Malayalam - Evolution

Evolution

The origin of Malayalam, whether it was from a dialect of Tamil or an independent offshoot of the Proto Dravidian language, has been and continues to be an engaging pursuit among comparative historical linguists. Robert Caldwell, in his book A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Languages opines that Malayalam branched from Classical Tamil that over time gained a large amount of Sanskrit vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs. Either way, it is generally agreed that by the end of 13th century a written form of the language emerged which was definitely different from Tamil.

Proto-Dravidian

Proto-South-Dravidian

Proto-South-Central Dravidian

Proto-Tamil-Kannada

Proto-Telugu

Proto-Tamil-Toda

Proto-Kannada

Proto-Telugu

Proto-Tamil-Kodagu

Kannada

Telugu

Proto-Tamil-Malayalam

Proto-Tamil

Malayalam

Tamil

This tree diagram depicts the genealogy of the primary Dravidian languages spoken
in South India.

The earliest known poem in Malayalam, Ramacaritam, dated to 12th century A.D., was completed before the introduction of the Sanskrit alphabet. It shows the same phase of the language as in Jewish and Syrian Sasanas (dated to mid‑8th century A.D.). But the period of the earliest available literary document cannot be the sole criterion used to determine the antiquity of a language. In its early literature, Malayalam has songs, Pattu, for various subjects and occasions, such as harvesting, love songs, heroes, gods, etc. A form of writing called Campu emerged from the 14th century onwards. It mixed poetry with prose and used a vocabulary strongly influenced by Sanskrit, with themes from epics and Puranas.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan was the first to substitute Grantha-Malayalam script for the Tamil Vatteluttu. Ezhuthachan, regarded as the father of the modern Malayalam language, undertook an elaborate translation of the ancient Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata into Malayalam. His Adhyatma Ramayana and Mahabharata are still read with religious reverence by the Malayalam-speaking Hindu community. Kunchan Nambiar, the founder of Tullal, was a prolific literary figure of the 18th century. Tulu Grantha-Script] still was used only by Nambudiris. A Dutch German missionary called Arnos Paathiri alias Johann Ernst Hanxleden was the first European to write a Grammar book called Grantha Bhashayude Vyakaranam in 1699. The Nambudiri language in that era was not called Malayalam but Grantha Bhasha. The British printed Malabar English Dictionary by Graham Shaw in 1779 was still Tamil-English Dictionary. The Christians of Kerala started to learn the Tulu-Grantha Bhasha of Nambudiris under the British Tutelage. Paramekkal Thoma Kathanar wrote the first Malayalam travelogue called Vardhamana Pushthakam in 1789. However the British under Lord Monroe and Macaulay between 1815-1820s started promoting the Nambudiri Malyalam written with Tulu-Grantha Script and with a predominance of Sanskrit words. in 1815 Kottayam Seminary. Church Mission Society was established to teach the Syrian Christians the Nambudiri version of Malayalam. Benjamin Bailey (missionary) a British missionary made the first Malayalam types to print the Tulu-Grantha Alphabet in 1819. Hermann Gundert another German Missionary started the first News Paper in Malayalam in 1848 called Rajya Samacharam. The British support given to the Tulu-Grantha Malayalam of Nambudiris led to the destruction of all the earlier books of Kerala written in Lingua Malabar Tamul or Malayanma. British made no attempt to preserve the numerous Malayalam-Tamil books written in Thaliola, the Palm leaf books of Kerala and thereby destroying all the ancient Tamil and Malayalam-Tamil books of Kerala. The British missionaries actively Sanskritised Malayalam.

Together with Tamil, Toda, Kannada and Tulu, Malayalam belongs to the southern group of Dravidian languages. Some believe Proto-Tamil, the common stock of ancient Tamil and Malayalam, diverged over a period of four or five centuries from the 9th century on, resulting in the emergence of Malayalam as a language distinct from Proto-Tamil. As the language of scholarship and administration, Proto-Tamil, which was written in Tamil-Brahmi script and Vatteluttu later, greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam. Later the inroads the Nairs and the Namboothiris made into the cultural life of Kerala, the Namboothiri-Nair dominated society and politics, their trade relationships with Arabs, and the influence in Kerala of the Portuguese affected the languages. The Portuguese established vassal states (see Portuguese India) which accelerated the assimilation of many Roman, Semitic, and Indo-Aryan features into Malayalam; these occurred at different levels, particularly among the religious communities, such as Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Jains.

The first printed book in Kerala was Doctrina Christam, written by Henrique Henriques in Lingua Malabar Tamul. It was transliterated and translated into Malayalam, and printed by the Portuguese in 1578.

In 1821 the Church Mission Society (CMS) at Kottayam started printing books in Malayalam when Benjamin Bailey, an Anglican priest, made the first Malayalam types. In addition, he contributed to standardizing the prose. Hermann Gundert from Stuttgart, Germany, started the first Malayalam newspaper, Rajya Samacaram in 1847 at Talasseri. It was printed at Basel Mission.