers of Malayalam), who - males and females alike - are almost totally literate, constitute 4 percent of the population of India and 96 percent of the population of Kerala (29.01 million in 1991). It is one of the 23 official languages of India, spoken by around 36 million people. A native speaker of Malayalam is called a "Malayali". Malayalam is closely related to Tamil, from which it is estimated to have separated about the 10th century AD.
History of the Malayalam language:
The word "Malayalam" originally meant as mountainous country where mala means the mountain and alam means the place. Malayalam belongs to the southern group of Dravidian languages along with Tamil, Kota, Kodagu and Kannada. It has high affinity towards Tamil.
The origin of Malayalam as a distinct language may be traced to the last quarter of 9th Century A.D. 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. But malayalam as we know now is greatly simplified from 900 glyphs, which it originally had.
Demographics:
Kerala is home to 3.44% of India's people, and - at 819 persons per km² - its land is three times as densely settled as the rest of India. However, Kerala's population growth rate is far lower than the national average. Whereas Kerala's population more than doubled between 1951 and 1991 - adding 156 lakh (15.6 million) people to reach a total of 291 lakh (29.1 million) residents in 1991 - the population stood at less than 320 lakh (32 million) by 2001. Kerala's people are most densely settled in the coastal region, leaving the eastern hills and mountains comparatively sparsely populated
Malayalam Channel:
Malayalam Channel has links to various informative websites for News, Magazines, Malayalam Radio, Malayalam Portals, Bollywood Movies and Music.
Phrases:
| English |
Malayalam |
| I |
Nyaan |
| He |
Avan |
| She |
Aval |
| You |
Nee/ningal(to show politeness and also as plural)/ thangal(most polite) |
| Eat |
Kazhikkuka/thinnuka |
| Drink |
Kudikkuka |
| How are you? |
Sukhamaano? |
| What is your name? |
Ninte perenthaanu? |
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