MALAYALAM

Malayalam is a language spoken in India, predominantly in the southern state of Kerala. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was designated a classical language of India in 2013. Malayalam has official status in Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry. It belongs to the Tamil family of languages and is spoken by more than 35 million people, according to the 2011 census.^[1] The fact that Malayalam is a classical language with its own tradition spanning millennia, has been recognised by the Indian parliament in 2013. Malayalam is not an offshoot of any other language. Malayalam incorporated many elements from Sanskrit through the ages and today over eighty percent of the vocabulary of Malayalam in scholarly usage is from Sanskrit. Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and the courts of a region called Tamilakam, including present day Kerala. A famous example is the Silappatikaram, written by Chera prince Ilango Adigal from Cochin, and is considered a classic in Sangam literature. Modern Malayalam still preserves many words from the ancient vocabulary of Sangam literature.