Malayalam
Malayalam is a language. Most people that speak Malayalam live in Kerala, in India. A speaker of Malayalam is called a Malayali. Malayalam (/malayALam/) is the main language of the South Indian state of Kerala and also of the Lakshadweep Islands (Laccadives) of the west coast of India.
| Malayalam | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| malayāḷaṁ മലയാളം | ||||
 Malayalam in Malayalam script | ||||
| Native to | India | |||
| Region | Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahé (Puducherry) | |||
| Ethnicity | Malayali | |||
| Native speakers | 38 million (2011)[1][2][3][4] | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Writing system | ||||
| Official status | ||||
| Official language in |  India
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| Regulated by | Academy for Malayalam literature, Government of Kerala | |||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-1 | ml | |||
| ISO 639-2 | mal | |||
| ISO 639-3 | mal | |||
| Linguasphere | 49-EBE-ba | |||
 Malayalam-speaking area | ||||
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| Part of a series on | |
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| Constitutionally recognised languages of India | |
| Category | |
| Scheduled Languages | |
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Official languages of India
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This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Malayalam edition. |
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).
In terms of the number of speakers, Malayalam ranks eighth among the 18 major languages of India.
Malyalam language has 52 phonemes. A few of the phonemes are unique for Malayalam.
The word /malayALam/ originally meant mountainous country (/mala/- mountain + /aLam/-place). Tamil Nadu is its neighbour on the south and east and Karnataka on the north and east.
Malayalam Media
A Malayalam speaker, recorded in South Africa
The Quilon Syrian copper plates (849/850 CE) is the available oldest inscription written in Old Malayalam. Besides Old Malayalam, the copper plate also contains signatures in Arabic (Kufic script), Middle Persian (cursive Pahlavi script) and Judeo-Persian (standard square Hebrew) scripts.
Malayalam script in mobile phone
Copy of Ezhuthachan's Adhyathma ramayanam Kilippattu. Palm leaf manuscript preserved at Thunchan parambu, Tirur
Grantha, Tigalari, and Malayalam scripts
The word Malayāḷalipi (Meaning: Malayalam script) written in the Malayalam script
A Malayalam signboard from Kannur, Kerala. Malayalam is official language in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puduchery
Letters in Malayalam script
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References
- ↑ "Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India". Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ↑ Johnson, Todd M.; Grim, Brian J. (2013). "Chapter 1. Global Religious Populations, 1910–2010". The World's Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography (PDF) (1st ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
- ↑ Malayalam at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019)
- ↑ Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. [1] Archived 14 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Dravidian". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 16 April 2017.
- ↑ Official languages, UNESCO, archived from the original on 28 September 2005, retrieved 10 May 2007
