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Showing posts from February, 2025

The irresistible mating of languages

The International Mother Language Day falls in Feb. My blogger-friends, Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed , have chosen a theme related to IMLD for their Feb’s blog hop. I thought it’s a good opportunity to write about my mother language, Malayalam, which has quite a fascinating and potentially controversial history. The history of Malayalam is linked with that of Tamil, of the Brahmin migration from North India to the South, and the subsequent influence of Sanskrit.   The origins Malayalam originated from ancient Tamil, which was the primary language spoken in southern parts of India, particularly in the region that encompasses modern-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Over time, Malayalam evolved as a distinct language due to geographical, cultural, and political factors. Malayalam belongs to the Dravidian language family along with Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Tulu. It emerged as a separate language around the 9 th -13 th centuries CE, though its linguistic roots can be traced ba...