Malayali
The native people of Kerala who speak Malayalam, the official language of the state is called Malayalam (Malayalam: മലയാളo). The Malayalam language is a Dravidian language closely related to Tamil which crystallised into a distinctive tongue only at the beginning of the medieval era. Modern Malayalam includes loan words from Portuguese, Arabic, Syriac, and in more recent times English. While the majority of Malayalis live in Kerala, significant populations also exist in other parts of India, the Middle East, Europe and North America. According to the Indian census of 1991, there were 28,096,376 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 96.66% of the total population of that state. The slang Mallu is sometimes used by the media and North Indians to refer to a Malayali in informal contexts.
The majority (about 54%) of the Malayali people are Hindu, mostly of the Ezhava and Nair communities, but there are also large Muslim (24%) and Christian (18%) communities. The Muslim community, or Mappilas, trace their origins far back to early contacts with Arab traders before the start of the Christian era, and mostly follow the Shafi`i school of Sunni Islam. Many speak the distinctive Mappila dialect of Malayalam. Majority of the Christians belong to Saint Thomas Christian community, and are also known as Syrian Christians or Nasrani. The descendants of the Cochin Jews who have traditionally followed Halakhic Judaism are known as Juda Mappila.
Read more about this topic: Ethnic Groups In Kerala