I always found Malayalam a sweet language. It is a bit sing a song when spoken.

It is an interesting thing to note that most of the south indian languages have lot of words with a bit of change in the sound so similar. Dr.Unni what does thou have to say here?

N

I guess that over time, with the inter-mingling of people/communities, a lot of words have become common to several languages, except they are pronounced differently. In the Palghat area the Tamil spoken is mixed with Malayalam, both in use of words as well as the intonation. Unless I am mistaken, Tamil was not Sanskrit-based, whereas the other South Indian languages were. Yet now there are numerous words in Tamil that are similar in other languages of the South.

(I have not learnt to read or write Malayalam, and my spoken vocabulary is very limited. In fact while listening to Malayalam songs I don't understand most of the words. My understanding of Hindi/Urdu is far better. And during almost 30 years of marriage I've never had a real conversation with my mother-in-law --- she is hesitant to speak in English and me in Tamil! Of course, my wife doesn't understand me in any language. )

Now that is something I must say!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well you atleast know a few words in malayalam

Wife doesnt understand u in any language?? how can that be

Pyar ki basha haina

N

I can understand a wee bit of malayalam. More so coz my B-i-l is from Kochi (a konk from Kochi-Ernakulam). Also since I am well versed in Tamil (can R/w/s) it helps too!

N

That's proven by the fact that we have two daughters ---- who speak only English!

Yesterday I was woken up by the sound of Sanskrit slokas in an American accent --- my daughter saying her prayers aloud before leaving for work.

WOW -U r a lucky man! Honestly, i get along fine with my mother in law and my 2 sister in laws I only have little problem with my father in law & brother in law They r totally opposite

<<Yesterday I was woken up by the sound of Sanskrit slokas in an American accent --- my daughter saying her prayers aloud before leaving for work>>

Be happy that they are saying their prayers in Sanskrit even tho it has an accent

N

Spoken like a wise man

Well atleast he understands "HIS WIFE's LANGUAGE"

N

To chip in...yes, it's a flowing language. Very mellifluos....and in that sense, a bit like French in the Franco-Prussian group of languages.

Hits

Here is something I found -

Of the many theories of origin, the most popular ones claim that Malayalam was born out of the confluence of Tamil and Sanskrit, that it originated out of Sanskrit alone, and that both Malayalam and Tamil came out of a single proto-language. In his Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages (1875), Bishop Robert Caldwell argued that Malayalam evolved out of Tamil and that the process took place during the Sangam period (first five centuries of the Common Era) when Kerala belonged to the larger political unit called Tamilakam, the apogee of Dravidian civilization.

N

ps: Btw hits!! Are you a malayalee too????????????????

Yes, I am.

OOOOOhhh good good we have one more malayalee among ourselves

We must make a statistics on language basis of the members

N

With every new generation our mother-toungue seems to be going for a toss... I could never master it well (can speak a little bit but not write) and i know with my future kids it will be even worse..

These days i see many malayalee couples who resort to speak in hindi/english among themselves rather than in malayalam.

It is true that Malayalam is a sweet language and v would love to teach our children to Read & write Malayalam. But here we are already painfully seeing them learning English, Arrabic and hindi from their frist standard. So we don't know how to force them to learn Malayalam too.

In my humble opinion, the best way to teach children a language is for the parents to speak only that language at home. The kids will learn English and Hindi in school (and Arabic in the Middle-East). The parents do not have to teach them those languages.

I learnt this lesson from my own experience. At the time I moved abroad from India, my elder daughter was 6 years old. She then spoke Tamil fluently (my wife is a Tamilian). Within 6 months, my daughter stopped speaking Tamil but would answer in English the questions put to her in Tamil. But then, the only common language in our home is English, since my Tamil is scanty and my wife's Malayalam is negligible.

Whereas I've never lived in Kerala, never studied Malayalam, cannot read or write in the language. Yet it is for me, literally my mother-tongue, for that was the only language in which I could communicate with my mother. If I speak Malayalam, however badly, it is only because it was spoken at home.

I was all admiration for a couple I met. The husband is from India and the wife from Switzerland. Their two sons spoke Hindi, German, French and Italian, apart from English! The parents take the credit for that.

In my humble opinion, the best way to teach children a language is for the parents to speak only that language at home. The kids will learn English and Hindi in school (and Arabic in the Middle-East). The parents do not have to teach them those languages.

I learnt this lesson from my own experience. At the time I moved abroad from India, my elder daughter was 6 years old. She then spoke Tamil fluently (my wife is a Tamilian). Within 6 months, my daughter stopped speaking Tamil but would answer in English the questions put to her in Tamil. But then, the only common language in our home is English, since my Tamil is scanty and my wife's Malayalam is negligible.

Whereas I've never lived in Kerala, never studied Malayalam, cannot read or write in the language. Yet it is for me, literally my mother-tongue, for that was the only language in which I could communicate with my mother. If I speak Malayalam, however badly, it is only because it was spoken at home.

I was all admiration for a couple I met. The husband is from India and the wife from Switzerland. Their two sons spoke Hindi, German, French and Italian, apart from English! The parents take the credit for that.

That's gonna be repeated in my case as well, now that i am getting married to an Assamese girl!! Speaking Malayalam is out of question since she can't even speak in Hindi..

Just imagine what happens when my kids learn Assamese (i don't know a word in assamese!).. I shudder at the thought of them using that language in future whenever they (my wife and kids) are conspiring something against me! NO WAY! The best option is to teach my wife Hindi and my kids both Hindi and Malayalam..

So your house will become a language school.

Tres not fair

I think both you and she should learn each others' mother tongue and the kids should learn both languages too

N

I agree. My 4-yr old niece can speak English, Hindi, german (baby-sitter), Telugu (dad) and Bengali (mom). I think it's b'cos my bro & s-i-l took time to learn Telugu and Bengali and spoke to the kid in their respective mother tongues.

it's gonna be a tough time for me.. should that be a case. I will surely end up having a confused family speaking a new lang ultimately - a mixture of Malayalam, Hindi, English and Assamese.. ,

Ksamaa kariba, enique ninde not even one setence samaj aaya..

If you happen to shift somewhere in Mideast, you will have a combination that includes Arabic as well. It will become a totally new language

Oh Well....Unni......I wasn't aware of that situation in your household.....Must've had quite a tough time in the beginning, right?

Also....I agree with you Tres......I stay in Mumbai......and I've seen innumerable......(really lost count....guess almost 90%) Malayalee families using Hindi as their main spoken language at home......And in all the cases, the kids at home.....are not so confident with Malayalam.......(can speak a bit broken Malayalam though)....Definitely the fault lies with the parents.......If this tradition goes on.......in the future.......All the languages (not only Malayalam) will die a slow death....definitely in terms of quality....

Another thing to note here is that everyone knows the employment situation in Kerala.....and with all the communalism prevelant there....More and more ppl are migrating elsewhere.....either to "Gelf" or to other parts of India, in search of jobs.......once they start a family there.....thats it.......the kids and parents and everyone is conversing in Hindi or English.....or some such language........Possibly the families sticking to Kerala as their home, may not have this bad a problem.....But with more ppl getting out of Kerala.....the future looks uncertain...........

(And even in the cases in other cities where the parents or children speak Malayalam at home.....its not the traditional Malayalam that we know of.......they speak a cocktail kind of Malayalam......with other local accents and words coming in.....even the parents....)

May I, another confirmed MALLU, butt into this very interesting 7 months old thread to offer my thoughts????

I agree with the fact that very soon the influence of mother toungue is going to die a slow death if parents continued to encourage use of languages, other than the mother toungue, at home....however, I have honestly noticed this trend ONLY AMONG MALLUS.... I have personally come across Gujjus hitting it off in Gujju from the word GO, two tamils will probe each other just enuf to know that they r Tamils and then its Tamil all the way....Maharashtrians would 'amhi-marathi-manus' each other and carry on....Its only among Mallus that i have noticed a strange shame in acknowledging that they are Mallus....They gladly admit (with relief, many a times) that they know nothing of the language and they can speak in bits and pieces only......Ahhhhhhhh welllllll, strange are the ways of the world!!!!!!

As for me, urs truly can read, write and converse Malayalam, verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry fluently

Ditto.

Very true.. I will relate u all an incidence..

Few years back i was exploring a marriage proposal for myself. The girl hailed from a Malayalam family, residing in Mumbai.

A common friend of ours called me up to tell me that they (ladkiwaale) were expecting me to go and visit them. I told myself, 'Yea.. it had to be like that.. so let it be like that'. But what if they start firing rapid questions in Malayalam the moment they see me??? Well, I will tell them that since I was born and brought up in Bhilai, my Malayalam sucks! But what if the girl was born in Mumbai and hers was still fluent?

Finally, I asked this common friend to tell them that I’d prefer to meet the girl at a coffee joint before meeting her family up.. They seemed to be keen on accepting whatever proposals I were making, for they did agree to it! A meeting place and time was fixed; and never once I had a chance to talk to her in between (for some strange reasons I myself avoided it!)

Driving down to that meeting-place I kept wondering how to start? The obvious 'Hi!' will have to be followed by either a Malayalam sentence or an English one.. I decided to shoot off with English.. Yes. 'Hi! How do u do... Let me first apologize for having kept you waiting for so long!' (I was already late by 15mins).

I sensed I wanted to avoid Malayalam in every possible way!

I found her waiting for me at the entrance of the joint (I had seen her photograph earlier). Parking my vehicle and sporting a big apologetic grin on my face, I approached her. But before I could even blurt out a word, she raised her warning index finger towards me and said, "Please, don't expect me to speak in Malayalam.. My Malayalam sucks!"

Can't tell u how glad I was at that time.. But later that night I really regretted once again for being so poor in my mother-tongue..

Yes BhanuVarma, Hits and Tres......Exactly the kind of thing I was talking about......This is the same point I wanted to drive home......And BhanuVarma..You are absolutely right.......I've too seen this happen only in case of Mallus......and the worst part is.....they are shameless enough to openly acknowledge about their poor knowledge of their mother-toungue......to the extent that....they make a joke of it...and laugh themselves..... .....and they go on and on in English talking about their poor hand at Malayalam......as if that's a status symbol of sorts!!!!! Really strange are the ways of the world.....Hmmm......

Namaskaaram......I'm in a nice mood to share an old anecdote that happened with me when I was about 6-7 years old....

(Writing this in English for the 'benefit' of all the non-mallus...and all the mallus who aren't confident with their mother-toungue... )

It so happened that....during one of my first school vacations...(I must've been in 2nd standard or something.... )...I had been to Kerala with my family....to visit our native places......And one of the important stops in our long trip was "Irinjalakuda" (Trichur district), which happens to be my mother's native......And one of the days during our stay there....my grandmother took me on a round to the nearby homes...to visit people over there.....(some old friends of theirs.....and some neighbours etc.)

And I was a boy who would mingle with anybody easily at that time... .....

Now comes the bomber......I didn't know a single letter in MALAYALAM!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!

And we were sitting outside one of the houses...in the porch.....and my grandmother and the lady of that house were in deep conversation......and I was just having a nice time...looking here and there.....and smiling at them......

Then...that lady suddenly started to converse with me.....And Then I suddenly realised...."HEYY.....What is she talking....I can't understand anything!!! " (What an early realisation!!!;)) But I was not a boy who was going to leave it so easily......I decided to try my best to answer her properly.....(Irrespective of whether I understood her or not!!! )

And she asked me some simple questions....like my name......where do I stay etc.....which I could understand in some way....and I was "Smartly" answering her in one word......(Name..place etc....) And finally...she asked me a question......"Nee Sukkoolil (School) pohunnale? Leavil ivade vannutundalle........Ninde School eppo "Pookum"????"

Now.....I understood 99% of what she asked......but had no CLUE of what "Pookum" means!!!! But I didn't want to "GIVE UP" at the same time.....(Hehehehe.....what a kid I must've been.....) And I gave her a blank look....and repeated the word "Pookum???" (In an interrogative fashion....)

And..Paavam.....that lady....said...."Pokum...paranyaal......June, July, August.....angene.......ippo aana pookunnade????"

Now......the "SMART" kid that I was.......only understood....that the question had "something on earth to do with the name of a MONTH!!!!" Had no clue what she meant.........but I knew...she needed some name of the month as the answer....:LOL... And I coolly said....."July" (Only because that was one of the names she took....) And she replied....."Ohh..ohh.....Julaaayil pookunno sukkool......angene aanelle......" And I was Ssooooooo proud that I 'managed' the situation so well......without knowing anything in that language.....

Only much later....after getting to know the language better......did I recollect that incident..and realise that she actually wanted to know when was my school re-opening.... (Which was supposed to be in June)...and I had so nicely said July to her!!!!! Hehehhee.....

That was my 'first' "BRUSH" with this wonderful language.......Can't help laughing whenever I recollect this one!!!! Btw.....this was only the FIRST of the Mannnyyyyyy such incidents....that were to follow....

Ee Forum Eppo aane pookunnade???

Ellorum evideaane poyada??? Ee Forum Eppo Aane Pookunnade???? ???

Njaan Malayalam samsaarichu thudangiyal, ningal ellam odi poghum.

Adu enda? English samsarikyunadu pole kaiyyil dictionaryum thesaurusum ille?

Malayalam vaayikyaan ariyadey Dictionaryum Thesaursum engeney upayojikyum?

Ayyo eyaale puratu aakuka. Malayalam yaayikyan ariyaata Malayalee.
Adu kondu alle most literate stateenu paranyu vittadu.
(Good heavens how long can we go on with this!!!! Writing Mal in Eng sure is tough!!!!!! )

English Englishilu ezhuthaan thanney enikyu prayasam aanu!

Namude 'duel' Malayalathil nadathiyaal engane irrikyum?
Nyaan jeykyum alle?

Anganeyengilum enney tholpikanam, alley? Njaan anuvadikkillya.

Sheriyaayittu Paranyu Priya.....Ningalde 'Duel' Malayalattil nadatiyaal ningal tanne jeykyum..... Hehehehe .... Unni Saare...Ningalde dictionary, thesaurus okka evide vechittunda?? Malayalam type cheyyan prayasam aanangil XP voice-to-text type undello sahayikyaan???

Ayyo! XP American Malayalatthil text ezhudum.

Yo guys parayo and me nothing ariyos

N:

The rest of them are pandits in Mallu-lingo. Me sticking to one line msgs.

Nimmi: Yo guys parayo and me nothing ariyos

Well Nimmi....that 'ariyos' sounded like "Adieos"..... Hehehhee

Unni.. atleast neengal koncham ariyo.. me going blink blink like the TL choke has gone kaput!


N :|

Shyamu! grrr rombo kindal thaan!

N

Aha!!! Allangil ningal aanu jeikyunathu enna vicharam? Aaru paranyu?
Mone swapnalogatheenu erangi va!!!!

In one hour. With great dificulty!!!!!

Yo Nimii!!! No bringing in Tamil here. Malayalam tanne kurachu kurachu arriyullu. Tamil teriyaadu.

ippo uunt vannu pahaad ke neeche......enda Unniji ab boliye;)

Angane parayalle mole Lata!!!
Ottakam malayude adeeyil vannu ennu parayu.
Pakshe Unni korangan alle?
P