Importance of Malayalam lauguage in English
Answers
Answer:
Malayalam, the official language of Kerala, is classified as a South Dravidian language. About 31.8 million people consider Malayalam as their mother tongue. Possessing an independent written script, it also has an enriched literature. The term 'Malayalam' is of comparatively recent origin. To begin with, it denoted the land itself. It is probable that the term is the resultant of a combination of two words, mala meaning, mountain and alam meaning the land or locality (which lays along side the mountain). Subsequently the synonyms Malayalam and Malayayma came into being as denoting the language of the Malayalam and finally the name of the land itself was taken over as the name of its language.
Influence of Sanskrit is most prominent in Malayalam in almost all linguistic areas. From Sanskrit, thousands of nouns and hundreds of verbs are borrowed into Malayalam. Some items of basic vocabulary also have found their way into Malayalam from Sanskrit.
English stands only second to Sanskrit in its influence on Malayalam. Hundreds of individual lexical items and idiomatic expressions in modern Malayalam are of English origin. This paper presents an overview of the influence of English on Malayalam.