Definition of Malayalam

1. Noun. A Dravidian language (closely related to Tamil) that is spoken in southwestern India.

Generic synonyms: South Dravidian

Definition of Malayalam

1. n. The name given to one the cultivated Dravidian languages, closely related to the Tamil.

Definition of Malayalam

1. Proper noun. A Dravidian language spoken in the states of Kerala and Lakshadweep, India. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Malayalam

Malawi
Malawi kwacha
Malawian
Malawian monetary unit
Malawians
Malaxis
Malaxis-unifolia
Malaxis ophioglossoides
Malay
Malay Archipelago
Malay Peninsula
Malaya
Malayalam (current term)
Malayalee
Malayalees
Malayali
Malayalis
Malayan
Malayan tapir
Malayans
Malayo-Polynesian
Malays
Malaysia
Malaysia Militant Group
Malaysian
Malaysian Mujahidin Group
Malaysian Sign Language

Literary usage of Malayalam

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Or South-Indian Family of Languages by Robert Caldwell (1875)
"The only analogies which I have noticed (and probably they are illusory) are those which exist between the case-sign of the Tamil-Malayalam and the ..."

2. The Folk-songs of Southern India by Charles E. Gover (1871)
"Malayalam SONGS. It has already been stated that the Malabar Coast ... Malayalam literature has scarcely begun. The Brahmans scorn the mongrel tongue ..."

3. A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco Da Gama, 1497-1499 by Ernest George Ravenstein (1898)
"In a letter to me he remarks that, "at the sea-port towns generally the worst Malayalam is spoken. Many Malayalam words are the same in Tamil, ..."

4. A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Or South-Indian Family of Languages by Robert Caldwell (1875)
"So also Malayalam and old Tamil ilia, none, is illei in modern Tamil. ... When the other extant dialects, however (Tamil, Malayalam, ..."

5. A Catalogue of the Library of the Hon. East-India Company by East India Company Library (1845)
"Bellary, 1837 Theology, addressed to Hindoos, in a Series of Discourses on the Attributes of God, &c. 2 vols. 8vo. Bellary, 1830-37 Malayalam. GRAMMARS. ..."

6. Elements of South-Indian Palæography from the Fourth to the Seventeenth by Arthur Coke Burnell (1878)
"The Tulu-Malayalam alphabet is a variety of the Grantha, and like it, was originally applied only to the writing of Sanskrit; it is, therefore, ..."

Other Resources:

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