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Phonetics is concerned with describing the speech sound that occurs in the languages of the world. It deals with the production, transmission and reception of the sounds of human speech. All speech sound the basic source of power is the respiratory system which pushes air out of the lungs. Air from the lungs goes up the windpipe and is to the larynx at which point it must pass between two small muscular folds called the vocal cords. Sound produced when the vocal cords are vibrating are said to be voiced, as opposed to those in which the vocal cords are apart are said to be voiceless. The air passages above the larynx are known as vocal tract. The shape of the vocal tract is very important factor in the production of speech sounds. The parts of the vocal tract that can be used to form sounds are called articulation. The articulations that form the lower surface of the vocal tract often move towards those that form the upper surface.
The organs that involved in the production of speech sound can be grouped under three system
1. The respiratory system
2. The phonetory system
3. The articulatory system
Bala Subramanian T 1996 A Test book of English Phonetics for Indian students, Macmillan India limited, Madras.
Prabodhachandran V. R 1998 Swanavijnanam, State Institute of Languages, Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram.
Prabodhachandran V. R Verbal forms in Malayalam, Dravidian Linguistic Association of India, Thiruvananthapuram.
Is a bellows-like or piston like movement of an organ or organ group (as initiator) which causes a pressure charge in an adjacent part of the vocal tract and consequently initiates a flow of air. Initiation types have been described in Catford (1939 and 1947) and at greater length in pike (1943) pike introduces the term ‘initiator’ but uses air stream mechanism for what we here call ‘initiation’.
The second productive parameters to be first considered under this head are location and direction. The latter is most conveniently regarded as a dichotomy. Egressive versus ingressive. Egressive and ingressive initiation, however, imply on the one hard on initiatory volume-decrease and on the other an initiatory volume increase. The absolute rate at which this initiatory volume-change occurs is, in itself, a fact to be considered.
There are three major locations of initiatory activity: the lings the larynx, and the mouth Following Beach (1936) and Catford ‘(1939) we’ will call the first two pulmonie and glottalic. The third is oralic which covers a variety of possibilities in the mouth, if which only Velarie is utilized in any language.
Ocsophagie initiation is used by some Laryngectomised persons. Usually, or often alternating with glottalie: laryngectomised speech may use ocsophagie egressive initiation for vociodal and other open articulation type (eg. Fricatives), but glottalic egressive initiation for stops.
Plutonic initiation is performed by the thoracic cage which controls the deflation or inflation of the lungs.
Voltaic initiations is performed by the larynx, which slides up or down in the throat, like a piston, with the glottis either tightly closed or vibrating.
The major type of oralic initiation is velaric. In velaric initiation the dorsal surface of the tongue is in close contact with the soft palate. Movements of the central part of the tongue change the volume of the anterior part of the oral cavity, generating positive or negative pressure there.
Prabodhachandran V. R 1998 Swanavijnanam, State Institute of Languages Nalarda, Thiruvananthapuram.
Balasubramanian T 1996 A textbook of English phonetics for Indian students, Macmillan India Limited, Madras.
Bertil Malmberg(ed) 1970 Manual of phonetics, North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, London. Pp: 311-315.
Covers all regulatory activities occurring in the larynie (with one exception): It thus includes such features as ‘breath’ on ‘voicelessness’ ‘voice’ voice-qualities etc it excludes those laryngeal activities (glottal colure and vertical displacement of the larynx) which have as initiatory function in the production of glottalic sounds.
The somewhat arbitrary exception which we make is that glottal stop [P] is regarded for the present purpose as a form of articulation, not phonation. This makes for simpler treatment of certain aspects of articulation. The so-called ‘glottal fricative’ [h] however is regarded as a type of phonation. In purely articulatory forms [h] is equivalent to voiceless vocoid.
The parameters surveyed under this head are structure type, location, vocal fold tension, vertical larynx displacement.
Closed glottis: has been excluded from phonation creak involves a periodic, low frequency opening of a chink near the thyroid end of the glottis. The auditory effect resembles a stick being dragged along a salting. Voice periodic opening and closing of the glottis at frequencies from about 70cps upwards. The vocal fold vibrate most effectively when air flows upwards, there being a pressure difference of at least 2cm water across the glottis. Inverse voice, involving a higher pressure above the glottis and a downward flow is also possible, but produces an irregular croaking effect Whisper. The vocal folds on ventricular bonds are somewhat abducted-at normal rates of flow and pressure up to about 25 percent of maximal glottal area. The airflow is turbulent and a relatively high velocity jet is projected upward into the pharynx on downwards into the trachea.
Breath: Vocal folds widely separated, with relatively low velocity turbulent flow: The sound of audible breathing. Nil phonation: Glottis wide open, as for breath but with low volume-flow (below about 250 to 400 cm3/sec) this flow is non-turbulent, generating no sound (silent breathing).
The lows of phonatory strictures may be any one (on more) of the following types.
Glottal on normal: that is involving the true vocal folds as a whole, without any specific, active, restriction to any one part.
Ligamental-Actively restricted to the anterior, Liga mental part of the glottis. Ligamental wisper, voice and create are possible. Ligamental voice has ‘sharp’ ‘clear’, slightly ‘harsh’ quality.
Arytenvidal Ligamental glottis tightly closed, but with the arytenoids cartilages separated. One type of whisper, and possibly a kind of creak can be produced arytenlodally.
Ventricular: The ventricular bonds can be approximated to produce whisper and voice like an creak like phonetary strictures.
Vocal Fold Tension: Not only the tension, but also the length and thickness of the vocal folds can be varied considerably.
These variations contribute to difference of voice quality and all three are related to variations in fundamental frequency of voice.
The larynx can slide up and down in the throat. This can, of course, be part of the initiatory movement in glottalic initiation, and is addition, a downward larynx movement may occur as an necessary to the viceroy of stop articulations.
Vertical larynx displacement can, however, be an independent activity, which is best regarded as a phonatory activity in general, the acoustic effect of larynx raising on lowering is to raise or lower the frequency of the first formant of vowels.
Prabodha Chandran V. R 1998 Swanavijnanam, State Institute of Languages, Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram.
Bertil Malmberg(ed) 1970 Manual of phonetics, North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, London.
Articulation covers glottal stop and all those regulatory activities which occur in the pharyme, mouth and nose. Thus, the labial closure of [P], the narrow dorso-velar channel of [X] which generates turbulent (fricative) air flow, the open, specifically shaped, oral cavity of [e] which generates no sound of itself but merely modulates the phonatory sound of ‘voice’ generated at the larynx- all these, and others, are types of articulation.
Stop: Stricture type involving complete, firm, closure, maintained for at least a cent second on two, during which time there is normally a build-up pleasure behind the stop-usually of the order of 8 to 10cm water in plutonic egressive stops, up to 40 or 50 cm water in unphonated glottalic egressive stops and down to about-10cm water in voiced glottalic ingressive stops (implosives).
Trill and Flap: These both involve relatively loose contact between articulators. In trill there is a maintained tension in an articulation such that the pressure of the initiatory air stream sets the articulator (s) in periodic vibration, one, or both, flapping against the other, usually at frequencies of the order of 25 to 35cps. In flap there is a single, momentary, contact between articulators. It is the essential mementariness, and the losseness of contact, which distinguishes a flap from a stop.
Fricative: Stricture type involves the formation of an articulatory channel of such small cross sectional area that at normal operating volume-flows the airflow through the channel is always turbulent. In the case of s-and g-type fricatives, in addition to this ‘channel turbulence’ a high-velocity jet is projected against an obstruction (the teeth particularly the upper teeth) creating as additional eddying turbulence around the edges of the teeth. It is turbulent flow of fricatives which generates their characteristic ‘jet noise’ on his Approximant: This useful film is borrowed from hadefoged though defined here somewhat differently. Approximants have a range of cross-sectional channel areas somewhat larger then that of fricatives, roughly definable in terms of the presence or absence of turbulence when the sound is voiceless or voiced. Where as fricatives have turbulent flow whether or not the sound is voiced, in approximants flow is turbulent when the sound is voiceless, but non-turbulent (laminar) when the volume-flow is reduced by voicing.
Resonant-Articulatory structure is characterized by the fact that the channel area is so great that, at normal volume-flows there is no turbulence at the lows of articulation whether the sound is vowel or voiceless. Mid be open vowels come into this category, as do certain wide-channel 1-sounds, with extreme lateral contraction of the tongue. When also sound with such a stricture type is combined with voiceless phonation, the result is either silence or else is a sound entirely generated by turbulent airflow through the glottis and merely modulated by the oral articulatory stricture.
Areas of articulation are used oral pharyngo-largngeal nasal area-Articulation in this area involves airflow through the nasal cavity. The central channels of the nasal cavity are covered by mucous membrane, which may swell pathologically, blocking the nasal air path, but are not subject to independent muscular movement consequently, only two nasal articulatory zones need be discussed nareal and velo-pharyngeal.
(a) Nasal-Articulation at the naves or nostrils. What are most commonly called ‘nasal consonants’ are in fact, navel approximants. Since they involve non-turbulent flow through the nostrils when voiced, but turbulent floe when voiceless. A further narrowing of the nostrils creates a fricative-type channel, such that, at normal operating volume flows, flow through the nostrils is turbulent, even when the sound is voiced.
(b) Velo-pharyngeal, articulation between the upper surface of the velum and the back wall of the naso-pharynx. This is the articulatory location which pike calls velic.
Oral Area: Articulatory locations in this areas are best described in terms of the juxtaposition for articulations attached to the upper jaw with articulators attached to the lower jaw.
Pharyngal- The oro-pharynic and laryngeal pharynx can be constructed in various ways, prinipaly by (a) extreme retraction of the tongue, so that the epiglottis approximates to the back wall of the pharynx and by (b) a lateral fielding of the back wall of the pharynx (pharyngeal).
Laryngeal a gottal: represented by glottal stop.
Prabodha Chandran V. R 1998 Swanavijaanam, State Institute of Languages Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram
Bertil Malmberg(ed) 1970 Manual of phonetics, North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, London. Pp: 321-332.
Phonetically a syllable in Malayalam consists of an obligatory nucleus which is always characterized by a vowel or diphthongal articulation; preceded and followed optionally by a ‘releasing’ and an ‘arresting’ consonant articulation respectively (Abercrombie 1967 pp 39-40)
Eg: / tā / ‘(you) give’
/ vaiki / ‘delayed’
/ ūti / ‘below’
/ Kōti / ‘combed’ / gaunkcu / ‘considered seriously’
In the arresting consonant articulation, if any of the utterances final syllable will always be simple and voiced.
Eg: / pōkum / ‘will go’
/ pōyāl / ‘if went’
/ pōkān / ‘to go’
The realizing consonant articulation. If any of the utterance-initial syllable may be any word initial consonant articulation which will mostly be simple.
Eg: / K, Pl etc are rarely complex
Eg: / Pr, spl etc
Eg: / kōti / pecked / potti / covered up by hand’ / prāki / ‘cursed’
/ spandiccu / ‘ pulsated’
The interludes between the nuclei of two successive syllables may consists of any medial simple or complex consonant articulation.
Eg: / ayin̄n̄u / ‘loosened’
/ ōrmmippiccu / ‘reminded’
Prabodhachandran V. R Malayalam Verbal forms
Dravidian Linguistics
Association of India
Thiruvananthapuram
Pp: 50-57.
Prabodhachandran V. R Swanaviynanam
State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram.
Along with the chief articulation, it is possible to make another articulation also in the vocal tract. When the chief articulator makes movement towards the point of articulation, the secondary articulator also makes some movement there by affecting the quality of the sound produced by the chief articulator sounds thus produced are called co. articulated sounds and the process is called co. articulation or secondary articulation.
Along with the chief articulation there is a secondary articulation. When the chief articulator makes movement towards the point of articulation, the secondary articulator also makes some movement thereby affecting the quality of sound produced by the chief articulator. Sounds thus produced are called co. articulated sounds and the process is called co. articulation or secondary articulation.
Eg: ‘toṭṭu’ when we say the first consonant as the voiceless dental stop or a voiceless front dental stop, we are considering only the special features of a primary articulation. But in the pronunciation of this consonant, the lips are rounded and it signifies the labialised. Hence we can consider the features of secondary articulation.
Prabodhachandran V. R 1998 Swanav̇ẏnanam,
State Institute of Languages,
Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram.
The important feature of this secondary articulation is the approximant stricture that happened in the indicated place of articulation. This is the rounded position of lips in addition to the primary articulation.
Eg: Kutti- The ‘K’ Kara is labialised consonant
When the chief articulator makes a movement for the production of speech sounds, the lips also makes some simultaneous movement for rounding sounds thus produced are called labialised sound and the process is called labialisation.
Prabodhachandran V. R 1998 Swanaviyanam
State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram
The t-class of sounds according to the Tamil alphabet consists of t and n only. Their combinations result in three clusters, namely tt, nn, nt. If the vowel proceeding them is one of the palatals a i.e., or ai the palatal quality extends to these Dentals making them palatals. The rule was named as palatalisation in view of the Dentals getting changed to palatals. The change should be according to correspondence, as for instance.
t = c
tt = cc
n = n̄
ṉ ṉ = n̄n̄
ṉt = n̄c
This rule also is obligatory in the case of suffixes only, the main examples being past forms ending in ‘ttu’ and ‘ṉtu’. Note that when ṉt charges to n̄c, nasal assimilation also occurs making the final as n̄ n̄.
Ala – alaiṉtaan - alan̄caan - alan̄n̄ān (he soamed)
aṛi - aṛiṉtān - aṛin̄cān - aṛin̄n̄ān (he knew)
piṭI – pitittān – piticcān – (he caught)
vai – vaittan – vaiccān, vaccān, veccān (he placed)
vaa - vāyttu – vāyccu (increased)
cci – cīṉtu - cīnc̄u - cīnn̄ū (decayed)
tē – tēṉtu - tēn̄cu - teen̄n̄u (became rubbed)
aintu - an̄cu (five)
naan - n̄aan (I)
ṉerukkam - n̄erukkam (poverty)
ṉan̄ṭu - n̄anṭu (crab)
ṉarampu – narampu (vein)
Rajarajavarma A. R 1999 Kērala paniniyam
International School of Dravidian
Linguistics, Thiruvananthapuram
P : 16.
Ezhathachan K. N 1975 History of grammatical theories
In Malayalam,
Dravidian Linguistic Association
Thiruvananthapuram.
Prabodhachandran 1998 Swanavijnanam
State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram.
Probodhachandran V. R Malayalam Verbal forms
Dravidian Linguistic Association
Of India, Thiruvananthapuram.
The important feature of this secondary articulation is also the occurrence of the approximate stricture in the indicated position of articulation. This is the rising of the root of the tongue.
Eg: aṭakkunnu - aṭaykkunnu
Vilakku - vilaykku
The first word in this two pairs the 1kl kara is valorized and in the second word the 1kl kara is palalalized.
Valorization consists of rising the back of the tongue to the same position as for a close back vowel.
Along with the primary articulation, if the tongue is low in the mouth and retracted towards the back wall of the pharynx the secondary articulation is called pharyngalisation.
For example, Urdu language a number of pharyngalized segments.,
The word / allachu / or / aḷḷā / that borrowed from Urdu language to Malayalam, the form / allah /, the lateral consonant is primarily pre alveolar and the secondary articulation is valorization the more pharyngalised speech system is always recognized by everybody as the speech with throat.
Between nasal consonants and after nasal consonants occurring in the same syllable vowels in Malayalam are nazalised as in the pronunciation of words like / minnuṉṉul / ‘shine’ / minuṅṅI / ‘glittered’ / aŋan̄n̄u / approached and / nanaṉṉ / became wet.
Vowels occurring before nasal consonants are nasalized only occasionally.
Eg: / ōṭin / ‘you(pl) run’ in which / I / is not nasalized and / viṭṉṉu / ‘relase’ in which the medial / u / is nasalized.
Between non-nasal consonants and before or after non-nasal consonants when not preceded and followed by nasal consonants vowels are always pronounced with soft palate valsed.
For example the vocalic articulations in / Vāṭi/ ‘fuded’ and / ooṭi/ ‘ran’ are not nasalized.
Prabodhachandran V. R 1998 Swanavijnanam
State Institute of languages
Nalanda, TVM.
Pp: 43-45.
Prabodhachandran V. R Verbal forms in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, TVM.
Pp: 11.
If two equally important primary structures happened in different places at a time is called double articulation. It as been said that in some West African Languages have bilabial and velar stops at a time. When we speedily pronounce the words / apka / and / abka / the experienced articulation in between vowels in any speech events is double articulation. In secondary articulation the double structure is always subordinate. But in double articulation the two structure have the equal importance.
Thus is would seem the long consonants which are represented is reading transcription by duplicating the appropriate symbols can be considered as consonant clusters. The place and manner of articulation and the position of vocal cords remain constant through out the articulation of such long consonants, there being no release anywhere during the course of the articulation. That is to say, the duplication of symbols in reading transcription employed is double articulation. If the articulation involved, in / pp/ and / cc /, the closure-phase (Abercrombie p-140) of the articulation is considerably extended and articulation as a whole, is felt to be very tense. In the case of nasals and lateral (eg: / nn ll /) long articulation means an extended duration of the consonant articulation in question.
Prabodhachandran V. R Verbal forms in Malayalam
Dravidian, Linguistic Association
of India, TVM.
Pp: 20.
Prabodhachandran V. R 1998 Swanavijnanam
State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, T.V.M
Pp: 45-47.
Aspiration of consonants, chiefly plosives and affricates, is a feature characteristic of marginal forms in the language, but even in marginal verbal forms articulations that can be represented as /dḥ/and /jh/, ie., voiced aspirated retroflex plosive and voiced aspirated palatal affricate, are not attested in any position. Initially /tḥ/ and /th/ and medially /ph/ are also not attested. All other possible aspirated plosive and affricate articulations occur initially and medially in marginal forms. In my (Probodhachandrans’s) idiolect there is little as no distinction between the voiced and voiceless varieties of aspirated plosives are distinguished only in learned styles of pronunciation which will usually be described as pedantic by the majority of the speech community. The orthography, however, differentiates them and literate malayalis are careful in noting which lexical item contains which of these.
The aspirated plosives are transcribed by two separate symbols in each case eg: /ph,bh/etc they are treated only as single consonant articulations and not as two-consonant clusters. Accordingly clusters in which /r/ is followed by an aspirated plosive or affricate and those in which an aspirated plosive or affricate is followed by /v/ are treated only as two-consonant clusters even though their usual orthographic representation may be transliterated as /rddh, rdth, rcch/ and as /ddhv, cchv/.
The first to be discussed of such miner systems has as its cheep exponents aspiration and its absence denoted by h and –h respectively. The phonetic implications of these are as follows.
H: a voiceless velar fricative articulation –h: absence of such a voiceless velar articulation h and –h prosodies are mostly relevant to the stems of margined forms occurring in Malayalam. The c-units statable for the structured places where h or –h prosodies are stated are mostly these assigned to the plosive system.
Occurrence of /h/ initially in marginal verbal roots and intervocalically is also treated in prosodic terms as illustrated below:
Generalized structure Phonetic form of
Of the syllable in question the example
Ho A- ha – riccu
Ho E- hoo-miccu
Ho̱ Ā - Sa-haa-yiccu
Prabodhachandran. V. R Malayalam Verbal Forms
Dravidian Linguistic
Association of India
TVM
Pp: 14-16, 28 and 58
Swanavijnanam
Prabodhachandran V. R State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, TVM.
Pp: 53-55.
It would seem that certain other phonetic features like retroflexion could also have been handled to terms of functional prosodic systems. A prosodic treatment of retroflexion for example, will bring to light the inter-relations of stem and suffix on instaxes like luņṭul (Luņ-) and /uruņṭu/ (Luṛul-) more significantly than another analysis which handles the same situation in terms of predictability of the suffix from the phonematic structure of the stem final syllable. There are, however, only a hardful of instances of native verbal forms in Malayalam that are amenable to such an analysis.
Prabodhachandran V. R Verbal forms in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
Of India, Thiruvananthapuram.
P : 95.
Probodhachandran V. R Swanavijananam
State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram.
The two diphthongal articulations to be distinguished in colloquial Malayalam are symbolized as lail and laul. As the beginning of both these is more prominent them the end, these are falling diphthongs.
In handling some verbal forms like /eytu/ `shot (morrow)’ /ceytu/ ‘did’ and /koytu/ ‘reaped’ one may come across two more articulations which may seem to be diphthongal-/ei/ and /oi/, but in his (Prabodhachandran Nair) pronunciation there seems to be only a palatal frictionless continuant [j] following the vowels /e/ and /o/ in these instances. Furthermore, there are forms like /eyyuņņu, eyyum; ceyyuṉṉu, ceyyum; koyyunnu and koyyum/ derived from the stems of these verbal forms and involving, undoubtedly, a long palatal frictionless conational following /e/ and /o/. In view of these facts, for the data under analysis, this study does not distinguish any diphthongs in addition to /ai/ and /au/.
It is also worthy of mention that as far as verbal forms in Malayalam are concerned even /ai/ and /au/ which are treated as diphthongs in this analysis occur only in forms derived from /vaik-/ ‘to be delayed’ and /gauni-/ ‘to take seriously’. Of theses /gauni-/ is a marginal stem. Moreover, some of the forms, at least, derived from /vaik-/ and commonly available in colloquial Malayalam have a long palatal frictionless contiunant after /a/: /vayyuṉṉu, vayyum/.
The following two positions of the lips are distinguishable in diphthongal articulations.
1. Neutral to un rounded in /ai/ and
2. Neutral to Rounded in /au/.
b) Jaw Opening
This is wide is narrow in both cases
Starting from the low central position, the tongue glides to a high front position for /ai/ and to the high back position for /au/ for /ai/ the starting point is slightly more fronted than that for /au/.
He has already been mentioned above /ai/ and /au/ need to be recognized only informs derivable from /vaik-/ and gauni-/. It may also be noted that even in those forms they are restricted to the stem initial syllable and constitute on extremely minor system.
Prabodhachandran Nair ‘Verbal forms in Malayalam’
Dravidian Linguistic Association of India
TVM,
Pp: 12-13.
We can recognize the speech or the sound of a person is close to us. Even though he is not in front of us we can recognize his sound. This is because, the sound of one individual is different from others due to many factors such as the pitch, amplitude frequency etc.
When two people sing at the same pitch level, we can recognize the voice of them separately. This is because of the quality of the sound or voice. The quality of voice and the harmonic structure of wave have a good relation. The difference between the harmonic sound tone and the non harmonic sound, noise is of quality. The number of harmonic in the voice of veena, the frequency and the amplitude etc are different in the voice of flute. In the case of volume also the composition of harmonic of this two kinds of sound is different.
Prabodhachandran 1998 Swanavynanam
State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram
P : 158.
Prabodhachandran V. R 1980 ‘Swanavijnanam State Institute of Languages
TVM page no: 90.
The plosives may be bilabial /p,b/ apical or dorsal. An apical plosive articulation may be dental /t, d/ or retroflex /ṭḍ/ and the dorsal plosive articulation is velar /k.g/.
Kinesthetically, there does not seem to be any plosive articulation in Malayalam for which the passive articulator is the hard palatal. A voiceless palatal affricate articulation, represented as /c/ in the reading transcription does not occur in many Malayalam verbal forms. This is to be distinguished in Sanskrit loan words from a voiced palatal affricate articulation represented in reading transcription as /j/.
None of the plosives occurs word finally. The retroflex plosives /ṭ/ and /ḍ/ are always medial. Three voiceless unaspirated plosives /p, t/ and /k/ occur initially in native forms. /t, ṭ/ and /k/ are the plosives occurring medially in native verbal forms.
/p, t, k/ and their voiced counterparts as well as the aspirated varieties of all these, with the exception of /th/ can start a marginal verbal form. Medially, in marginal forms /ph/ as not attested but there are forms attesting all other possible voiceless and voiced as well as unaspirated plosive affricate articulations.
The six nasal consonant articulations distinguishable in Malayalam are the following.
Bilabial /m/, dental /ṉ/ alveolar /n/, retroflex /ņ/, palatal /n̄/ and velar /ṅ/.
Of these /m, n/ and /ņ/ are medial and /m/ and /n/ final in native as well as marginal verbal forms. In native verbal forms /m, ṉ/ and /n̄/ can occur initially. In marginal forms /n̄/ is restricted to medial position and even there only immediately before homorganic affricate articulations.
In review, then of nasals only /m/ occurs in all positions, namely initial, medial and final. /ṅ/ does not occur anywhere singly. /ṉ/ and /n̄/ when single occur only initially where as /n/ is non-initial and /ņ/ only medial.
Of the two lateral articulations in Malayalam, one, symbolized by /l/, is alveolar and the other /ḷ/ retroflex. Both of them are voiced, highly sonorous continuant, non-fricative and bilateral. In intervocalic single occurrences the articulation represented by /ḷ/ is a retroflex flapped consonant.
/l/ is typically non-initial in native forms, but occurs in all positions in marginal ones. /ḷ/ is typically medial as for as verbal forms is contemporary colloquial Malayalam are concerned. It need be distinguished from /l/ usually only in native forms.
There are two flapped articulations represented by /r/ and /R/, /r/ is a vowel palatalized denti-alveolar flapped articulation where as /R/ as a voiced non-palatalized alveolar flapped articulation. Occasionally the articulation of /R/ may involve more than one tap of the tongue tip against the alveolus, but this is not typical.
/V/ is essentially non-final in both native and marginal forms. Initially /r/ is very rare in native forms as it is attested by forms derivable from just one verb stem, namely /rāk-/ to file. /R/ need be distinguished from /r/ usually only in native forms and in them it is in the intervocalic position the contrast between these two is functional as regards the maximum number of forms. /Rān̄c-/ meaning ‘to fly away picking up something’ is probably the only verb stem in the language attesting the initial occurrence of /R/.
Of the four fricatives in Malayalam, the following three are sibilants:
1. The denti-alveolar /s/
2. The retroflex /ṣ/
3. The palatal /ṡ/
These and the post-velar fricative /h/ are all voiceless, even though none of these has only voiced counterpart in the language, there being, therefore, no question of significant opposition between voiceless and voiced fricatives.
The fricatives, in general, are restricted to marginal forms. In such forms the entire fricative occur intervocalically and /s, ṡ/ and /h/ initially. Very rarely, however, the sibilants occur intervocally in native forms also, as attested by instances like /kasaRi/ ‘fared well’, /muṣiccu/ ‘stained’ and /viṡakkum/ ‘will be hungry’ the initial occurrence of /s/ in /soḷḷ-/ ‘to say’, a native verb stem may probably be due to the possible free variation of /s/ and /c/, since, /col-/ also meaning ‘to say’ is of frequent occurrence in the large.
Of the three continuant articulations distinguished, the labiodentals and the palatal are represented in reading transcription by /V/ and /Y/ respectively. Both these are voiced and frictionless.
Both /V/ and /Y/ are essentially medial. Intervocalically both occur in native as well as marginal forms. /y/ never occur initially in native verbal from where as /v/ is restricted to a handful of lexical items derived from verb stems. Such as /va-, ve-, vel-, vil-, meaning respectively, ‘to come’, ‘to place’, ‘to win’, and ‘to sell’.
A third type of consonant articulation represented by /l/ and labeled as retroflex continuant deserves special comment. During this articulation the egressive palmonic air stream passes round the tongue not only bilaterally but also over the tip of the tongue which is raised towards the hard palate, there by resulting in the curling back of the tongue as well. In being voiced, highly sonorous and continuant /l/ resembles the laterals, but as there is no contact between the active and passive articulation during this articulation, it is not a lateral.
Length is phonemic for consonants also. The consonants have length opposition medially.
1. All voiceless stops
2. The voiced stops except /g/
3. All nasals
4. The fricative except /Ṣ/
5. The continuants /v/ and/y/
Prabodhachandran Nayar 1972 Malayalam Verbal forms
The Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, TVM.
Pp: 16-19.
Velayudha S. 1971 Vowel duration in Malayalam-
An acoustic phonetic study-
The Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, TVM.
There are fourteen distinctive features to separate the Malayalam Phonemes. They are as follows.
The partial or complete obstruction in the vocal tract is the special feature of consonant phonemes. All the consonant in Malayalam are [+ consonant] and the vowel are [- consonant].
Obstruent can be qualifying as the setting out of phonemes including stop, fricatives and affricates with a clear contraction of vocal tract than the pronunciation of frictionless continuants.
All phonemes without airtight the primary stricture are called continuants. Obstruent phonemes in Malayalam, the fricatives are [+ continuants] and stops and affricates are [- continuants].
The specialty of back root phonemes is the total movement of tongue from the neutral position to the back. (it includes both vowels and consonants) [h, k, kh / gh, g, ṅ, u, o] etc in Malayalam are back rooted phonemes.
It is articulated with the sides of the tongue rises a little bit from the neutral position.
s,ṣ,ś, c, ch / jh, j ; ṭ, ṭh, ḍh / ḍ ; t, th / dh, d ; n̄, ņ, n ḷ l ḷ are included in this group.
The passive articulator of the phonemes of palatal quality is velum. The consonants including. ṡ, c, ch / jh, j, n̄, y in Malayalam have palatal quality.
This quality can be useful for the distinction of retroflexed sounds ṣ, ṭ, ṭh | ḍh, ḍ ņ ḷ l etc from other consonants.
The vowel which has distinctive property, based on the state of vocal cards is related only to stop and affricates of Malayalam. The other phonemes are either voiceless (eg: fricatives) or voiced nasals laterals, flap, frictionless continuants.
This quality is relevance only in the case of stops and affricates.
This quality can be useful to distinct the phonemes which are comparatively inner articulated (eg: , n, R) from other phonemes which is not like that (eg: t, ṉ, r)
On the basis of the fact that during the time of pronunciation, whether the egression in the air is coming out through the nose or the mouth, the non obstruent phonemes can be divided into [+ nasals].
(ṅ, n̄, ņ, n, ṉ, m) and [- nasals] (l, l, ḷ, R, r, y, v)
The laminal nasal phonemes can be divided by looking whether the relevant articulation is lateral eg (ḷ, l) or not (eg: l)
This distinctive features are helpful only for the division of vowels. If |u, i| are (+ high), we can call |o, e| are [- high]. Among the |- back| vowels |i, e, a | |i| and |e| are [+ front] and a is [- front].
On the basis of these distinctive features we can explain each and every phonemes in Malayalam.
eg: |i| - [- consonantal, + front – back + high]
|e| - [ - consonantal + front – back – high]
Prabodhachanrdan V. R. 1980 SwanaVijnanam
State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram
PP: 133 to 143.
Phonetically a syllable in Malayalam consists of an obligatory nucleus which is always characterized by a vowel or diphthongal articulation, preceded and followed optionally by a releasing and as arresting consonant articulation respectively.
Eg: |tāl| (you) ‘give’, |ūti| ‘blew’ |kōti| ‘combed’ |vaiki| ‘delayed’ |gauniccu| ‘considered seriously’
The arresting consonant articulation, if any, of the utterance final syllable will always be simple and voiced.
eg: |pōkum| ‘will go’ |pōyāl| ‘if went’ |pōkān| ‘to go’ The releasing consonant articulation, if any, of the utterance- initial syllable may be any word ‘initial consonant articulation which will mostly be simple (eg /k, pl etc) on rarely complex eg: |pr, spl etc.
eg: |kōt:| ‘pecked’, |potti| ‘covered up by hand’ |prāki| ‘cursed’ |spandiccu| pulsated.
The interludes between the nuclei of two successive syllables may consist of any medial simple or complex consonant articulation.
eg: |ayin̄n̄u| ‘loosened’
|ōrmmippiccu| ‘reminded’.
Prabodhachanran V. R. Malayalam Verbal Forms
Dravidian Linguistic Association
Of India, Thiruvananthapuram
Pp: 50-51.
2.2.1.1. /i, ī/ High Front Vowels
/i/ [yi, ly, i, I]
[y:] High front un rounded vocoid with an on glide of y occurs word initially
eg: [yiṭum], [yiņam]
[ly] High front un rounded voicoid with an off glide of ‘y’ occurs word finally
eg: [poṭiy] [hariy]
[i] High front un rounded vocoid occurs only medially with length.
eg: [kīrum] [nīḷum]
[I] lower high front un rounded lax vocoid occurs word medially without length
eg: [kIṭṭum] [pIṭa]
2.2.1.2. /e ē/ Mid front Vowel
/e/ [ye, ey, e, E]
[ye] High mid front un rounded tense vocoid with an on glide of y occurs word initially
eg: [yeṭā] [yēṭṭan]
[ey] High mid front un rounded tense vocoid with an off glide of y occurs word finally
eg: [avaḷey] [akkarey]
[e] High mid front un rounded tense vocoid occurs only medially with length.
eg: [tēn], [kēṭu]
[E] Average mid lax un rounded vocoid, occurs with out length in the middle position
eg: [PERRU] [tERRI]
/a, ā/ Low untral vowel
/a/, [d, a, ^, A]
[d] Lower back tense vocoid occurs after any consonants except velar consonant with length
eg: [pāḷ] [tāli] [māla]
[^] Lower mid back vocoid occurs in the first syllable and word finally.
eg: [al^] [t^lli] [paṭ^]
[A] Lower mid cental vocoid occurs in the mid (central) syllable of a word.
eg: [kurAccu] [VIR^yal] [Vlḷ^ccll]
/O, ō/ mid back round vowels
/o/ [wo, o,o] <./p>
[wo] High mid back rounded tense vocoid with an on glide of ‘w’ occurs in the initial position
eg: [woppam] [woruma] [wooṭi]
[o] High mid back rounded tense vocoid occurs medial position of a word with length.
eg: [pōle] [tōran]
[O] average mid back rounded tense vocoid occurs medially with out length.
eg: [koṭi] [potti]
/u/, uu/ High back rounded vowel
/u/ [wu, uw, w, ∂ , wv, U, u]
[wu] High back rounded tense vocoid with an on glide of ‘w’ occurs word initially.
eg: [wu ma] [wūma] [wuppan]
[uw] High back rounded tense vocoid with an off glide of ‘w’ occurs word finally
eg: [paruw] [m̄aḻuw]
[ul] High back rounded vocoid without length is the middle syllable of a word.
eg: [perulki] [neRulka]
[∂] mid central unrounded vocoid occurs between vowels and consonant in word boundary with open juncture.
After any consonant and consonant clusters except /m/ kara in open juncture in final position
eg: [nāṭ∂/ /tūņ∂/
[wv] lower back unrounded vocoid occurs after the stops such as bilabial, dental, palatal and velar in Sanskrit words, after nasals such as bilabial, dental, after labial dental continuant, and after other fricatives except retroflexed fricatives.
[brwvhattu] [trwuptti] [grwvham]
[U] lower back rounded tense vocoid occurs after the initial consonant.
eg: [Kutti] [mUṭṭl]
[u] High back rounded tense vocoid occurs elsewhere.
eg: [kūman] [paRavūr]
Voiceless : /p/
Voiced : /b/n
Aspirated : /ph/
Bilabial voiceless stops
/p/ [P, P, P, P]
[P] Little voiced and lenis bilabial stop consonant occurs after nasal.
eg: [tumpa] [sāmpār]
[P] bilabial stop consonant with voice and lenis occurs intervocalically
eg: [apāyam] [upakāram]
[P] Voiceless and great tense bilabial stop consonant occurs elsewhere. This is, all consonant clusters except P (kara) occurs word medially after nasal.
eg: [appu], [tilrppu]
aspirated bilabial stop consonants.
/ph/ [ph, ph, Ph]
[ph] voiceless aspirated tense bilabial stop consonant occurs intervocalically and after nasal.
eg: [kapham] [samphavam]
[ph] voiceless aspirated tense bilabial stop consonant occurs word initially.
eg: [phalam] [phayam]
[Ph] voiceless aspirated tense bilabial stop consonant occurs elsewhere. That is in the consonant clusters not after the nasal.
eg: [garpham] [ārphaṭam]
voiced bilabial stop
/b/ [B, b]
[B] voiced and tense bilabial stop consonant occurs in the consonant clusters.
eg: [arBudam]
[b] voiced and lenis bilabial stop consonant occurs elsewhere. That is, initially and intervocalically
eg: [bandam] [bālan] [ṡabari]
Dental – Voiceless: /t/
Voiced: /d/
Aspirated: /th/
Alveolar: / /
Retroflex. Voiceless: /ṭ/
Voiced: /ḍ/
Aspirated: /th/
[ÉÉíí]
[E] Little voiced and lenis dental stop consonant occurs after nasal.
eg: /nontu/ [nonÉu]
/mantaarum/ [manÉaaram]
[É] Dental consonant with more voice and lenis occurs intervocalically and after ‘y’ kara.
eg: [aÉu] [paÉayunnu]
[í] Voiceless and tense dental stop consonant occurs initially.
[íaram] [írāņi]
[í] Voiceless and most tense dental stop consonant occurs elsewhere. That is in the consonant clusters not in after the nasals and ‘y’ Kara.
eg: [Kaíí i] [phakīan]
/th/ [th, Th]
[th] voiceless aspirated and tense dental stop consonant occurs intervocalically and after nasal.
eg: [Thāiu] [maThyam]
[í É ]
[í] Voiced tense and long dental stop contoid occurs in the consonant clusters.
eg: [maīaḷam]
[māriavam]
[É] Voiced and lenis dental stop contoid occurs elsewhere that is, in the initial position and intervocalically
eg: [Éaya] [uEayam]
[d t]
[d] Voiced and lenis alveolar stop contoid occurs after nasal
eg: [avande] [tandeṭam]
[t] Voiceless tense alveolar stop contoid occurs elsewhere. That is an intervocalically as identical elemental consonant cluster.
[attam] [patti]
Retroflex voiceless stop
[ T T]
[¶] Little voiced and lenis retroflex stop contoid occurs after nasals.
eg: [c e n a] [pan u]
[¶] retroflex stop contoid with more voice and lenis occurs intervocalically.
eg: [poi] [kua]
[T] Voiceless and most tense retroflex stop contoid occurs elsewhere. That is in the consonant clusters except (after) nasal.
eg: [peT Ti] [pōrTTr]
[h Ùh]
[h] Voiceless aspirated tense retroflex stop contoid occurs intervocalically and after nasals.
eg: [pāham]
[Ùh] Voiceless aspirated and most tense retroflex contoid occurs elsewhere. That is, in the consonant clusters not after naslas.
eg: [ŚāUhyam] [pratisUha]
Voiced retroflex stop
/d/ [.]
Voiced retroflex stop contoid with lenis with out length and tense with length occurs all the situations in the borrowed words from other language.
eg: [ōrḍar] [pīḍa]
Palatal Stop
Voiceless stop /c/
Voiced /j/
Aspirated /ch/
Palatal voiceless stop contoid
/c/ [c C C]
/c/ Voiced and lenis palatal stop (friction contoid occurs in middle of vowel and after nasal.
eg: [nenccu] [paccasara]
/C/ Voiceless and tense palatal stop (friction) contoid occurs elsewhere. That is, in the consonant clusters not in nasal.
[pacca], [ālcca] [mūrcca]
aspirated palatal stop consonant.
/ch/ [ch Ch]
[ch] Voiceless aspirated and tense palatal friction stop contoid occurs word initially.
eg: [chāya]
[ch] voiceless aspirated tense palatal friction stop contoid occurs in the consonant clusters.
eg: [acchan] [mūrchiccu]
Voiced palatal stop consonant
[J] [J j]
[J] voiced and tense palatal friction stop contoid occurs is the vowel clusters.
eg: [garjanam] [rājyam]
[j] voiced lenis palatal friction stop contoid occurs else where. That is before vowel is word initial position and intervocalically.
eg: [jāti] [vājan]
voiceless velar stop : |k| /p>
voiced : |g|
aspirated : |kh|
Voiceless velar stop contoid
|k| [k, k<, k, k<, K, K]
[k] little voiced and lenis velar stop contoid occurs after nasal. n
eg: [cunkam] [sankaṭam]
[k<] palatlised velar stop contoid with more voice and lenis occurs is high front vowels and after ‘y’ kara is the middle of a word.
eg: [varika] [arikil]
[k] velar stop contoid with oil palataliabias and it is similar to the above said allophone occurs between vowels and act after high front vowel.
eg: [pokunnu] [saukariyam]
[k<] voiceless and most tense palatalized velar stop contoid occurs is front vowels and consonant clusters which begins the ‘y’ kara is external sardhi.
eg: [ōṭik<k<o] [it should pronounced as ‘ykka’]
[venṭak<k<a]
[K] voiceless and tense velar stop contoid occurs word initially
eg: [karam] [kālam]
[K] voiceless and most tense velar stop contoid occurs elsewhere. That is its consonant clusters except [k] kara that comes after ‘y’kara and nasal.
eg: [takkam] [mukti] [tarkkam]
Aspirated velar stop contoid
[kh] [kh Kh Kh]
[Kh] Voiceless aspirated tense velar stop contoid occurs between vowels and after nasal.
eg: [nakham] [samkham]
[Kh] Voiceless aspirated tense velar stop contoid occurs word initially.
eg: [Kh] Voiceless aspirated tense velar stop contoid occurs elsewhere. That is consonant clusters not in nasal.
eg: [sakhyam] The pronunciation of visasham is
[dukham] considered as the allophone of ‘h’ kara.
Voiced velar stop consonant
[g] [G, g]
[G] Voiced and tense velar consonant occurs in consonant clusters.
eg: [SorGam] [phaGyam]
[g] voiced and lenis velar stop contoid occurs elsewhere that is in the initial position of a word and between vowels.
Bilabial nasal : |m|
Dental : |ṉ|
Alveolar : |n|
Retroflex : |ņ|
Palatal : |n̄|
Velar : |ṅ|
All nasals in Malayalam are generally voiced. Among them |m| occurs word initially, medially and finally. The nasal consonant |ṅ| does not occur without length (short) in anywhere. |n, n| are occur initially and |ņ| occur medially.
Bilabial nasal consonant
|m| [mh, M, m, m]
[mh] Voiceless bilabial nasal occurs before Velar fricative
eg: [bramhaņan] [subramhaņyan]
[M] bilabial nasal contoid which has more tense than the following two allophones occurs after alveolar flag in consonant cluster.
eg: [ōrma]
[m] labiodental nasal occurs before labiodental continuent.
eg: [samvavaņam]
[m] Bilabial nasal occurs elsewhere
eg: [maram] [ōmana]
Dental Nasal
|ṉ| [Ü ṉ ]
[Ü] more tense dental nasal contoid occurs after the alveolar flap.
eg: cērnnu – [cērÜÜu]
[n] less tense dental nasal contoid occurs elsewhere. That is with out length in the initial position and before homorganic stop and with length in between vowel.
[ṉalla] [vaņņa]
Alveolar nasal
|n| [nh, n]
[nh] voiceless alveolar nasal contoid occurs before Velar fricative
eg: [clnham] [vannhi]
[n] Voiced alveolar nasal contoid occurs elsewhere. That is with out length in the initial position and before homorganic stop and with length in bwteen vowels.
eg: [nām] [pana] [kani]
Retroflex nasal
|ņ| - retroflex nasal contoid occurs in between vowels in word medially and without length in consonant clusters in word finally.
eg: [kaņṭu] [aņņan]
Palatal nasal
[n̄] palatal nasal contoid occurs with out length in the initial position and before homorganic stop and with length in between vowels.
eg: [n̄āyar], [Van̄cci] [man̄n̄a]
Velar nasal
|ṅ| [‘<, ‘>, ‘]
[‘<] – tense pre velar nasalcontoid with clear palatalization it occurs in the names of plants and fruits except in the words where [ṅ] kara comes after the long low vowel |ā|.
eg: [muri’<ia] [tē’Lla] etc.
[‘<] Post velar nasal contoid. It occurs with length and tense after the lower back vowels and without length before homorganic stop.
eg:[ta’>>̄um] [po>̄>̄um]
[’] mid velar nasal contoid occurs elsewhere.
eg: [pen̄ṅa]
[ceṅnann̄ūr]
[vēn̄ṅūr]
Alveolar: | | |
Retroflex: |!|
Frictionless voice is the special phonetic feature of these two laterals.
Alveolar laterals
[l] alveolar lateral contoid occurs final position and in the consonant cluster with long or short difference in the middle position of vowels.
eg: [kāṭṭil], [kalpana]
[cila] [laatti]
Retroflex lateral
[ḷ] – retroflex lateral contoid occurs word final post and in consonant clusters. With long or short difference in the middle position of the vowels.
eg: [avaḷ] [keḷvi] [ḷōha]
Flapped Sounds
Denti-alveolar |r|
Alveolar |R|
Denti-alveolar Flap
[r] – palatalized voiced denti-alveolar flapped contoid occurs word initially, in between vowels in word medially in before ‘y’ kara, after [b, d, g]
eg: [rāman] [ara], [phārya]
[grāmam]
Alveolar flap
[R] Velarlized and voiced alveolar flap occurs between vowels, word finally, word initially, before ‘y’ kara consonants and after consonant except [b, d, g] [muRi] [avaR] [Rava] [Praņan]
Dental alveolar fricative |s|
Retroflex fricative |s̱|
Palatal fricative |ṣ|
Velar fricative |h|
The general feature of fricative is Voiceless Dental velar fricative.
|s̱| Voiceless denti-alveolar slit fricative with sibilant occurs with out length in initial position consonant clusters. And in the middle position of vowel in medially with short long difference.
eg: [sāri] [namaskāram]
Retroflex fricative
|s| Voiceless reflex and comparatively long and tense sibilant groove fricative occurs in consonant clusters and with short long difference in word medially.
eg: [manus̱an] [sāks̱i] [mas̱i]
Palatal fricative
|ṣ| Voiceless palatal sibilant slit fricative occurs before vowel in word initial position, consonant clusters with short long difference between vowles.
[ṣānta] [ṣramam] [praṣnam] [viṣappu]
Velar fricative
|h| [H, h]
[H] Voiceless Velar and very short fricative occurs word finally
eg: [namH]
[h] Velar on pharyngeal voiceless fricative occurs elsewhere. That is, before vowel initial position, consonant clusters between vowels in middle position.
eg: [hari] [sahāyam] [suhRa]
labiodental |v|
Retroflex |I|
Palatal |y|
Labiodental continuant
|v| [w, v]
[w] Voiced bilabial continuant occurs in consonant clusters after consonant except flap.
eg: [twagrōgam] [jwala]
[v] Voiced continuant occurs elsewhere. That is initial position, in consonant clusters where [w] bilabial continuant does not occur.
[Vara] [Sarvam] [tavi]
Detroflex continuant
[I̱] Voiced retroflex continuant occurs as short in between vowels in initially and consonant clusters.
eg: [maḻa] [āḻca]
Palatal continuant
[y] Voiced palatal continuant occurs a short in united and final position, medially in consonant clusters, with short and long difference in middle of vowels.
eg: [yātra] [poyka] [pāyal]
Prabodhachandran V. R 1980 Swana Vijnanam
State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram.
pp – 88-111.
Velayudhan S 1971 Vowel durations in Malayalam
An Acoustic Phonetic Study
The Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, TVM.
All vowels both short and long except |o| occurs initially medially and finally. Short |o| does not occur word finally medially short |e| and short |o| occur only in the first syllable.
A Malayalam word that begins with |b| on |c| may follows any five Vowels – i, e, a, o, u
eg: kiṭṭi keṭṭi cuṭṭi
If it begins with |y| follows only the vowels – a, o, u
eg: [yavam] [yōgam]
If it begins with |v| it may follows only a, e, i vowels
eg: [vannu] [vennu] [viRal]
All consonant except |ņṅ ḷḻ̱| occurs word initially. The initial occurrence of |n| and |ṣ| are very limited and the nasals |ṉ n̄ṅ| occur medially only with length in clusters.
Somesekharan Nair P. 1978 ‘Cochin Dialect of Malayalam’
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, TVM.
pp.60-61.
Prabodhachandran V. R. 1980 Swanaviynanam
State Institute of Languages
Nalanda, Trivandrum.
P.111
The morphophonemic changes are classified into five groups on the basis of the phonemes which occur in juxtaposition.
1. Vowel + Vowel
2. Vowel + Consonant
3. Consonant + Vowel
4. Consonant + Consonant
5. Consonant + Word juncture
The rules of morphophonemic changes are arranged according to the order of precedence. They are of three types.
1. The rules which operate only in internal sandhi (I).
2. The rules which operate only in external sandhi (E).
This can again be subdivided in to three.
(a) The rules which operate only in close juncture (E. C).
(b) The rules which operate only in open juncture (E. O).
(c) The rules which operate both in close and open juncture.
3. The rules which operate in both sandhis. (I and E).
Vowel + Vowel
2.6.1.1. V1+ V2 (V2) (This rule occurs only in close juncture).
eg: āyi + illa >āyilla ‘did not become’
vaņņa+atu>Vaņņatu ‘that which came’
2.6.1.2. i v i V (I & E)
e + > e + y +
a vv a vv
(As as external sandhi this rule operates only in open juncture)
eg: kutti + uṭe > kuṭṭiyuṭe ‘of chid’ (I)
ṉalla + āḷu > ṉallayāḷu ‘good person’ (E)
2.6.1.3. v1 + v1+ v2 > v1 v1 (E)
eg: oṉņē+ eṉ ṉu > oṉņēṉ ṉu ‘from the beginning’
Varū + illa > varūlla ‘will not come’
2.6.1.4. u + V (v) > u + v + V (V) (I & E)
eg: pu ḻ u + il > puḻuvil ‘on worm’ (I)
puḻu + aayi > puḻuvāyi ‘became worm’
Vowel + Consonant
2.6.2.1. V1 + c1 > V1 + c1 + c1 ( I & E)
(This rule operate only in close juncture)
eg: man̄n̄a + pūvu > man̄n̄a ppuUvu ‘Yellow flower’ (E)
puḻu + kaḷ > puḻukka ! ‘worms’ (I)
Consonant + Vowel
i ii
e y + v > ee (I & E)
eg: kuttir + uṭe > kuṭṭiṭe ‘of chid’ (I)
mōnRey + atu > mōnRetu ‘of son’ (E)
2.6.3.2. ay + V
vv > ē (I)
eg: ammay + uṭe > ammēṭe ‘of mother’
ānay + īṉ ṉu > ānēṉ ṉu ‘from elephant’
2.6.3.3. ( c ) vc + v(v) > (c) vccv (v) (I)
eg: kaņ + il > kaņņil ‘in eye’
kal + il > kallil ‘on stone’
kay + il > kayyil ‘in hand’
Consonant + Consonant
ḷ
+ṉ+ņņ (E)
ņ
eg: toḷ + nūRu > toņņuRu ‘ninety’
Kaņ + nīru > kaņņīru ‘tears’
eņ + nūRu > eņņūRu ‘eight hundred’
2.6.4.2. m Stop Stop
n Nasal > m M + Nasal (I & E)
ņ
M – homorganic nasal
Exception |ņ| + |ṉ| and |ņ| + |p|
eg: n̄am + kaḷ > n̄aṅṅaḷ ‘we (exl)’ (I)
cem + tāmara > centāmara ‘red lotus’ (E)
paḷ am + cākku > paḷan̄cākku ‘old sock’ (E)
pin + tirin̄n̄u > pintirin̄n̄u ‘retreated’ (E)
peņ+ kuṭṭi > penkuṭṭI ‘girl’ (E)
2.6.4.3. y + P PP
t > y + tt (E)
k kk
eg: kay + paṭam > kayppaṭam ‘palm’
kay + tōkku > kayttōkku ‘pistol’
pay + kuṭṭI > paykkuṭṭI ‘calf ’
l l
ḷ + c (c) > ḷ + cc l cc (E)
c = |p| |t| |c| and |k|
eg: nāl + patu > nālppatu ‘forty’
vāḷ + tala > avvḷttala ‘blade of a sword’
Consonant + Word Juncture
C1 > c1|c1 u before word juncture (I)
C1 = | R, n ņ l ḷ r |
Restriction when c is |n|, |ņ| or |l| |o| |ḷ| this rule operates only in words which end in - VVC.
eg: cōR > cōR | cōRu ‘cooked rice’
teen > tēn | tēnu ‘honey’
ṉār > ṉār | ṉāru ‘fibre’
cūl > cūl | cūlu ‘broom’
cvc > cvc | Cvccu (I)
c = | n ņ | ḷ y |
eg: pon > pon | ponnu ‘gold’
pen > peņ | peņnu ‘girl’
ṉel > ṉel | ṉellu ‘paddy’
kaḷ > kaḷ | kaḷḷu ‘toddy’
ney > ṉey | ṉeyyu ‘ghee’
Somasekharan Nair P 1979 Cochin Dialect of Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistics Assciation
of India, TVM.
Pp: 71-75.
Panikar G. K Ernad Dialect of Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistics Association
Of India, TVM.
9. Supra Segmental or Prosodic Aspects of Speech
Generally accepted method in the analysis of phonemes, the suprasegmental features in Malayalam are classified in to three headings. They are picth, juncture and terminals.
a) Pitch
Following are the four degrees of phonemic pitch levels.
1. |4| Extrahigh
2. |3| High
3. |2| Mid
4. |1| Low
eg: e2nRe kaņ3mani (This is ) my darling!
e2nRe kaņ2maņ2i my darling ?
enRe kan3maņ2i my darling…. (is so and so etc)
e2nRe kaņ3maņ4i my darling (Voc)
The three terminals, falling, rising and suspense occur with three principal types of utterances, declarative sentences, yes-no questions and vocatives and incomplete utterances marked by slight pause .
(eg: pitch level)
| | rising | | falling | | level.
c) Length (Quantity)
‘Quantity’ is a phonological term and is relevant to the whole syllable. This is to be clearly differentiated from the phonetic term ‘length’ which is applicable to specific parts of the phonetic syllable namely the relevant portion of the phonic data described in terms of appropriate vowel and consonant articulations. It has also been found to restrict the term ‘duration’ so as to refer only physical property of the relevant portion of the phonemic data measurable by means of instruments, in terms of units of time such as second or millisecond. The terms ‘long’ and ‘short’ are therefore, restricted to the phonetic level ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ which are, in fact, translations of ‘leghu’ and ‘guru’ respectively available in traditional Indian grammars and treatises on versification are used in discussions concerning the phonological level of analysis and description.
Heavy Syllables
A syllable for the nucleus of which a v̄ or ∂ or a diphthong is stated heavy.
eg: cv pō ‘go’
- c ∂ c pōkān ‘to go’
The full significance of the symbols V, ∂ and C is introduced just now will be made clear shortly. H would be sufficient for the time being to note that generally it is the consonant and vowel articulations that are usually allotted at the phonological level, to c-units and to v-or ∂-units respectively. The line over the symbols V and ∂ indicates that the units involved are long. As long units are marked thus, short ones are specially marked by the sign u only when necessary as in u/v or u/∂ where the units involved are either short or long.
Any syllable for whose nucleus a V or a ∂ is stated is also heavy provided.
1. This V or ∂ is closed by a (stated in the absolute final position and implying a bilabial nasal as in the following example.
- c ∂ m varum ‘will come’
or (ii) a cc implying any consonant cluster or other than |lk| as in ta-kar-ttu ‘destroyed’
cvc-c
2. a cc implying a homorganic consonant cluster as in
va-ruṉ ṉu ‘comes’
ka-kki ‘vomited’
cr-cc
ciṅ-ti ‘scattered’
cvc-c
3. a Cg implying a geminate consonant as in mu-Ru-kki ‘tightened’ cv-cg
To sum up, heavy syllables can be the following patterns.
i. (c) (c) v̱̄ ʌ c
∂ cc
cc
c∂
ii. (c) (c) v
∂ m #
iii. (c) (c) v cc
∂ ʌ cc
cg
As regards the quantity of a syllable for where nucleus a V or C ∂ is stated it is immaterial whether the complex interlude which follows its nucleus is stated as its own code plus the onset of the following syllable (as in | un-ti |) or as in the on set of the following syllable (as in | ka-kki |) syllable quantity which a property of the whole word cannot, obviously, be tied down to specific syllables. Often it depends on what fellows the given syllable. This is, therefore an added justification for the treatment of syllable quantity as a word prosody.
d) Stress (Word and Sentence) or Accent
When we speak the muscles that helping respiration and articulation, comparatively work hard for sometimes. That means, the speech parts are producing with a strength or stress one of the audible correlates of stress is loudness. Due to the loudness of a stressed phoneme, or word, the heaver can recognise a stressed and as unstressed are easily. The features such as the articulatory length, tenseness, excess air pressure etc are experienced simultaneously with stress.
The stress may be useful in communication in two ways.
1. Following the implication the emphasis that may happen in any parts of a sentence.
eg: 1. appuva madrā sil niṅnu vannatu
2. appu madrāsil ninnā vannatu
2. Following the system of phonology, the peculiarity that inevitably experienced in definite part of a speech.
This method is applicable in the case of other languages such as English, French etc.
In Malayalam stress has only are function that is emphasis.
Prabodhachandran V. R. 1998 Swanavijnanam
State Institute of Languages,
Thiruvananthapuram,
pp: 126 – 133.
Velayudhan S 1971 Vowel duration in Malayalam
An Acoustic Phonetic Study
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, Thiruvananthapuram.
Prabodhachandran V. R Malayalam Verbal Forms
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, Thiruvananthapuram.
pp: 52 – 53.
Juncture is the articulary relation between the segmental phonemes that comes in the first and end position of immediate words. Juncture may be close juncture and open juncture.
eg: |ānakkuṭṭi| in this word the juncture between the final |a| kara in |āna| and the initial |k| kara in kuṭṭi is experienced as close |aana kuṭṭiyāņu| in this word the juncture between the |a| kara and |k| kara is open.
Close junctures are other wise called – juncture and open juncture is called + juncture.
The transition from the initial speech sound to the coming speech sound is very clear in open juncture than in close juncture.
eg: |pūmtuki|
|pūtukil|
Assimilation doubling of stops in postposition of words etc may relevant in this close junctures.
eg: (1. a) pāvakkuṭṭikku koṭuttu (Close)
(1. b) pāva kuttikku koṭuttu (Open)
(2. a) rāma (Close) ‘This is man kutty
(2. b) rāman kuttiyāņu (Open) ‘Raman is boy’ (young)
In this sppech pairs the meaning difference is quite natural with the juncture difference (variation).
In this manner, the contrast made by the close and open junctures in language is fixed, they can consider as separate units of phoneme, it may transcribed with a plus sign (+) for open juncture and a minus sign (-) for close juncture.
eg: (1. a) aviṭe – ninnu+ pōkarutu ‘don’t stay there’.
(1. b) aviṭe + ninnu – pōkarudu ‘don’t go from there’.
In this close and open junctures which is happening first is the base (reason) for the meaning variation.
Prabodhachandran V. R 1980 Swanavijnanam
State Institute of Language,
TVM, Pp: 129- 130.
Intonation of Malayalam is simple in that the four pitch levels and three terminals combine giving three basic patterns of intonation. They are,
1. Falling intonation
2. Rising intonation
3. Suspense/Level Intonation
a) Falling Intonation
Falling intonation is used in simple phrases, declarative sentences and information questions introduced by question words.
eg: O2ru ka3aryam1 ‘One thing’
or2u kāryam pa2Ran̄n̄u1 ‘(He) said one thing’
e3ntu kaaryamā paR3an̄n̄atu1 What did (he) say?
2.12.2. Rising Intonation
Rising intonation is used in yes-no questions, exclamations and vocatives.
eg: r2āman van2no3o Did Raman come?
k2an̄ṭō4 ‘look !’
ra2amō4 ‘Raman (Voc)’
2.12.3. Suspense/Level Intonation
Suspense intonation is used when the first part of the utterance ends in a slight pause to be (or not) followed by the rest of the utterance.
eg: rāman vannu patṣe ‘Raman came but………’
Velayudhan S. 1971 ‘Vowel durations in Malayalam
an acoustic phonetic study’
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, TVM.
In a syllable there will be atleast one consonant and a vowel. By the combination of a consonant and a vowel. An aksara (script) is formed in Malayalam.
eg: p+a Pa
k+a Ka
Malayalam syllable structure may be expressed by the simple formula. (c) v (c).
The basic syllabification
1. Vowel, both long and short constitutes the nucleus of a syllable so there are as many number of syllables in a word as there are vowel.
2. The initial consonant or consonant clusters form the onset of the first syllable. Word final consonant forms the coda of the final syllable.
3. Medial consonant with or without length goes with the following syllable. If there are two or three consonants between vowels, the first consonant will act as the coda of the preceding syllable and the second (on second and third) consonant (s) will go with the following syllable as it onset.
eg: cū-lu ‘broom’
pḷā-vu jack tree
vas-tram cloth
a) Monosyllabic words
(c) vv (c)
eg: vv ī ‘this’
cvv tī ‘Fire’
cvvc mīn ‘fish’
b) Multi Syllabic Words
Initial Syllable
(c) (c) v (v) (c)
V o-ṭI ‘groin’
vv ē-lu ‘seven’
vc et-ra ‘how much’
cvv tē-ḷu ‘scorpion’
ccvv prā-vu ‘pigeon’
cvc man-tram ‘chanting’
cvvc pāt-ram ‘vessel’
ccvc prat-yēkam ‘special’
ccvvc prār-ttana ‘prayer’
Medial Syllable
(c) cv (v) (c)
eg: cvv a-pā-yam ‘danger’
ccv vay-dya-ru ‘physician’
cvc a-ḷiy-an ‘brother in law
ccvc paiy-an ‘brother in law’
ccvc pan-tran̄-ṭu ‘twelve’
Final Syllable
cv (v) (c)
eg: cv in̄-ci ‘ginger
cvc kaṭam ‘debt’
cvvc ta-rām ‘can give’
ccv man-tri ‘minister’
Disyllabic words fall under two groups.
(a) The words which have prominence for the first syllable
(b) The words which have prominence for the second syllable.
eg: (c)vc vc a-kam ‘inside’
ka-lam ‘pot’
(c)vvcvc ā-lam ‘depth’
kā-lam ‘time’
(c)vvcvvc ā-ṭām ‘condance’
pā-ṭām ‘con sing’
(c)vvcv ū-ti ‘blew’
pā-ṭi ‘sang’
(c)vcvvc i-nām ‘prize’
va-vām ‘can come’
(c)vcr l-ti ‘blow’
va-ḷa ‘bangle’
(c)vc vv a-mmuu personal name (vco)
ma-n̄ī personal name (voc)
(c)vvcvv aa-nii personal name (voc)
cē-ccii eldersister (voc)
Trisyllabic words
eg: sā-mā-nam ‘Substance’
ti-mi-ram ‘cateract’
a-ru-ma pet
pi-n̄n̄ā-n̄am plate
ta-mā-ŗa joke
Quadrisyllabic Words
eg: ā-rā-ta-na worship
sa-mā-tā-nam peace
pa-ṭi-n̄n̄ā-Ru west
In a syllable, both onset (o) and coda (c) are optionals and nucleus (N) is obligatory
S= (o) N(c)
Any one of the vowels, short or long, constitutes the nucleus of a syllable.
N= V(v)
The onset of the initial syllable may be any one of the word initial consonant, or a two consonant cluster.
C= (c) (c)
Any one of the consonants (with or without length) or the following consonant cluster an form the onset of a medial syllable.
|py|, |tr|, |ty|, |dy|, |ky|, |ry|, |sp| and |st|
Anyone of the consonants which can occur in the medial position can form the onset of a non-final syllable.
The following consonants can form the coda of the initial and medial syllables.
|p| |b| |t| |d| |ṭ| |ḍ| |j| |k| |g| |m| |ṉ| |n| |ņ| |n̄| |ṅ| |l| |ḷ| |ḻ| |r| |s| |ṣ| |ŗ| and |y|
Somasekharan Nair P Cohin Dialect of Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India. TVM.
pp-26-31.
Probodhachandran V. R. 1986 Swanavijnanam
State institute of Languages
TVM.
pp:117-125.
15. Vowel Harmony and Consonant Harmony
Harmonic sequence of vowels is one of the main characteristics of the Dravidian family of languages. the law of harmonic sequence of vowels is that a given vowel occurring in one syllable of a word requires a vowel of the same class in the following syllables of the same word which change their vowels accordingly.
The traces of the existence of the law could easily be pointed out in Malayalam also.
eg: put+ari – puttiri
enakku > enikku > iṅikku
Prof. A. R. has pointed out the role of the law of harmonic sequence of vowels in the formation of Malayalam present tense form.
eg:kāņindru > kāņunnu. Here the change ‘i’ in to ‘u’ is due to the influence of the final ‘u’.
Ulahannan Mappila 1969 Language and Literature
Linguistics and Dravidian Philology
Kerala digest press.
pp: 199-200.
This branch of philology deals with word building u, forms and formation of words it discuss the method ob building words, the function and purpose of the various elements constituting a word.
Words are divided into
(1) vācaka and
(2) dyōtaka,
The second contains words of relation which have no individual meaning. The first is divided into na&ma (noun) kṛti (verb) and bhēdaka (qualifying word) and the second into avgaya and nipāta. their difference is that the first is the derivative of vācaka, while the second is dyōtaka in origin itself.
The nāmadhikāra the gender and number suffixes are described and their origin looked into.
Combinations of sounds result in meaningful utterance.
Sabdam is meaning conbination ofsounds. This is also the prakruti.
Combination os sounds giving a definite meaning is sabdam. What is referred to as prakruti is sabdam itself. Sabdam that is fit for use with or without modifications is padam (word).
eg: sabdam – karipu ‘sugarcane’
ceru ‘small’
tar ‘to give’
padam (word) – karimpu ‘sugarcane’
ceruppam (small ness)
tarunnu ‘gives’
tarum ‘will give’
Subdas one of two types namely vaacakam and dyootakam of these vaacakam denotes matter action and quality dyootakam denotes relationships. In other words vaacakam is that with literal meaning of its own that which just indicates the relationship between two meanings (ie meaningful units) is dyootakam. Utterances like kutam ‘Jar’ viḷakku (laap) lrlkkunnu ‘sits’ etc convey to us independent meanings. They are vaacakas. Utterances like enkil ‘if’ cchee ‘ugh’ and oo ‘oh’ do not convey such independent meanings. They are meaningful only in conbination with other ulterances. Such subdas are dyootakas.
In vaacakam there are nouns, verbs and adjectives. Nouns denote matter or objects. Verbs denote action and adjectives denote qualities. Everything under the univese comes under any of these. Thus on the basis of the meanings involved vaccakam full under the three groups, namely noun, verb and adjective.
eg: Noun:
manuṣyan ‘man’
maram ‘tree’
veḷḷam ‘water’
Verb:
Karutta ‘black’
sundaram ‘beantiful’
kilavan ‘aged man’
dyootakam does not denote anything by itself. It just teels about the relationship, as does cases etc. dyootakam is of two types. nipaatam and avyayam. The nipaatam is dyootakam by origin. the avyayam is formed from vaacakam by elision and nonusage of case markers thus losing the vaacaka quality nipaatam.
eg: rāmanam kriṣņanum miṭukkan mārākunnu ‘Rama and Krishna are brilliant’.
In this sentence ‘um’ is a nipaatam. It does not donote a substence action or quality as does raaman, kriṣņan and miṭukkan. It just gives a sense of collectiveness by its combination with raaman and kriṣnan. Because of ‘um’ we get the idea that they share the quality of mitukku ‘brilliance’. So um is a dyootakam. There is no reason to assume that it was originally a vaacakam. It may be taken as dyootakam by origin in the sense of addition avyayam.
eg: 1. rāvaņan enna raaksasan ‘the rāḳṣasa (demon) called Ravanan.
2. Mala peytilla ; enkilum tanuppuņṭu ‘it has not rained yet it is cool.
The enna and enkilum in these sentences do not give any independent meaning as rāvaņan, rākṣasan mala, peytu, illa taņuppu and uņṭu (has)
(Ravanan) (demon) (rain) (rained) (no) (chillness)
They just indicate the sameness in the sense conveyed by Ravana and Raksasa, and the difference between not having rain and being cool as conveyed through maThey just indicate the sameness in the sense conveyed by Ravana and Raksasa, and the difference between not having rain and being cool as conveyed through mala peytilla and taņuppuņṭu. the enna is a relative participle of the root ‘en’ as in forms like ‘ceyta’ (which was done) keṭṭa (which was heard) etc. Forms like ‘ennān’ (thus he) and ‘eņņal’ (thus she) support this. However, enna does not indicate clearly a verb as in avan ceyta teṛṛu (the mistake he did). So it cannot be taken as relative paticiple. Same is the case with ‘enkilum’. Its origin may be traced as ‘en’, but it does not denote an action as in ceykil (if did) and varukil (if came). Hence it cannot be included under relative participles and belongs to the goup avyayam.
Dyootakam can be divided into three, namely gati (preposition), ghaṭakam (conjunction) and vyākṣeepakam (interjection). This division is on the basis of their functioning gati (preposition)- Gatis are these dyootakas which joining with a case modifies meaning.
eg: koņṭu (with), ninnu (from) vaccu (in) ūṭe (through) etc.
vaṭikoņṭu aṭiccu ‘beat with stick’
‘Koņtu’ combined with ‘vaṭi’ conveys the sense that ‘vaṭi’ is instrumental for the act of atiṭ (beating). So it is ‘gati’ ghaṭakam. Ghaṭaka are those which connect the meaning of two sentences.
eg: In the sentence ‘rāmanṚcyum kriṣņaņReyum katha (The story of Rama and Krishna) the nipaatam ‘um’ combines raama and Krishna as in the sentence ‘rāmaḳriṣņanmārụṭe kathakal (stories of Rama and Krishna). In the sentence rāmanReyoo KrisnaņReyoo Katha’ (the story of Ram or Krishna) the ‘ō’ indicates either of them. Since ‘um’ and ‘ō’ added to a word indicate addition and separation respectively, they are ghatakas.
Vyaakseepakam (interjection)- are those which by themselves indicate the sense behind the sentence forum.
eg: ‘uvvu’ (yes) ayyō (oh!) etc.
Utterances of this type give independent meanings.
‘Kēvalam’ (Simple)
Dyōtakas that provide special meanings otherthen these coming under gati, ghatakam and vyākṣēpakam are kēvalam.
eg: ‘vāman vannūō’ (Did Rama come?)
The nipaatam ‘ō’ gives the sense of interrogation ‘risvavan tanne saranam’ (God himself is refuge).
The ‘tanne’ here indicates affirmation. Being an alternant of the pronoun ‘tan’, it is an avyayam.
Rajasajavarma A. R 1999 Kērala pēninuyam
Translation International school of
Dr. C. J. Roy Dravidian Linguistics
Trivandrum.
pp: 93 – 99.
The classification of words into Noun, verb, adjective etc has as its basis the meaning. because of this, the same utterance may come under different grammatical grouos, as in the word nal (good).
nal + āṛ = nallār (women)
nal + uu = nalluu (be good)
Nouns change their forms according to case, verbs change their forms according to Tense. The changes are in different directions. In bhēdakas (adjective/qualifier, modifier) the change is slight and is as in verbs. For instance, ceru (small) may be used as such in forms like ceṛu-payaru (green gram). If there is a change in its form it will be as ceṛiya, corresponding to the change in the verb māṛuka (to change) to its Relative participle form ‘māṛiya’ (changes).
It was stated that there are three types of vācakam. Among these, verbs are maximum in number. Nouns and Adjectives come next, nipaatam is just two or three, what remains are the avyayas.
Sarranāmas (pronouns) are nouns used to denote all objects sungly or as groups. They come under the category of Noun and need not be treated as a separate class.
The four types of words namely Nouns, Verb, Adjectives and nipaatam can be further classified. Nouns are of three types, namely dravya nāman (nouns denoting objects) and Kriyā nāman (Nouns denoting action).
eg: dravyanāmam
āna (elephant), kutira (horse) rāman (Rama) etc.
guņanāmam
alaku (beauty) miṭukku (cleverness) nanma (goodness)
bhēdakam denotes the qualities available in other objects while, guņanaamams denotes the qualities in themselves. (the state of being the qualities).
Kṛiyanaamam:
paṭhippu (education) kaṣI (play) varavu (will me) urakkam (sleep).
Dravyanaamam can be further divided into four groups: samjnaanamam (personal noun) saamaanya naamam (General noun) saṛvanāman (pronoun) and mēyanāmam (neutral noun) samjņaa naamam is that which denotes a name, as in Rama Krishna, etc. That which denotes a group is sāmaanyanāmam, as in manuṣyan (man) mṛugam (animal) maram (tree). The trait of a group is as follows:
Noun denoting all is saṛvanāmam (pronoun) as in ellaa (all) okka (all) maṛṛu (the other).
Mēya (unanimate) nāmam is one, the identity of which cannot be decided, as in veḷḷam (water) maņņu (soil), svaṛņam (gold) ākāŗam (sky) vāyu (air).
Among these the pronouns are few in number. They are listed below.
1. en - First person (I)
2. nin - Second person (you)
3. a
4. i cuṭṭe luttu
5. (u) or
6. (oru) vivēcake saṛvanāmam. (Demonstrative pronoun)
7. e
8. yaa vyapēkṣakam (expectation)
9. ee
10. āṛ cōdya saṛvanāmam (interrogative pronouns)
11. ent
12. cila
13. Pala nānā saṛvanāmam (multiple pronouns)
14. inna - nirdisṭavāci (specification)
15. ellā - sarḷvavāci (generalisation)
16. tan - svavāci (indication of self)
17. mikka - amsḷavāci (indication of part)
18. marḷrḷu - anyārthakam (indication of others)
19. valla - anāsthāvāci (disinterested)
Raja Raja Varma A. R 1999 Kerala Paninuyam
(Translated by Dr. C. Y. Roy) International School of
Dravidian Linguistics
Trivandrum, Kerala
Pp: 97 – 100.
Number is a part in an utterance, which indicates whether on object we talk about, is one, or more than one. In Sanskrit there are three numbers namely ‘eeka’ (singular) ‘dvi’ (double and ‘babu’ (multiple). In Dravidian there is only eeka vacanam and bahu vacanam, denoting one and more than one respectively.
Singular is the Base, in other words there is no separate suffix for singularity.
eg: ‘Rama’, ‘Sita’, ‘kātḷu’ (forest)
Plural is of three types: Gender Plural, Non Gender Plural and Honorific Plural. The same utterance may have more than one of these. That denoting the plurality of either masculine or feminine is Gender Plural that denoting the plurality of both masculine and feminine is Non Gender Plural and that which denotes the respect given to an individual is Honorific Plural.
The plurality of masculine and feminine is indicated by the Non Gender suffix ‘ar’, as in,
eg: mitḷukkan – mitḷukkattimār
miṭukkatti - miṭukkattimār mitukkar (clever ones)
vēlakkāran – vēlakkāranmār
vēlakkāratti – vēlakkārattimār veelakkaar (servants)
The Gender suffix to denote the plurality, of either man or woman is generally ‘maar’.
eg: rāman – rāmanmār (Ramans)
nampūri – nampūrimār (Brahmins)
amma – ammamār (mothers)
The plurality of Neuter objects is indicated by the suffix ‘kal’.
eg: mala – malakal (hills)
aana – aanakal (elephants)
The reason for adding the suffix ‘kal’, as in ‘uņņikal’ (small children), kuṭṭikal (children). Vēlakkārattikal (women servants) is the disrespect towards them owing to their incomplete development of animate qualities, and as an indication of the consequent Neuter aspect in them. The three plural suffixes cited above can indicate respect.
eg: bhaṭṭan - bhaṭṭar (respectable Brahmin)
nī - niņņal (respectable you)
rājāva – rājākal, rājākkanmār (respectable kings)
For pronouns like ‘a’, ‘i’ and ‘e’ the plural suffix is ‘a’.
eg: a + a = ava (those)
i + a = iva (these)
e + a = eva (which)
cila = some
pala = many
When the numbers suffix is added, there will be the following changes:
1. When the suffix ‘aṛ’ is followed by the suffix kaḷ, the ṛ of aṛwas lost in olden days, as in
siṣyaṛkal - sisyakaḷ and bhaṭṭarkal - bhaṭṭakaḷ.
2. Words like peņņal (sister) and āņņala (brother) are singular, but are special forms using plural number. When their plurality has to be indicated, the suffix ‘maar’ is added to them, as in peņņalamaar (brothers).
3. When the sound preceding kaḷ is labial, the k of kal geminates, as in bhātākkal (brothers) rājākkal (kings), gurukkal (teacher) pūkkaḷ (flowers) gōkkal (cows).
4. Where there are qualifies denoting numerals, plural suffixes need not be added to Neuter Nouns.
eg: pattu rūpa (ten rupees)
eṭṭu dikku (eight directions)
āgiram tēņņā (thousand coconuts)
Forms like ‘pattu’ rūpakal, āyiram tēņņakal etc do not suit the nature of the language. If the forms are not the Neuter category, plural markers are added as in nālubrāhmaņar (four Brahmins) an̄cu strīkaḷ(five women) etc. In the Neuter gender also there are instances with plural suffix added when individuals are referred to separately, as in ‘samgham cakṛam gadaa pankajamiva vilasum naalu tṛukkaikaḷōtum’ (with the four hands graces with conch shell, wheel, club and lotus). In Neuter Nouns itself there is difference in this connection between words denoting animals devout of senses etc and lifeless objects like stone. For living objects plural suffix may or may not be added as in,
Pattu paṣu/pattu paṣukkal (ten cows)
Aayiṛam tēnicca/āyiram tēnīccakal (thousand honey bees)
But addition of plural suffix to non-living things, as in pattu kallukal, (ten stones), nūṛu nūlukal (hundred threads) do not suit the nature of the language.
Rajasya Varma A. R 1999 Kērala Pānineyam
Internation School of
Dravidian Linguistics
Trivandrum
Pp: 117 – 124.
Ezhatchan K. N 1975 The History of the
Grammatical theories
In Malayalam –
Dravidian Linguistic Association,
Trivandrum.
Pp: 331 – 332.
Gender in language is the same as the universally known divisions of masculine, feminine and Neuter. In languages like Sanskrit there is no definite rule regarding gender. The gender system in Malayalam is quite logical with meaning as its criterion. Even animals are neuter in Malayalam. The logic behind it is that gender distinction is relevant in those with the sense of propriety only. Animals are devoid of it and so the masculine – feminine difference in them is irrelevant.
Gender suffix in added mainly to those Nouns ending in [a] Even in such cases in palatal [a] it need not be added except for showing respect, as in tantayān (tanta-father) and taḷḷayaal (taḷḷa-mother). Addition of gender suffix be Nouns other than [a-] ending will be benifical otherwise, like case in pronunciation. The masculine gender suffix ‘an’ added to vakkīl lawyer and tampurāk (lord) in vakkīlanmār (lawyers) and tampurākkanmār (lords) are examples.
The rule regarding gender suffix is given in simple nouns (nouns other than pronouns), the masculine suffix is [an] feminine suffix is [i] and the neuter suffix is [am] as in
Masculine : kēman (strong man)
kaḷḷan (male thief)
kumāran (young man)
Feminine : kēmi (strong woman)
kaḷḷi (female thief)
kumāri (young woman)
Neuter : kēmam (strength)
kaḷḷam (theft)
In pronouns, the masculine gender suffix is [an] feminine is [aḷ] and Neuter is [tu] as in
eg: [avan] that man, [avaḷ] that woman [atu] that thing [Ivan] this man, [ivaḷ] this women [itu] this thing.
In the regular masculine and feminine also, the suffixes are [an] and [aḷ] as in
Makan ‘son’
makaḷ daughter
In combination with predicates an and aḷ become aan and āḷ. Neuter remains as tu.
eg: vannān ‘he came’
vannāḷ ‘she came’
vannitu ‘it came’
ān and āḷ can be added to masculine and feminine Nouns to indicate respect. Adding the suffix aar can indicate further respect.
eg: tantayān, tantayār ‘father’
taḷḷayaal, taḷḷayār ‘mother’
svāmiyār ‘sage’
vādhyaar ‘teacher’
In certain instances there is [atti] as in [kaaran] and [kāratti]
Palatalisation also may occur as in taticci (fat woman) for taṭiyan (fatman)
‘āṭṭi’ has come from the word meaning ‘she who rules’.
In some cases the feminine gender suffix is ‘tti’ as in
paņikāran – panikkāratti (worker woman)
tayrukāran – tayyukāratti (curd selling woman)
The ‘tti’ will change to cci, due be displacement of t by c. If the preceding sound is palatal, as in
eg: taṭiyan - taṭicci (fat woman)
maṭiyan - maṭicci (lazy woman)
The āṭṭI found in forms like tampurāṭṭI also is from ‘tti’. āḷ means to rule. In āḷ + tti, the tt is displayed by t, thus giving the form āṭṭi + ṭṭi. The ḷ is further displaced by ṭ thus giving the form āṭṭi.
The neuter suffix ‘am’ following the universal division into man and woman, we get the masculine and feminine genders. Those not coming under these are grouped as Neuter. This means those with no genders are Neuter. It is not necessary to add a gender suffix to something that does not have gender strictly speaking even in masculine and feminine, gender suffixes are not needed if the gender is known otherwise. Forms like āņ(male) and peņ (female) are example.
Thus, since a Neuter suffix [am] is unnecessary, the [am] in neuter Nouns like maram (tree), paalam (bridge) and kaṭam (deḅt) may be considered as stem suffix and not as a gender suffix, according to Dr. Caldwell.
Absence of ‘am’ in Accusative and instrumental forms like ‘marattil’ (in tree) and marattaal (by tree) is because it is not a gender marker. In masculine and feminine forms the gender markers are followed by case markers as in ‘raamane-rāmanāl (Rama-by Rama), makaḷe-makaḷāl (daughter-by daughter) etc. There is no reason to believe that the case is different in Neuter only.
About the origin of the gender suffixes- it is ‘auņ’ (he) itself that has changed into the masculine gender marker ‘an’. The proto Dravidian form ‘āņ’ (he) charged to ‘an’, the ‘aa’ is substituted by ‘a’ and ņ is substituted by ‘ņ’. In Tamil and Malayalam the form ‘aan’ without shortening of aa is found as in ‘āṣān’ (teacher) ‘vadhyaan’ (teacher) etc. In predicate it is always the long forms as in ‘ceytaan’ (he did) and ‘ceytaal’ (she did). So also the word form ‘āḷ’ (person) changed into feminine gender marker ‘aḷ’. Though ‘āḷ’ is presently common term for both men and women there is reason to assume that originally it denoted only woman. There are forms with ‘aaḷ’ added to words denoting women as in ‘kamaniyāḷ’ (attractive woman) sundariyaal (beautiful woman), but no words denoting man have ‘aaḷ’ added to them. The ‘tu’ which in Tamil means ‘experiencing’ must have become the Neuter suffix. Being in capable of doing anything by itself and experiencing the effect of whatever the animates do is the nature of all Neuter objects. So the ‘tu’ which conveys the sense of experiencing is appropriate as Neuter under maker. The feminine gender marker ‘i’ is possibly from Sanskrit. The Feminine Gender marker ‘ī’ found in Sanskrit forms like ‘kaṛṭrii’ and ‘manasviņī’ changed to ‘i’ in Malayalam. Though ‘i’ is found in native forms like ‘miṭukki’ (celver woman), kaḷḷi (woman thief) it is more used in Sanskrit.
An, aḷ and tu are number suffixes in addition to being gender suffixes. There is no other suffix to indicate singularity.
eg: kēman – kēmanmār
makaḷ - makaḷar
While ‘an’ is common for Nouns and pronouns al and tu are confined to pronouns. aḷ is found in a single Noun ‘makal’ (daughter), ‘tu’ is not available even to this extent. In Nouns the Gender suffixes are an, i / tti, and am respectively, ‘an’, ‘al’ and ‘tu’ are pronouns. ‘ar’ is the plural marker for both ‘an’ and ‘aḷ’. for neuter ‘tu’, the plural marker is ‘a’.
Thus,
An - masculine singular suffix
aḷ - Feminine singular suffix
tu - Neuter singular suffix
aṛ - masculine and Feminine plural suffix
a - Neuter plural suffix
Nowadays usages like atukḷ and itukaḷ have become common. As such usages with separate Gender and Number markers are possible with pronouns as in masculine and Feminine forms like ‘kēmanmāṛ’ (smartmen) and ‘keemimaar’ (smart women).
A. R. Raja Raja Varma Kerala Paaniniyam
Translation 1999 International School of
Dr. C. J. Roy Dravidian Linguistics
Trivandrum.
Pp: 109 – 116.
Masculine
{-an} / α – n α – ān α - ø α – an / α – n occurs after vv ending stems.
eg: coo + n Ezhava (a caste)
moon + n ‘son’
α – aan occurs after | tampur - |, |taṭṭ - |, |karuv - |, |pāpp - |, |maņņ -|, |mār - | and |vidv - |
eg: tampur + aan ‘a member of royal family’
taṭṭ + ān ‘gold smith’
karuv + ān ‘blacksmith’
pāpp + aan ‘mahout’
maņņ + aan ‘washer man’
mār + ān ‘a caste’
vidv + ān ‘scholar’
α - ø occurs after | nampyār -| |nāyar -|, and after all |l| ending stems except |taṭi -| and |ani -|
eg: nampyār + ø ‘a man of Nambiar caste’
nāyar + ø ‘a man of nair caste’
caṅṅāti + ø friend
α – an occurs else where
eg: taṭi + an > taṭiyan ‘fat man’
ani + an > aniyan ‘younger brother’
Feminine
{-atti}| α - aḷ α - ḷ α – tti α – cci α –icci α - āṭṭi α –aatti α i α – ni α – atti |
α -aḷ occurs after | mak -| and demonstratives of the shape Vv.
eg: mak + aḷ ‘daughter’
av + aḷ she
iv + aḷ she
α -ḷ occurs after |moo-| the alternant of |mak -|
eg: moo + ḷ ‘daughter’
α –tti occurs after |cool-| the alternant of |cōv -|
eg: cō + tti ‘Ezhava woman’
α – cci occurs after |I| and |a| ending stems. After p|maṭi -| it is in free variation with |-atti|
eg: ās̄āri + cci ‘carpenter woman’
māppiḷa + cci ‘Christian woman’
maṭi + cci ~ maṭiyatti ‘lazy woman’
α – cci occurs after |nampyār - | and |naayar -|
eg: nampyār + icci ‘Nambiar woman’
nāyār + icci ‘Nair woman’
α - aaṭṭI occurs after |taṭṭ-|, |karuv-| and |muņņ|
eg: taṭṭ + ātti ‘Goldsmith woman’
karuv + ātti ‘Blacksmith woman’
maņņ + ātti ‘Washer woman’
α – i occurs after |sakoutar-|, |KoRR-|, kaḷḷ-|
It also occurs after |poṭṭ-|, |kūn-|, |maņṭ-| and
|kaņakk-| in free variation with |-atti|
eg: sakōtar + i ‘sister’
koRR + i ‘she goat’
kaḷḷ + i thief (fem)
poṭṭ + i ~ poṭṭ + atti ‘deaf woman’
kūn + i ~ kūn + atti ‘hunch backed woman’
maņṭ + i ~ maņṭ + atti ‘foolish woman’
kaņakk + i ~ kaņakk + atti ‘woman of kanaka caste’
α - ņI occurs after |gerppa-|
eg: gerppa + ņi ‘pregnant woman’
α – atti occurs elsewhere.
eg: cēṭ + atti ‘elder sister’
kurupp + atti ‘woman of kurupp ~ caste’
Link Morph
{-in-} | α – in -|
α - in – occurs before case markers
eg: ava + RR + in + e them (All)
Somasekhasan Nair P 1979 Cochin Dialect of Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistics Association
of India, Trivandrum.
Pp: 122-124.
Vibhakti is the term given to the suffixes that are added to Nouns indicate their relationship with other words. There are seven vibhaktis. Sanskrit grammarians have termed them as prathama (first) dvitiiya (second) tṛutīya (third) caturtthi (fourth) pancami (fifth) sasthi (sixth) and saptami (seventh). This practice is followed in other Malayalam grammars.
Prathama means it duitiiya ‘of it’ and ‘to it’. tṛutiiya means due to and through caturthi si ‘because’ and ‘through’. Pan̄cami includes ‘by’ and ‘than’ saṣthi ‘from and saptami ‘in’, ‘with in’.
The cases in Malayalam, in contrast to these, are given below.
Case Suffix Example(Malayalam) Example
First Base atu tat
Second e atine tat
ōṭu atinōṭu
Third heetu atuheetuvaayi
Aayi atai
koņṭu atukoņṭu teena
āl atināl
ōt atinōṭu
ūṭe atilūṭe
Fourth āyikkoņṭu atināyikkoņṭu tasmai
Fifth ilninnu atilninnu
Kalninnu atinkal ninnu
in pōkke atinpōkke
kāḷ atinekkāl
hētuvāyiṭṭu atu hētuvāyiṭṭu tasmaat
kku-u atinu
Sixth uṭe - ṭe atinuṭe - atiņre
ilvaccu atilvaccu tasya
Seventh il atil
inkal atinkal tasmin
vcṩayamāyi atu viṣayamāyi
1. The first case is called nirddeeṡika (Nominative) it does not have any suffix added to it ie., the base itself is the nominative case it does notes the subject. The name nirddeeṡika suggests that the case occurs where a noun is just suggested also.
eg: subject
rāman kāṭṭil tāmasicu (Rama lived in Forest)
rāman rāvaņane konnu (Rama killed Ravana)
As suggesting a Noun.
daŗarathan enna rājāvu (the king called Dasaratha)
simham oru mṛugam ākunnu (lion is an animal)
2. The case pṛatigrāhika (accusative) denotes object. its suffix is ‘e’.
eg: rāman kṛuṣņane aṭiccu (Rama beat Krishna)
kṛuṣņan rāmane piṭiccu (Krishna caught Rama)
3. Samyōjika (sociative) has sāḳsi (one associated with the action) as its meaning. the suffix is ‘ōṭu’
eg: ṣivan saktiyōṭu cēṛunnu (siva joined with sakthi)
4. uddēsika (Dative) has ‘pertaining to’, as its meaning. Its suffix is ‘kku’ or just ‘u’ the ‘kk’ geeting lost.
eg: avaḷkku patṛanuņṭāyi (son was born to her)
avanu puṭṛan uņtāyi (son was born to him)
5. Prayōjika (Instrumental) has its meaning heetu (that with which) its suffix is ‘aal’.
eg: bhāgyattal āgraham sādhiccu (The desire was accomplished by luck).
6. Sambandhika (Genitive) has ones own, or possession, as its meaning. The suffix is uṭe.
eg: jānakiyuṭe pustakam (The book of Janaki)
7. ādhārika (Locative) has location as its meaning. il and kal are its suffixes. There is slight difference in their usage.
eg: mettayil kiṭakkunnu (lying on the mattress)
paṭikkal nilkkunnu (standing near the gate)
Since the number of cases is seven, the Sanskrit terms prathama, dvitīya etc also can in a way be used. But it has to be constantly remembered that in Malayalam each case has as its meaning only a part of the meanings the cases have in Sanskrit.
And now, about the way in which case suffixes occur.
To get the forms to which case marker can be added, the base should have ‘in’ added to it if the base ends in a consonant.
Examples:
Base Stem Suffix Resultant form
rājavu + in = rāyāvin + e = rājāvine (king – accusative)
rājāvu + in = rāyāvin + āl = rājāvināl (by the king)
manass + in = manassin + ōṭu = manassinōṭu (to the mind)
kaņ + in = kaņņin + u = kaņninu (to the eye)
āņ + in = āņin + ṭe = āņinṛe (of the male)
This leak morph occurs in Dative and Genitive regularly. In others it is optional, as in
Accusative – rāyāvine, rājāve (king)
Instrumental – rājāvināl, rājaavāl (by king)
Sociative - rājāvinōṭu, rājāvōṭu (to king)
Dative – rājāvinu (to king)
Genitive - rājāvinṛe (of king)
The link morph ‘in’ is added to connect the base with the suffix, and is not needed in
the locative ‘il’
Examples:
rājāvil (in the king)
manasil (in the mind)
kaņņil (in the eye)
āņil (in the male)
For ‘kal’, either addition of ‘in’ or germination is needed.
In consonant ending animate nouns the suffix an, when available, will act as a link morph. In other instances ‘in’ has to be added. If the nouns are inanimate the ‘k’ of ‘kal’ has to be geminated as ‘kkal’. That is, an animate nkal and in animate ‘kkal’ will be the form; not just ‘kal’.
Examples:
rāman - rāmankal (in Rama)
guru - guruvinkal (in teacher)
lakṣmi - lakṣmiyinkal (in lakshmi)
bhaarya - bhāryayinkal (in wife)
kara - karaykkal (in shore)
paṭi - paṭiykkal (near the gate)
‘in’ is mostly used in animates.
In spite of the addition or non-addition of ‘in’ the ‘t’ and ‘r’ of the Noun have to be geminated suitably.
Examples:
āṛu (river) - āṛṛil, āṛṛinṛe, āṛinṛe
cōrụ (cooked rice) - cōṛṛil, cōṛil, cōṛinṛe
tōṭu (brook) - tōṭṭil, tōṭṭinṛe, tōṭinṛe
nāṭu (native place) - nāṭouṭu, nāṭṭōṭu, nātinṛe, nāṭṭnṛe
There are several Nouns that end in ‘in’ due to the addition of the gender suffix ‘an’ or link morph ‘in’. They are referred to as n ending. In them the ‘u’ of ‘kku’ will be the dative suffix and ‘uṭe’ or ‘ṭe’ will be the genitive suffix. The elision of ‘uṭe’ to ṭe is optional while that of ‘kku’ to ‘u’ is obligatory.
Examples:
rāman + kku - rāman + u - rāmanu, rāmannu (to Rama)
marattin + kku - marattin + u - marattinnu, marattiņnu (to tree)
rāman + uṭe - rāmanute, rāmanṭe, rāmanṛe (of Rama)
marattin + uṭe - marattinuṭe, marattinte, marattinṛe (of tree)
In Nouns, it is the Gender and Number suffixes that are added first and then only the case suffixes. There are no separate case markers for each number as found in Aryan languages like Sanskrit.
In addition to the seven cases stated above, there is another case called samboodhika (vocative). In Sanskrit it is considered s an alternant form of the Nominative Vocation is addressing or facing the listener. The case which gives this sense is, following the names given to the other cases is vocative. In this either ‘ee’ is added finally or the final vowel is lengthened.
Examples:
tēviyē | tēvil (oh ! goddess)
rāmanē | rāmā (oh ! Rama)
Masculine Gender:
Case Singular Gender plural Non gender plural
Nominative makan (son) makanmār (sons) makkal (of springs)
Accusative makane makanmāre makkaḷe
Sociative makanōṭu makanmārōṭu makkaḷōṭu
Dative makanu, makannu makanmāṛkku makkaḷkku
Instrumental makannāl makanmārāl makkaḷāl
Gentive makanuṭe, makanṛe makan māruṭe makkaluṭe
Locative makanil, makankal makanmāril makkalil
Vocative maḳanē makanmārē makkalee
Feminine Gender:
Case Singular Plural
Nominative makal (daughter) makalar (daughter)
Accusative makaḷe makalare
Sociative makaḷōṭu makalarōṭu
Dative makalkku makaḷarkku
Instrumental makalāl makalarāl
Genitive makaluṭe makalaruṭe
Locative makalil makalaril
Vocative makalē makalarē
Neuter Gender:
Case Singular Plural
Nominative maram (tree) maraņņal (trees)
Accusative maratte | marattine marannaḷe
Sociative marattōṭu | marattinōṭu marannaḷōṭu
Dative marattinu marannalkku
Instrumental marattināl | marattal marannalaal
Genitive marattinṛe | marattinute marannaḷute
Locative marattil | marattinkal marannalil
Vocative maramē maraņņaḷē
Neuter Noun denote in animate objects. As such, their sense as objects is available without using the accusative case. Consequently, it is generally enough to use accusative without any suffix as in nominative.
eg: veḷḷam kaṭikkunnu (drinks water)
pustakam vāyikkunnu (reads books)
‘With care’ means when the subject is animate and the object is inanimate, they perform the functions of animate and inanimate respectively. So in such contexts, Accusative marker is not needed. In standard speech the suffix for accusative is not in use. If both are inanimate it is better to use it as in
kōṭāli maratte murikkunnu (the axe cuts the three)
and rāmasvāmi maram muṛikkunn (ramaswami cuts the tree).
In forms like miņtāppūcca kalam utaykkum (silent cut will break the pot), the subject pūcca (cat) is more animate than the object kalam and so accusativeness is acquired by meaning.
Rajasaja varma A. R. 1999 Kērala pāniniyam
International School of Dravidian
Linguistics, Trivandrum
pp: 128 – 138
Ezhuthachan K. N 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theory in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
Trivandrum.
pp: 332 – 345.
b) Pronoun
Gindert calls pronouns, prastisamjņakaḷ as they stand for the nouns. (The later writers call them sarvaņamas also following snaskirt for addition). They are divided into
1. puruṣa pratisamjņakaḷ (personal pronouns)
2. cutteluttukal (Demonstratives)
3. cōdya pratisamjnakaḷ (Interrogative pronouns)
The first person is n̄ān and yān (old form). In its ādēṡarāpa or oblique form the vowel is shortened to en. The exclusive and inclusive forms are noted.
eg: n̄aṅṅal (excluding the hearer) and nammaḷ (including the hearer). In the plural besides n̄aṅṅaḷ the old form eṅṅaḷ also is noted. Forms like mikku (> enikku, for me) and eṅkannu (< eṅkal niṅnu, from me) eṅṅaṭe (> eṅṅaḷuṭe own) are given.
The second person n̄I gets the old form gi according to the author (This is however, not attested by literature). The native forms ṅinakka and its variant nimmil (in you, Loc) are quated from Rāmacaritam.
As a vocative of the II person particles like eṭā (masculine) eṭI (feminine) are used, says the author. He quoted kētṭukoḷkṭō bālanmārē(hear, oh, children) (etc is for calling the attention of the hearer).
Nom. plurals for tān (self or you) are given as tāṅṅaḷ, tāṅkal and taṅṅaḷ oblique base is tan.
eg: taṅṅuṭe (of oneself) He quotes taṅṅatḷute (yours) as the honorific forms. This is now used as tāṅkaḷuṭe (only) tanikku (Dative) is derived from tanakku.
Gundest notes that in poems (paṭṭu) Sanskrit pronouns like aham (I) tava (yours) yuṡmat (yours) sva (ours) etc are freely used.
‘a’ and i are called demonstrative ‘e’ is interrogative pronoun. Demonstratives showing distance, proximity and intermediate position respectively. But is seems Malayalam had no ‘u’ even in old days.
‘a, i and e are pronouns and nouns affixed to them have become adverbs. The same is the case with ‘h’, ‘th’ ‘wh’, in ‘here’, ‘there’ ‘where’. In English gundest notes that ‘u’ is also a domen strative but not current in Malayalam aprasiddha.
He noted also that the lengthening of Demonstrative bases is favoured now while the old practice was to double the initial letter of the following word.
eg: āmanuṣyan (that man)
i gānam (this song)
ē vaḷi (which way) etc.
Old forms were ammanuṣyan iggānam, evvaḷi respectively
The author gives a number of examples in a table form to illustrate the demonstratives and interrogatives.
eg: appōḷ (at that time, now) ippol (at this time now)
eppōl (at which time when) etc.
aṅṅaṅe (in which way) one also illustrated.
Though the above noted formations contain the Demonstrative and interrogative particles as initials, they are not real pronouns, but adjectives. The real pronouns are formed by adding the five suffixes viz, an - aḷ - r – tu and –a to the above roots Gundest deals with these pure demonstrative and interrogatives later.
The following table is provided:
Demonstrative Demonstrative Interrogative
Sing: masc avan (> ōn ān, he) ivan (this man) ēvan yāvan (which man)
Fem. avaḷ (> ōḷ āḷ) ivaḷ (this woman) ēvaḷ yāvaḷ(which woman)
Plural: mas avar (ōr āṛ) ivar (those people) ēvar yāvar yār ār (which people)
Sing: Neuter atu (that) itu (this) ētu, yātu (which this)
Plural : Neuter ava (avakaḷ (they) iva (these) ēva yāva (which things)
(a) Gundert says that utu (ūtu) is food to be left in compounds.
eg: nannūtu (it is good)
varuvūtu (coming)
vannūte (come)
dūrattūtō (is it far?)
(b) He deals with the cases of neuter pronoun briefly atukku (dative of atu) and atinuṭe (Genitive of it) are given, the first being of some importance. A peculiar colloquial form (north malabar) with it is noted in instrumented case.
eg: atiṭṭāl (by that)
itiṭṭāl (by this)
(c) Again, two neuter plural suffixes viz, va and vu (the latter is compared to kannada vu by Gundert) are noted.
(d) Another table gives the case forms of neuter plurals which end in vaṭṭu instead of ava (they)
eg: avaṭṭe (them) avaṭṭināl (by them) etc
Indefinite pronouns like palavaṭṭa (many things) ellāvaṭṭa (all things) etc are illustrated. Some interesting forms are avakal (they double plural) ivakaḷ (those double plural) palavū, pala also (many things) paḷaṭil > ( > palaṿaṭṭil, in many things) ellāvum, ellāmum (= ellām + um = ellām. all). ellāvaṭṭum (> ellāttum oblique form) ellāyilum (besides ellāṭṭilum in all).
(e) A curcous form takkō used instead of takkava (those which are fit) is quoted.
(f) The inteerogative ē is always used with the suffix tu ētu (which)
(g) Interrogative pronoun (codyan̄aman) is formed by adding tū to en
eg: entū (what)
It is contracted into ēn (ēn ceyvēn, what shall I do?) and used as an adjective atu, itu are used as adjectives as in atē prakāvam (in that way) ituvali (by this way) atatu janaṅṅaḷ (= atuatu janaṅṅal, (respective people).
(h) The indefinite pronoun inne is noted.
innavan (such and such man) inninna vastukkaḷ (such and such things).
(i) Sanskrit pronouns and adverbs which are used in literature are briefly dealt with
eg:īdam (this) tad (that) tatra (these) tadā (then) tathā (in that way) etc.
Ezhuthachan K. N 1975 The History of Aramatical
Theories in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistics Association
Trivandrum.
pp: 584 – 588.
Interrogative Base
eviṭe ‘where’
ārū who
entū what
etRa how many
eṅṅaṅe how
ētu which
eppōḷ when
eṅṅan’e seek to know the manner
eetci seeks identification
eppōl refers to time
Ennu is another interrogative base referring to time in a more general way, to the day or week on month.
Euphonic Increment ‘y’
‘y’ comes in a euphonic increment in sand his between vowels, when the initial vowel has a palatal value.
eg: eṅṅan’e+aa eṅṅan’eyā
tīvaṅṭi-il tīvaṅṭiyil
tiivaṅṭi+aanu > tīvaṅṭiyānū
aviṭe + ku > aviṭeyku
Dative Case suffix kū, n’u
kū and ṅu are the suffixes for the dative. These increments cause sandhi changes as shown below.
en’+kū> eṅikū (l infix)
aviṭe+kū > aviṭeykū (y infix)
kolam+n’ū> kollattin’ū
Here many changes occur, ‘in’ is elided, ttū and : come in.
The suffix il used with the locative sense
‘aňcu min’iṭṭil’ means with in five minutes. Here the suffix ‘il’ does not convey the sense of location. It is actually a contraction of ūḷlil, with in a period. The alternative usage miniṭṭin’uḷḷil is also acceptable, both in the written and colloquial forms of the language.
aṅam-aam
aṅam has occurred before as the suffix for eptative mood. An exact parallel is not available in English.
pōkaṅam must go
kānaṅam must so
varaṅam must come
ām: This is the suffix expressing the permissive sense of the verb.
pōkām can go
kaṅām can see
kāṅikkam can show
Pluralizing suffix kaḷ
bhāsā language
bhāŗakal languages
In the case of neuter plural, which comes after a number, the suffix kaḷ is not added.
eg: raṅṭu mail two miles
naalu bhasss’a four languages
Suffix -um
-um is the suffix in Malayalam which perform the role of the conjunction paṭṭoi + um> paṭṭiyum
Paṭṭiyum pūccayum > dog and cat um is added to all the words which are to be connected together.
K. M. George 1971 Malayalam Grammar & Reader
Sahitya Pravarthaka
Co-operative Society Ltd.
Kottayam, Kerala.
pp: 28-29.
Ezthuthachan. K. N 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theories in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India. Trivandrum.
In cases other than nominative, ‘en’ is the base, ‘nin’ is second person and ‘tan’ is reflexive. In the nominative they are lengthened to give nii and taan. In the possessive case ‘i’ is added to ‘en’ and ‘tan’ and ‘a’ to ‘nin’ giving enikku, tanikku and ninakku. This is a speciality in Malayalam. In Tamil there is enakku, tanakku and ninakku with a in all forms.
For the reflexive ‘tan’ the forms taṅṅaḷtāṅkaḷ tammaḷ tām (tōm). Among these tāṅkaḷ, where there is no nasal assimilation, is new and denotes second person honorific plural. Nominative form ‘tam’ (toom) is not in use now. Others are as synonyms without change in meaning.
{tā-} ∂ ta - ∂ tā-|
∂ ta – occurs as oblique base before |-n| and |-m|
eg: ta+n+e>tanne ‘self (Acc)’
ta+m+il+>tammil amongest
∂ taa – occurs else where
eg: tā+n>taan self
Raja Rajavarma. A. R 1999 Kerala Paņiniyam
(Translated by C. J. Roy) International School of
Dravidian Linguistics
Travandrum. Kerala.
pp: 120-121.
Somasekharan Nair. P 1979 Cochin Dialect of Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, Trivandrum.
pp: 131.
{- Re} |~ - Re ~ -iṭe ~ - ire ∂ - ṭe ∂ uṭe ∂ -e|
~ - Re occurs after |-n|ending stems.
eg: paṭI + iṭe > paṭīṭe ‘of the gate’
~ paṭI + ire > paṭīre
amma + iṭe > ammēṭe
~ amma + ire > ammēre
∂ - ṭe occurs after |ka-|
eg: n̄aṅṅa + ṭe Dur (exel)
∂ uṭe occurs elsewhere in free variation with |-e|
eg: peṅṅaḷ+ uṭe ~ peṅṅaḷ + e ‘of elder sister’
Somasekharan Nair. P 1979 Cochin dialect of Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, Trivandrum.
pp: 127-128.
Reciprocal pronoun indicating that the action on process is reciprocal by participants.
eg: tammil, tammil tammil, parasparam, annōnyam
mēriyum jayinum tammil is’ṭamāṅu
‘mary and jane like each other.
avar tammil tammil piṛupiṛukkunnu
‘They are murmuring each other
avar parasparam valakkiṭunnu
They are quarrelling each other
avar annōnyam ciriccu
They laughed each other
Verb denotes the state of, or action done by a substance. the verb which denotes a state does not have an object and is hence akarmaka (intransitive) as in
uṛaṅṅuka (sleep), kuḷikkuka (to bath) nilkkuka (to stand).
The verb which denotes on action has an object and is hence sakaṛmaka (Transitive) as in uṅṅuka (to eat) kutikkuka (to drink) aṭikkuka (to beat).
Verbs are divided into kēvalas and prayōjakas taking their prakṛtis into considerations. For example ōṭuka (to run) kāṅuka (to see) etc, show that the action is being done by the agent himself. But in ōṭikka (to make one run) kāṭṭuka (to make one see) the agent is doing the action as per the direction of another man. The first mentioned verbs are kēvalas or simple verbs and the second prayōjakas (causatives).
There are still another group of verbs which are kēvalas (simple) in meaning but prayōjakas (causatives) in form, for example, many verbs take ‘kku’ to make them causative (eg: ōṭuka, ōṭikka) But ‘kku’ appears in many simple forms without any causative sense.
eg: kēḷkkuka (to hear)
nilkkuka (to stand)
Verbs which has this causative kku in the simple or verbs which has this kāritas others akkaaritas.
eg: kāritas : kēḷkkunnu (hears)
parakkunnu (flies)
akāritas : piriyunnu (get separated)
marayunnu (dis appears)
prayōjakas : pirikkunnu (separates)
maraykkunnu (hides)
In kāritas and prayōjakas we find kku added. but is kāritas it does not get the causative meaning. This kārita/ akārita division relates to the form only.
Another division of the verb is based on the importance. Thus we have:-
(1) muttuvina (complete or finite verb which stands independently in a sentence).
(2) paṭṭuvina (incomplete verb which is subsidiary to the main verb)
The other name of muttuvine is kaṛōti kṛiti (Sanskrit verb of the type of karooti, ‘he does’ this is finite verb.
pattuviṅa is known also as kurvat kṛti (Sanskrit verb of the type kurvat, ‘he who does’ the verb is incomplete).
In the sentence ‘rāman tiruvananth purattēykku pōkunnu’ (Rama goes to Trivandrum). the verb ‘pōkunnu’ (goes) remains important not surrendering to any other word. So it is muṭṭuvina. In the sentence ‘tiruvanantapurattēykku pōkunna vaḷḷam’ (the boat that goes to Trivandrum). the verb pōkunna (that which goes) surrenders to ‘vālḷam’ (boat) as an adjective and so is a pattuvina.
Pattuvina (incomplete verb which depends upon the main verb to complete the sense) is divided into:-
(1) vinayeccam (adverbial particple)
In complete verb which is subsidiary to or which qualifies a verb.
eg: paraṅṅukēṭṭu (heard, having said by others)
teeccu kaḷiccu (bathed after smearing oil in on body)
(2) peereccam (adjective or relative participle)
This is an incomplete verb which is subsidiary to or which qualifies a noun.
eg: koṭutta vastu (the thing which was given)
varunna kutti (the boy who is coming)
In these instances koṭutta and varunna are pattuvinas which qualify nouns.
prayōga (Active and Passive)
While using verbs we gave importance to the various kārakas among which kartā stands first. But there is no objection to give importance to other kārakas also for example.
1) kutira ōṭunnu (the horse runs, importance goes to karta)
2) ŗākuntaḷam kāḷidāsanāl nirmikkappeṭṭu
(ŗākuntaḷam was written by kalidasa. karma is more important).
3) ī pēna nallavaņņam elutum (this pen writes well, karaṅa gets prominence).
4) urli itaṅṅli are Vekkum (The vessel will cook) iṭaņņali (four measures) of rice location or ādhāra is given importance)
The grammarions say that a verb is used in that kāraka in which the speaker wants it to be put for showing its importance. Thus we have kartari pragōga, karaṅē prayōga etc. the first words are Sanskrit locatives meaning in kartā, ‘in karma’ in karaņa etc. as kartari and karmaņI prayōga are more important and as the others have no separate forms, we normally speak of the first two only.
We have a bhāve prayōga also which is different from its counter-part in Sanskrit. Nigirņakartṛka verb (ie, verbs with subject implied) can be classified under this heading, as the verb alone is given importance here.
eg: enikku uraņnaņam (I want to sleep)
īŗuaran unṭu (there is hod)
The auxiliary root peṭuka (it to fall inside) is used with the a ending naṭuvinayeccam forms to make it passive.
eg: para (to say)
parayappeṭunnu (it is said)
kāņ (to see)
kāņappeṭṭu (it was seen)
Passive voice is against the genius of the language. Hence it should be sparingly used ie, only for clearing doubts, for introducing variety etc.
Ezhuthachan K. N 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theories in Malyalam
Dravidian Linguistics Association
of India, Trivandrum.
pp: 382- 383.
Tense denotes the time in which an action takes place. What is over is bhuutom (past) what is taking place is vartamaanam (present) and what is yet to happen is bhaavi (future) Thus tenses are three.
The Suffixes are:-
Past : i, tu
Future : um, u, ū
Present : unn (old form) innu > inṭu (inru)
eg: (1) iḷaki (moved – part)
(2) iḷakum (will move – future)
(3) iḷakunnu (move – present)
(a) i and tu are the past tense markers
i: cint (to spread) > cinti
vilas (to shine) > vilasi
tu: poru (to fight) > porutu
pi poru (to fight) > porutu
pilu (to uproot) > piḷutu
(b) For roots ending in vowel or half-consonant (cillụ) in will come in the post. This under goes various sandhi changes.
eg: tolu (to fold the hands in respect) > tolutu
kaņ + tu > kaņtu (saw)
kēḷ + tu > kēṭṭu (heard)
tōl + tu > tōṭṭu (failed)
(c) If the root is a kārita, t will be doubled.
eg: koṭu > koṭuttu (gave)
(d) In akāritas n should be joined before t.
eg: cēr > cēr – ntu (joined)
(e) If the root ends in a labial vowel, ntu comes even if it is kārita.
eg: kaṭa + tu > kaṭantu > kaṭannu (crossed)
(f) In roots ending in palatal vowel ttu and ntu change into ccu and n̄n̄u respectively (palatialization).
eg: aṭi + ttu > aṭittu > aṭiccu (beat)
ali + ntu > alin̄cu > alin̄n̄u (melted)
(g) u and y ending akāritas show the original tu.
eg: pilu + tu > pilutu (uprōted)
cey + tu > ceytu (did)
(h) The monosyllabic roots ending in k, r and ṭ have tu in past tense, but assimilative changes occur effecting doubling.
eg: puk + tu > pukku (entered)
ar + tu > attu (broke)
cuṭ + tu > cuṭṭu (burnt)
If the roots are not monosyllabic i is added.
eg: ōṭu > ōṭI (ran) iḷakụ > iḷaki (moved)
A number of other changes one also noted with many exceptions.
a > āyi (became) : pō > pōgi (went) eā > cattu (died)
(a) It is noted that is kārita roots kku is added as an agument when a suffix with an initial vowel is attached to it. This is a universal rule and is not limited to tense markers only
eg: iri + kk + um = irikkum (will sit)
kēl + kk + unnu = kēḷkkunnu (hears).
This rule is permanent in the affirmative verbs but in negative it is optional.
eg: kēḷ (hear) In negative we can have kēḷkkāte and kēḷkkāte and kēḷāte (without hearing)
(h) ppu may replace kku when suffixes like u (ū), ān, in which have a future significance are attached to the root.
eg: irippū, irikkū (will sit, will remain)
irippān, irikkān (to sit, infinitive of purpose)
īrīppin, irikkin, (please sit, imp. plural).
There are two kinds of futures other than the normal one. Aryan languages use present tense while speaking of facts which are true, to all times. Dravidian languages use future for this. This is called ṡīlabhāv̄ī by our author (let habitual future).
eg: pāpikaḷ dukhikkum (the sinners will repent).
There is another future called avadhāraka bhāvi where a sense of emphasis appears.
eg: dharmaputrar satyamē parayū (Dharmapatra would tell any truth).
In such instances the future suffix um elides, its in and the remaining u gets compensatory lengthening.
eg: kāņū (kāņ) (to see)
‘e’, the emphatic panicle is used in the preceding word. The verb gets a sense of advice also at times.
kāņum (will see) > kāņu > kāņū
avanē kāņu (only he will see)
phalam kāņū (see the result : advice)
Gundest divides the present tense also into two classes, those ending in (1) innu, (2) ā
according to the author the present tense in Malayalam is formed from the future v, u, ku and kku. Particles of inru and innu are added to these.
eg: āk – unnu (becomes)
vālk-inru, vālinru (live (old form) ceyyinnu does irikkiņnu (sits) etc).
Later on the i̇ of the present tense is changed into u of the future. Thus pōkinnu > pōkunnu (goes). He gives examples like ilakunnu (moves) uakunnu (moves) ulunnu (ploughs) kēḷkunnu (hears) etc.
III person singular - pōkunnān (he goes) pōkunnāḷ (she goes) plural - pōkunnār (they go).
II person singular - pōkunnāy (you go) plural – nil
I person singular koṭukkunnēn (I give)
collunnēn (I say)
plural collunnōm (we say)
pōkunnōm (we go)
These are found only in old inscriptions
eg: cellāninru (from cel to go) naṭattāninru (from naṭattu – to conduct) the form cellāyininru is also given its meaning is the action of going is not ended.
u, ‘is going’ continued according to Gundest.
Rajarajavarma A. R 1999 Kērala Pāniniyam
Translation International School of Dravidian
Dr. C. J. Roy. Linguistics, Trivandrum.
pp: 168 – 179.
Ezhuthachan K. N 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theories in Malayalam.
Dravidian Linguistics Association
of India, Trivandrum.
pp: 359 – 375 and pp: 605 – 606.
{-t-} |∂-i̇ ∂-n- ∂n̄ṇ̄-∂-n-∂-t-d-R-∂-ṭ- ∂-c- ∂-ṉt-∂-ø-|
∂-
i̇ occurs after set I verb stems
eg: ett + i ‘arrived’
īr + I ‘combed’
∂ - ṉ – occurs after set III A stems
eg: onar + n + n – u ‘woke up’
para + n + n – u ‘flew’
ce + n + n – u ‘went’
ti + n + n – u ‘ate’
∂ - n̄n̄ - occurs after set III D stems:
eg: aRi + n̄n̄ - u ‘knew’
∂ - ṇ̄ - occurs after set III C stems
eg: tā + ņ - u ‘sank’
∂ - t – occurs after set II A stems
eg: cey + t – u ‘did’
∂ - R – occurs after set II B stems
eg: peR + R – u ‘delivered’
∂ - ṭ - occurs after II C stems
eg: iṭ +ṭu ‘put’
kaņ + ṭu ‘saw’
moraņ + ṭu ‘growled’
∂ - c- occurs after set II D stems
eg: ka + c + c – u ‘tested bitter’
∂ - nt – occurs after set III B stems
eg: no + nt – u ‘ached’
∂ ø occurs after | aay – l | pooy -| and| veent -| before relative participle marker |-a|
After |vēnņt - | it freely varies with |I|
eg: aay + ø + a (which) happened
pōy + ø + a (which) went
vēnṭ + ø + a ~ vēņṭ + i + a > vēņṭ iya which needed
{ - unn - } / ∂ - ņ - ∂ - unn - ∂ - aņ - ∂ - in - /
∂ - ņ - occurs after (e) vv stems
eg: pō+ņ-u – goes
∂ - unn – occurs elsewhere in free variation with |- an| and |- in|
eg: var + unn-u ~ var + aņ - u ~ var + iņ - u comes.
{-um}| ∂ - am ∂ - m ∂ - um|
∂ - am occurs after |vēņ-|
eg: vēņ + am ‘will need’
∂ - m occurs after |aa -|
eg: pūv + ā + m ‘can go’
var + ā + m ‘can come’
∂ - um occurs elsewhere
eg: kāņ + um ‘will see’
var + um ‘will come’
Somasekharan Nair. P 1979 Cochin Dialect of Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistics Association
of India. TVM.
pp: 80-82.
The peculiar modes of meaning attached to verbs like assertion, order, entreaty etc, create prakāras (moods). The author divides mood into:
1. Niṟdēŗakam (indicative – ordinary form)
2. niyūjakam (Imperative - aṭṭe)
3. Vidhāyakam (Compulsive - aņam)
4. Anujňāyakam (permissive - ām)
5. Āŗāsakam (Benedictive – Infinitive form or naṭuvinayeccam)
The first item Nirdēŗakam has no particular shade of meaning and has no change in form. All the other suffixes are divided from the corrupted forms of some future denoting verbs.
eg:
1. Nirdēŗakam : Kuttikal kaḷikkunnu, kaḷiccu, kaḷikkum
(children play, played will play).
2. Niyōjakam : Kuṭṭikaḷ kaḷkkaṭṭe (let the children play)
iḷakaṭṭe (let it move).
3. Vidhāyakam : Kuṭṭkal kuḷikkanam (children should bath)
varaņam (should come).
4. Anujňāyakam : parayām (you can say) kuḷikkām (can bath).
5. Āŗāsakam : varam aruḷīṭuka ! (Give a boon !)
(a) In Neyōjakam (imperative) there is difference as regards person and number. aṭṭe is used in and III person. Here there is no difference in number.
eg: avan, avar, ňān, ňaṅṅaḷ, pōkaṭṭe (Let him, them, me, us, go)
The verbal root form itself becomes II person singular. In plural in is added directly to the root or with its stem.
eg: sing nī pō (go): kēḷkkū (hear)
Plural: niṅṅal pōkin or pōkuvin (you go)
kēḷppin, kēḷkkin (you heard)
It has been noted that kk|pp relate to future verbs.
(a) niyōjakam aṭṭe
The verb oṭṭuka (to join) has its habitual future form oṭṭum. Now pōka (to go) irikka (to sit) with ‘a’ ending are naṭuvinayeccams which can be used as a noun and as a verb. Sometimes two verbs are compounded when the first is called prākprayōga and the second anuprayōga. If we add the future oṭṭum to the infinitive or naṭuvinayeccum form we get ceyya + oṭṭum (< ceyyoṭṭum which is found in colloquial Tamil) In Malayalam this form by the addition of ē became ceyyoṭṭumē which later on changed into ceyyaṭṭē (o and a interchange in them, eg: ceyyolla > ceyyalla should not do).
(b) vidhāakam (compulsive, aņam)
The anuprayōga here is vēņam, the root vēņ meaning necessity. Usually vēņṭuka vēņṭI etc, are used with ṭ endings. If the ṭ of vēņṭum (ŗilabhāvi, habitual present) is omitted, we get vēņam which changes into ēņam, eņam, aņam. Usage like ceyyavēņam are also current. This avan ceyyaveņam means to do is necessary for him or he should do it.
(e) anujňayakam (permissive : ām)
The root āvaka, to become, has its habitual present ākum > ām ceyya + ām = ceyka ākām (u, doing is permitted).
In Tamil it is not joined with naṭavinayeccams but with the verbal noun pōkalām (he can go) varatāin (he can come)
(d) The anuprayōgas (the second or auxiliary verbs) can be separated from prākrayōga (1st verb) roots in vidhāyaka and anujňāyaka.
eg: pōkaveṇ̄am (should go)
pōka ām (may go)
The author explains that suffixes were once independent words (e. g. aņam from vēņam) which lost that status gradually and this usage of aņam and ām shows this process. The view that Malayalam stands between the agglutinating and inflexional types of languages is supported by such forms, says the writer.
(e) In vidhi (vēņam) and anujňa (ām) we have compound verbs.
(eg: avan pōkaņam, he should go) ňān paraya
ām (I will say). Here both the verbs combine to get one meaning. But they can be divided to give independent meanings when the verbs become nigīrņa kaṛtrka. Uraņņuka vēņam (Sleeping is necessary) ceyka ākām (doing is permitted) are the full, forms, but in uraņņaņam and ceyyām no subject is visible and hence they are verbs with subject understood. Students of Aryan languages may think that no action is possible without a subject or karta; but in Malayalam we have a number of verbs like vīŗakkuka (to be hangby) kiṭṭuka (to get) which happen without the action of the doer.
eg: avanu uranņaņam (he must sleep).
Now, there is difference in meaning, when we are vidhāyakas (compulsives) and anujňāyakas (permissive) in the ordinary way and in the nigīrņa kartrka construction. for example, if we say bālanmār kaḷikkanam it means that the children should play, they should be compelled to play. If the sentence is changed into nigīṛņa - kārtṛika style ie, bālaņmarkkū kaḷikkaņam it will mean that the children are interested in playing. ņanariyām means I will enquire and know, while enikku ariyām means ‘I am already in possession of know lodge’.
Ezhuthachan. K. N 1975 The Grammatical theories
in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
Dept. of Linguistics, University of
Kerala.
pp: 379 – 381.
Rajaraja Varma A. R 1999 Kēraḷa Pāninīyam
Translation International School of
Dr. C. J. Roy Dravidian Linguistics
Trivandrum.
1. Usually subjects and predicates agree in gender and number.
eg: avan nallavan (he is good)
avaḷ nallavaḷ (she is good)
2. The predicate may be neuter singular
eg: ŗivanum pārvatiyum pratyakṣamāyi (siva and pārvathi appeared). Instead of pratyakṣar the neuter form pratyakṣam is used.
In poetry Sanskrit system of concord is followed at times.
eg: ugra āyuḷḷa vākku (the used word, ugre is made is made feminine as it qualifies vākku (word) which is of that gender in Sanskrit).
3. But Hon. plural has singular verb at times.
eg: kṛpācāyar connān (kṛpācāryar said) (The idea is that though the subject is used in plural form the person is only one).
4. Similarly in sainyam titicu maņṭinār (the army fled back) the verb is in plural though the subject is in the singular. (Here, though army is a collective noun, prominence is given to individual members and hence plural verb is used.
5. Numeral adjectives are used in singular, when they qualify neutral plural.
eg: nāluvēdam (some pages).
6. Feminine meanings are given to masculine nouns.
eg: pārvati valiya tampurān (Her Highness Parvathi)
rāņI mahāraja (Her highness the queen).
7. Neuter nouns used for personal nouns.
eg: kōlam vāḷccaye kanṭu (saw the ruling prince of kōla country
64 grāmatteyum purappeṭuvccu (made the 64 grāmas to start).
8. Neuter applied to rational beings.
eg: ghōraņņaḷāya raktabijanmār (the terrible Raktabijas u, Rāksasas).
9. Irrational beings are personified.
eg: mattanāya vṛṣabham (the proud ox)
duṣṭanām kaliyugam (the usual kaliyuga) (mattan and duṣṭan are masculine,
though the qualified words are normally neuters).
10. The subject is used as Neuter singular in case of doubt.
eg: konnatu ceṭṭiyalla (the person who killed was not ceṭṭi)
Here the person who killed him may be anybody a man, a woman or thing.
putrādikālil mūttatu (the eldest among the sons (mūttatu, is neuter).
Ezhuthachan K. N. 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theories in Malayalam.
Dravidian Linguistic Association.
Trivandrum.
pp: 631 – 632.
The unit which do not fall under verbs, defective verbs, appellatives and nouns and clitics.
Clitics are classifies into three groups
1. Fare clitics
2. Partially bound clitics
3. Bound clitics
i) Free Clitics
Free clitics are those which occur as free forms. Those can take another clitic, or may occur as bound forms with other grammatical categories.
Free Clitics
Free clitics are those which occur as free forms. Those can take another clitic, or may occur as bound forms with other grammatical categories.
Expression of pain, surprise fear
1. ā ‘ha’
2. ayyō expression of surprise
3. āvū pain or fear
4. ayyā expression of surprise
Expression of unpleasantness
1. ce an expression of displeasure, disapproval etc.
2. ayyē an expression of displeasure
3. pe ‘an expression of contempt
4. āvō an expression of doubt
Negation
1. ēy ‘no’
Certainty
1. uvvu u uvvā ~ atē ‘yes’
Temporal
1. innale yesterday
2. innāḷ on that day
3. ini here after
4. ennum always
5. oṭan ~ oṭane immediately
6. paņṭu long ago
7. muppāṭu before
8. naṭāṭe ~ natāṭa for the first time
9. vīīņṭum again
Manner
1. oRakke loudly
2. peṭṭannu quickly
3. patukke ~ payyane slowly
4. cummā ~ veRute for nothing
5. melle gently
Onomatopoeic
The onomatopoeic forms are of two types. The forms of type I can occur as single and in repetition type II forms can occur only in repetition. This has two sub groups.
1. Re duplications
1. Paḷapaḷā
2. torutoraa
3. cinuņņI uņuņņi
4. kaṭa kaṭa
5. Kuru kuru
6. minnam minņam
7. ŗaRa ŗaRa
8. ŗaRu ŗaRu
9. ŗuḷu ŗuḷu
2. Partial Reduplication
1. caRu piRu
2. caṭu piṭu
3. caḷi piḷI
4. kaRu muRu
Qualitative
2. mōŗam bad
Quantitative
1. okke ‘whole’
2. alppam ‘a little’
3. tōne ‘plenty’
4. koRe ~ koRee ‘some’
5. lēŗam ‘a little’
Partially bound clitics are those which do not occur in isolation, but capable of occurring in between word junctures.
{v - } | ∂ v - ∂ w ∂ Vv - |
∂ v – occurs before morphemic juncture followed by a consonant.
∂ vv occurs before word juncture.
∂ Vv – occurs before morphemic juncture followed by a vowel.
eg: a + ṅṅ + ane in that manner
a + ṅṅ+ u there
a + tra that much
a + nn – u that day
a + t – u that
a + pōḷ then
ā maram that tree
av + an he
av + aḷ she
av + ar they
av + a those
eg: i + ṅṅ + ane In this manner
i + ṅṅ - u here
i + tra this much
i + nn – u to-day
i + t – u this
i + poo ! now
ī maram this tree
iv + an he (prose)
iv + aḷ she (prose)
iv + ar these people
iv + a these
Interrogative Base 1.
{ee - } | ē - ∂ en - ∂ ēv - ∂ ā - ∂ e - |
∂ ē– occurs before non-gender marker | -t | where it freely varies with |en - |
eg: ē + t – u ~ en – t – u which, what
∂ ēv – occurs before | - an | and | - ar |
eg: ēv + an who (masc. sg)
ēv + ar who (N.co. pl)
∂ ā – occurs before gender plural | - r |
eg: ā + r – u who
∂ e – occurs else where
eg: e + n̄n̄ - u where
e + tra how much
e + nņ - u which day
{yaa - } | ∂ yā -|
∂ yā – occurs before | t |
eg: yā + t = u which
Noun Attributes
ūṭu narrow
piRRē next
talee previous
miykka almost
maRRu ~ maRRe ~ maRRee other
makā ‘great’
nānā different
sakala ‘all’
veRum ‘mere’
Verb Attributes
enņāl but
eṅkil if
oṭṭum not a bit
onnukil either
paṭse but
pōle, mātiri anti like
mātram only
viiņṭum again
kāli empty
muluvan whole
The clitics which do not occur in isolation are bound clitics
Manner
{-ane} | ∂ - ane}
∂- ane
eg: a + ṅṅ + ane In that manner
i + ṅṅ + ane In this manner
e + ṅṅ+ ane how
{- ṅn - } | ∂ -ṅṅ- ∂ - att - |
∂ - ṅṅ - occurs after the demonstratives |i-| |e-| and |a-|
eg: i + ṅṅ - u ‘here’
e + ṅṅ - u ‘where’
a + ṅṅ- u there
∂ - att – occurs else where
eg: tāl + att – u below
1. {- nn - } | - nn - |
eg: i + nn – u today
e + nn –u which day
a + nn – u on that day
2. { - pōḷ } | ∂ - pō ∂ - pōḷ ∂ - pōḷ | all are in free variation
eg: a + pō ~ a + pōḷ ~ a + pōḷ then
3. {-āR} |a – āR|
eg: pōk + āR + āyi about to go
{- kāḷ} | ∂ - kāḷ ∂ - eelum|
∂ - kāḷ occurs after accusative case suffix in free variation with |- eelum|
eg: a + t + in + e + kāḷ ~ a + t + iṅ + e + eelum ‘more than that’
e + n + e + kāḷ ~ e + n + e + eelum ‘that I’
{e} | ∂ - ee ∂ - i̇yē ∂ īt ∂ - e|
∂ - ē occurs after |mump -| and nēr -| in free variation with |-e|
eg: mump + ē ~ mump + e ‘infront’
nēr + ē ~ nēr + e ‘straight’
∂ - iyē occurs after |tun -|
eg: ta + n + iyē ‘alone’
∂ -īt – occurs after |pin -| in free variation with |-e|
eg: pin + īṭ-u ~ pin-e afterwords
∂ - e occurs elsewhere
eg: tāḷ + e below
{-e} |~ -e|
eg: vaḷar + e plenty
{-atte} |∂ - atte|
eg: mūnn + ām + atte third
a + nn + atte of that day
1. {-aṭ-} | ∂ - aṭ - ∂ ōṭṭ -|
∂ - aṭ - occurs after the clitic |-ṅṅ-|
eg: a + ṅṅ + aṭ + u to that direction
i + ṅṅ + aṭ + u to this direction
∂ - ōṭṭ - occurs else where
eg: tāḷ + ōṭṭ - u down words
tekk + ōṭṭ - u south words
mump + ōṭṭ - u for word
2. {-āle} |∂ āle|
eg: pin + āle behind
3. {ceykk - } |∂ eeykk -|
eg: vali + il + ēykku to the path
pāṭatt + ēykku to the field
{- ōlam} |∂ - tōḷam ∂ - ōḷam|
∂ - tōḷam occurs after |-tra|
eg: i + tra + tōḷam to this extent
a + tra + tōḷam to that extent
∂ - ōḷam occurs elsewhere
eg: varu + ōḷam till (his) coming
{-tōRum} |∂-tōRum|
∂ - tōRum
eg: vīṭu + tōR + um ‘house to house’
{-ē} |∂-ē|
∂ - ē
eg: var + ē up to, till (emph:)
vīņ + ē fell (expl)
lll + ē have (you) not?
{-ō} |∂-ō ∂-ā|
eg: va + n + n + ō~ va + n + n + ā did (he) come:
{-um} |∂-um|
eg: au + an + um av + aḷ + um he and she
inn + um even today
{meninnā-} |∂ menin̄n̄ā-|
eg: menin̄n̄ā + nn – u day before yesterday
1. {apa-} |apa-|
∂ apa – occurs before |maanam|
eg: apa + mānam disgrace
2. {nir-} |∂ nir-|
eg: nir + āŗa disappointment
3. {ni-} |∂ ni-|
eg: ni + ŗēṣam completely
4. {an -} |∂ an-|
eg: an + ā viŗyam unnecessary
5. {a-} |∂ a-|
eg: a + mitam excessive
{ati-} |∂ aty-ati|
∂ aty-occurs before vowels
eg: aty-āgrakam gre d
∂ ati-occurs elsewhere
eg: ati+kālattu in early morning
{maru-} |maru-|
∂ maru-
eg: maru+mōḷ daughter in law
Somasekharan Nair P 1979 Cochin Dialect of
Malayalam, Dravidian Linguistics
Association of India,
Trivandrum.
pp. 159-169.
Ramachandran Puthusseri 1973 Language of middle
Malayalam, Dravidian
Linguistic Association
of India,
Trivandrum.
pp: 291-294.
The conditional or the subjunctive sense of the verb is obtained in two ways. This form expresses possibility supposition and also desire. They key word in English is ‘if’.
(a). (-āl)
By adding – aal to the past adverb participle.
eg: ceytu̇ + aal – ceytāl
kaņṭu̇ + aal - kaņṭaal
In this case the tense is indefinite.
nī atu̇ ceytāl If you do (did or will do) it
nī atu̇ paRaṅṅāl If you say (said, will say)it
Alternatively in English we could translate these as, by doing, by saying etc.
(b) eṅkil
By adding eṅkil to the various tense forms. Thus,
nī atu ceyuneṅkil If you do not (or, are doing it)
nī atu ceyteṅkil If you did it (or have done it)
nī atụ ceyumeṅkil If you will do it
nī atụ ceyunṅillan’kil If you do not (or will not do it)
nī atụ ceytileṅkil If you did not do it
nī atụ ceyukayileṅkil If you will not do it
George. K. M 1983 Malayalam Grammar and Reader
Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative
Society, Kottayam.
pp: 138.
Conjunctive particles and the copulative construction are very important. The conjunction particle ‘um’ is used with the same kind of kāraka words.
eg: rāmanum, kṛṣnaņum, gōvindanum pustakam vāyikkunnu.
(Rama, Krishna and Govinda reads the books)
Ivar or ennivar (these people) can be used at the end in which case particle ‘um’ is omitted.
eg: rāman, kṛṣnan, gōvindan ennivar pustakam vāyikkunnu.
(Rama, Krishna, Govinda these people read books)
The last noun, with which the former nouns are brought into relation, is called samar paka nāman (the conducing noun).
eg: ennivar
A sentence cannot begin with an ‘um’ ending word, subjects objects etc of the same type can be joined by copulative conjunction.
under this topic different kinds are dealt with. The concordance of subject and predicate in Gender, number and person is now lost in Malayalam, but their remnants are found even now in poetry.
eg: avan vannān he came
sita pōyā sita weṇ̄t
The author notes the Sanskrit found in expression like bāmi mauryami mauryannu vaŗayāyi (The earth came into the possession of Maurya). Where the complement vaṣa is used in feminine gender to agree with the subject bhumi to special kind of case concordance is noted in antive and locative.
eg: niṅṅaikku mūvarkkum (for you three) kṣētraṅṅaḷil ellāttilum in all temple. Numèrals with singular form can qualify plural nouns.
eg: anēkam puruṣanmār (many men).
Ezhuthachan. K. N 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theory in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, Trivandrum.
pp: 237-238.
Raja Raja Varma. A. R 1917 Kērala Paniniyam
Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative
Society Ltd, Kottayam, Kerala.
Kovunni Nedugandi. T. M 1930 Keerala Kaumudi
III Edition
Calicut.
Adjectives in Malayalam (as in other languages of the Dravidian family) are in general nouns of quality or relation. They become adjectives by positions u by placing them just before a noun or a pronoun. They do not undergo any dimensional change like adjectives in Sanskrit and Hindi.
eg: poń = gold, muTTa = egg
pońmuTTa = golden egg
By placing poń before the noun muTTa, the noun poń becomes an adjective.
(a) By Suffixing iya
ceRiya small (cer+iya)
valiya big (val+iya)
putiya new (put+iya)
pulaya old (pala+iya)
The addition of ‘iya’ makes the adjectives separate and independent. When the adjective is modifying the noun directly, then the substantive is combined with the noun, for example,
ceRupayar – ceRiya + payar (small beans)
vańmaram – valmaram – valiya+maram (big tree)
(b) By Suffixing a
veḷutta ‘white’
cumanna ‘red’
pale ‘various’
(‘a’ is taken as the pluralizing particle by some grammarians like called well & A. R. Rajaraja Varma)
‘a’ is the marker for the relative participle.
(a) By Suffixing um
perum ‘big or great’
kaRum ‘Small or short’
These adjectives are usually used in combinations like
perum taccaṅ great carpenter
kuRum tōTTi small plant (medicinal herb)
kuRum kāTu small forest
perum – kauTu large forest
(a) By Suffixing aaya
kāllu̇ stone
kallāya story
samaRthań āya clever
‘āya is the relative participle of the verb aaka (to become)
By Suffixing uḷḷa
miTukku̇ cleverness
miTukkuḷḷa clever
balam strength
balamuḷḷa strong
uḷḷa is the relative participle of the verb root uḷ ( ) certain other participles like keTTa also perform a similar role.
eg: nandi keTTa ungrateful
Appellative nouns mistaken for adjectives
nallavań a good man (nalla + avań)
nallavań a good woman (nalla + avaḷ)
nallatu a good thing (nalla + utu)
In the above example nalla is the adjective to which gender suffixes have been added.
It is possible to get the same role of adjectives by adding ‘aaya’ to the above.
nallavań – āya nallavaḷ - āya nallatu - aaya
‘nallattaye pustakam’ is a permissible expression but here ‘nalla saaya’ is not an adjective proper.
In Malayalam the adjective cannot stand indepently it seeks the aid of a noun on a pronoun.
eg: she is good avaḷ nallavaḷ āņu
avaḷ nallatu āņu
Both these forms are acceptable, but it is not correct to say avaḷ nalla āņu̇.
The two forms of negative alla, illa
Just as there are two forms of affirmation. One of beurg and the other of existence, there are also two forms of negative.
alla x āņu
illa x uņtu
Dr. K. M. George 1971 Malayalam Grammar & Reader
Sahitya Pravarthaka
Co-operative Society Ltd
Kottayam, Kerala
pp: 20-23.
Ezhuthachan. K. N. 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theories in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistics
Association Trivandrum
Rajaraja Varam. A. R 1917 Kerala Paninuyam
Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative
Society Ltd, Kottayam.
A postpositive is defined as ‘a particle or word places after a word to indicate its grammatical or syntactical relationship to the other words in the sentence.
Malayalam uses a number of post positions.
eg: n̄ān pēna koņṭu̇ eluti
I wrote with the pen
vēņu killa-ttu̇ ninnu̇ vannu
venu came from quilon
kun̄n̄u̇ viiṭṭil vaccu̇ vīņu̇
Malayalam postpositions which are placed after noun phrases to show the grammatical relations of that noun phrase to the verb of the sentence.
The postpositives of Malayalam can be classified into four groups according to their origin and morphological similarities.
1. Past participles
2. Present participles
3. Future participle
4. Derived nouns
There are seventeen postpositions classified as past participles in Malayalam.
1. koņṭu̇ ‘ with, by, due to, with in’
eg: ņān pēna koņṭu̇ eluti
I wrote with the pen
avan bhāgyam koņṭu rakṣapeṭṭu
He escaped by luck
ņān ninn-e koņṭu tōRru
I Railed due to you
sīta aņcu̇ nimiṣam koņṭu̇ paṭhiccu
Sita studied with in five minutes
addhyāpakan vidhyārthi-ye kuRiccu̇ paRan̄n̄u
The teacher said about the studied
pitāvu makaḷ-e paRRi vyākulappeṭṭu
Father Felt – soory about his daughter
jātha kōṭṭaya – ttu ninnu varunnu
The procession comes from kottayam
bassu kolla-ttu vaccu maRin̄n̄u
The bus turned turtle at quilon
vēņu kuṭṭikaḷ-il vaccu nallavan āņu
Venu is good among the children
mantri kār-il vaccu̇ paRan̄n̄u
The minister said in the car
avan ōṭa-yil kūṭI vokṣappeṭṭu
He escaped through the drain
anujatti accan-ōṭu kūṭI yātrayāyi
The younger sister started the journey with father
āḷukaḷ Rōṭṭ-il-kauṭI pōkunnu
The people go along the road
āḷukaḷ mantri-y-e colli valakku̇ uņṭākki
The people made quarrel about the minister
makan accan-ōṭu-ottu̇ rangattiRaṅṅl
The son entered in the filed with his father
pōlīsu̇ vīṭu oliccu ella stalavum anvēsiccu
The police searched all places except the house
n̄ān itellām aval-kku-āyi vān̄n̄iccu
I bought all-these for her
enikku annu tuṭṭu dukhamāņu
I have sorrow from that day
rāmu nīgrōkaḷ-e puraskariccu samsāriccu
Ramu talked about Negroes
prāsaṅgikan veḷḷakkār-e sambandhiccu̇ samsāriccu
The speaker talked about white people:
addhyāpakar avaruṭe prasanaṅṅaḷ-e sambandhiccu̇ carccakal naṭatti
‘The teachers conducted discussions on their problems’
avan enn-e koḷḷiccu̇ paRan̄n̄a phalitam nannāyi
‘The fun that he said about me was good’
accan pustakam eni-kku vēņṭi vaņņI
‘Father bought the text for me’
jātha kōṭṭaya-ttu-ōṭtu̇ pōkunnu
The procession goes to kottayam
sīta veḷḷatt-il-ōṭṭu̇ cāti
Sita jumped into the water
kun̄n̄uṅṅaḷ annu̇ tuṭaṅṅI paṭhiccu
The children studies form that day
There are six postpositions classified as present participles in Malayalam.
sīta kola-ttu vare pooyi
‘Sita went uotp Quilon’
tolilāḷikaḷ sandhya vare jōli ceytu
‘The workers did work till the evening’
sīta mantri varunnatu vare pāṭi
‘Sita sang until the minister came’
pōlīsukār rājya-ttu-oṭṭāke anveesiccu
‘The police searched through out the country’
sādha gōp-y-ōṭu̇ kūṭe pōyi
Radha went with Gopi
kaḷḷan jannal-il (k)-ūṭe akattu̇ kayaRi
The thief entered inside through the window
jātha Rōṭṭ-il(k)-ūṭe pōkunnu
The procession goes along the road
mantri rājāv-in-Re mumpāke vannu
The minister came in front of the king
vidyārtthikaḷ addhyāpakan-Re mampāke māppu̇
The students begged pardon before the teacher
ravi vīṭṭ-in-u̇ nēre pōyi
Ravi went towards the house
pōlisukār kaḷḷan-u̇ nēre niRayoliccu
The police shot at the thief
kuṭṭikaḷ pustakam olike ellām koņṭu vannu
The students brought everything except textbooks
There is only one postposition classified as future participle
āḷukaḷ vīṭukaḷ tōRum sandarŗiccu
The people visited each house
n̄aṅṅaḷ āņṭu̇ tōRum utsavam naṭattunnu
We conduct festival each year
In Malayalam there are twenty-two postpositions classified as derived nouns. They can be again classified into four groups they are,
1.Nominatives
2.Locatives
3.Datives and
4.Sanskrit Loan words
There are nine postpositions classified as nominatives
eg: ouḷam ‘up to, till, for about’
kun̄n̄uṅaḷ kanyākumāri-y-ōḷam san̄cariccu
‘The children travelled up to cape comorin
tolilāḷikaḷ sandhya-y-ōḷam jōli-ceytu
‘The workers worked till evening’
parrikṣa pattu maņI mutal aurambhikkum
‘The examination will-begin from ten o’clock’
vidyārttikaḷ addhyāpakan-ōṭu̇-oppam vannu
‘The students came with the teachers’
nān pustakannal ōṭu̇-ōpam pēnayum vuccu
I placed the pen along with the books
veḷḷam kulal vali varunnu
Water comes through the pipe
jātha Rōṭu vali pōkunnu
The procession goes along the road
n̄aṅṅaḷ kara vali pōyi
We went via the land
suta vāman-is pakaram jōli ceytu
sita did work instead of Rama
parikṣa pantraņṭu mani-kku̇ mul ārambhikkum
‘The examination well-begin after twelve o’ clock
avaḷkku̇ ancu̇ vagās-in-u̇ meel prāyamuņṭu
She is above five years old
sīta-y-uṭe pakkal dhārāḷam paņamuņṭu
Sita has a lot of money with her
mantri pattu̇ manikku-akam varum
‘The minister will come before ten o’clock’
sitta pattu māsatt-in-u-akam podam
'Sita will go within ten months’
rāyuvinu̇ nūR-in-u̇ taale mārkku̇ kiṭṭI
Raju got marks below hundred
There are five postpositions classified as Locatives in Malayalam.
n̄ān an̄cu divasatt-unu̇-uḷḷil pōkam
I will go with in five days
vinōd an̄cu̇ maņi-kku-uḷḷil pookum
Vinōd will go before five o’clock
janaṅṅaḷ rājāv-in-u̇ kīlil jīvikkunn
‘The people live under the king’
naṅṅaḷ nētār-in-Re peril paņam piriuu
We collected money in the –name of leader
ellāvarum daivatt-in-Re munil tulyarāņu̇
All are equal before God
nāṭakam pattu̇ maņI-kku-akattu̇ tuṭaṅṅum
The drama will begin before ten o’clock
amma oru māsatt-in-u-akattu varum
The mother will come with on one month
There are two postpositions classifies as datives in Malayalam.
jātha kola-ttu̇ -ēkku̇ pōkunnu
The procession goes to Quilon
Ramu jumped into the well
mantri an̄cu divasa-ttu̇ ēkku̇ avadhiyāņu̇
The minister is leave for five days
n̄aṅṅaḷ raņtu̇ kola-ttu-ēkku̇ nāṭṭil vanilla
‘We didn’t come to the country for about two years’
tolilāḷikaḷ rājyam-oṭṭukku̇ samaram ceytu
The workers did strike through out the country
In Malayalam there are six Sanskrit words used in the sense of postpositions. These are to be treated separately, since their origin can be traced only to Sanskrit verbs.
avan mūlam avaḷ cattu
She died because of him
samaram mūlam skūḷu̇ aṭaccu
The school was closed due to strike
rāman kāraņam kun̄n̄u̇ mariccu
The child died because of Rama
mala kāraņam skūḷu̇ aṭaccu
The school was closed due to vain
rādha nimittam rāņI vīņu
Rani fell because of Radha
mala nimittam kaḷI niRutti
The match was stopped due to rain
sīta-y-uṭe vaŗam kāŗilla
Sita has no money with her
n̄an̄n̄aḷ nāṭakatt-in-u̇ ŗēṣam samsāriccu
We talked after the drama
rāvaņan ākāa mārgam sann̄cariccu
Ravana travelled by air
kuṭṭikaḷ vimāna mārgam ḍelhiyil pōyi
The children went to Delhi by aeroplāne.
Radhakrishnan Nair. S A Transformational analysis of
Postpositions in Malayalam
Ph.D Thesis, Unpublished
Dept. of Linguistics, University
of Kerala. T-VM.
pp: 161-178.
Rajaraja Varma. A. R 1917 Keerala Paaniniyam
Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative
Society Ltd. Kottayam, Kerala.
Mallassesy Radhakrishnan. S 1994 Postpositions in a Dravidian
Language Mittal Publications
Mallassesy Radhakrishnan. S 1994 Postpositions in a Dravidian
New Delhi, India
Mallassesy Radhakrishnan. S 1994 Postpositions in a Dravidian
pp: 80-91.
Mallassesy Radhakrishnan. S 1994 Postpositions in a Dravidian
Ezhuthachan. K. N 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Mallassesy Radhakrishnan. S 1994 Postpositions in a Dravidian
Theories in Malayalam
Mallassesy Radhakrishnan. S 1994 Postpositions in a Dravidian
Dravidian Linguistic Association
Mallassesy Radhakrishnan. S 1994 Postpositions in a Dravidian
of India, Trivandrum.
Mallassesy Radhakrishnan. S 1994 Postpositions in a Dravidian
Mallassesy Radhakrishnan. S 1994 Postpositions in a Dravidian
a. The Basic Numerals
eg:Name Adjectival Form Example
onnu oru or oR orappam (a loaf)
raņṭu iru iruvaR (two persons)
mūnnu̇ mu or mū mukkaņņan’ (the three eyed)
nālu̇ nāl nālkkāli (astod, a quadruped)
aňcu̇ ai or aňcu aiyampan’ (god with five arrows)
āRu̇ aRu̇ or āRu̇ aRupatu̇ (sixty)
ēlu̇ elu̇ or ēlu̇ elupati (seventy)
eṭṭu eņ or ettu̇ eņņūRu̇ (eight hundred)
oṅpatu toḷ or on’patu̇ tuņņūRu̇ (toḷ + nūRu̇) (ninety)
The relationship between the substantive form and the adjectival form can be explained without much difficulty except in the case of nine. The word ‘on’ ‘patu’ (ten), as the numeral close before pattu. The word for Zaro is puujyam (o).
The manner in which numerals are worked out based on the first ten numbers can be understood by observing the following.
paṭin’onnu̇ eleven
patiRaņṭu̇ twelve
patimmūnnu̇ thirteen
patinnālu fourteen
patin’añcu̇ Fifteen
patin’auru̇ Sixteen
patin’ēlu̇ seventeen
patin’eṭṭu̇ eighteen
patton’patu nineteen
irupatu twenty
irupattonnu̇ twenty one
muppattirņṭu thirty two
naalpattimūnu̇ forty three
anpattinālu̇ fifty four
aRupattāru̇ sixty six
eḷupattāRu̇ seventy six
eņpattēḷu̇ eighty seven
toņņūt’t’eṭṭu̇ ninety eight
toņņūt’t’onpatu̇ ninety nine
nūRu̇ hundred
irunūRu̇ two hundred
munnūRu̇ three hundred
an̄n̄ūRu̇ Five hundred
toḷḷāyir̤am nine hundred
āyiram thousand
āyiratti-toḷḷāyir̤am thousand nine hundred
āyiratti-toḷḷāyiratti aRupalu̇ thousand nine hundred and sixty
āyiratti-toḷḷāyiratti-aRupatti-eṭṭu̇ thousand nine hundred and sixty eight
patin’āyiran ten thousand
lakṣam lakh
onnām | onnāmatte (ādyatte) first
ruņtām | raņṭamatte second
nūnnām | mūnnāmatte third
nālām | nālāmatte fourth
pattam | pattāmatte tenth
The suffix aam or aamatte coverts the numeral into the adjectives form. The adverbial form is obtained by adding the suffix aamati or āmattāyi.
eg: nālamatu̇ or nālāmatāyi - fourthly
eg: ōrōnnu̇ one by one
īraņṭu̇ two by two
mummūnnu̇ three by three
nannālu̇ four by four
aigañcu by fives
Short adjectival forms of the numbers are prefixed in the above examples. In the case of other numbers, distributives are got by duplication.
āRāRu̇ by sixes
ālēlu̇ by sevens
The more common Fractions are given below
ara half (also means waist)
kāl 1 quarter (means leg)
mukkāl 3 quarters (mūnnu – kaal)
onnēkāl 1 ¼
raņṭēkāl 2 ¼
mūnnara 3 ½
nālē-mukkal 4 ¾
u̇ becomes ee when kāl or mukkāl is added since they commence with a consonant.
The time of day is told in two ways. When it is a quarter or a multiple of it, is usual to refer as follows.
7: 15 hrs ēḷēkāl maņI
8: 30 hrs ettara maņI
9: 45 hrs on’patē mukkāl maņI
Otherwise the hour and the minutes are given separately in numbers as follows.
10: 55 pattu an’pattañcu̇
11: 15 patin’onnupatin’añcu̇
Whether the hours refers to night or day is indicated by adding the respective word before the figure.
eg: pakal (daytime) 10: 15 10:15 A.M
rātRi (night) 8: 30 8: 30 P. M
He came on the seventh instant avan’ ēlām tīyati Vannu
He came on mound avan’ tiskaḷālaca vannu
He came at 10 o’ clock avan’ pattu maņikku vannu
He came at 8.10 A.M avan’ pakal eṭṭu-pattin’u vannu
We find from the above examples that Malayalam uses no case ending to indicate the preposition on. But it uses the dative case ending (ku̇|n’u) to indicate at.
George K. M 1983 Malayalam Grammar and Reader
Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative
Society Ltd, Kottayam, Kerala
pp. 99-101.
Ezhuthachan K. N. 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theories In Malayalam, Dravidian
Linguistic Association, Thiruvananthapuram.
Under the categossy of kriyā vis’ēṣaņas as included words which indicate place, time, manner measure, compariṣon, similarity number quality cause etc. kriyanyūnam (Adverbail participle) bhāvarūpam (infinitive), sambhāvana (subjective) anuvadaka (permissive) also kriyanāmas (verbal nouns) ending in instrumental case and verbal appellatives are qualifiers of verbs.
āru meaning ‘way’ is added to adjective participles showing manner.
Eg: ceyyunnavāru (the manner or the act of doing)
ceytavāru (past tense)
The particle e is added to āru which forms part of the past adjective participle contraction appears
eg: ceyta-v-āre > ceytāre (when it was done)
maricca-v-āre > mariccāre (when he died)
āru is added with the future adjective participle
eg: kāņum+āru (for the purpose of seeing)
varum+āru (for the purpose of coming)
In the adverbial participle the verb functions as an adverb, in other words, if qualifies another verbs. Thus two or more verbs come together and in such situations only the last verb is the finite verb. The other verbs or verbal forms come before it as adverbial participles. Take for instance the sentence ponmān ōṭI kkaḷiccu naṭannu ‘The golden deer ran, jumped played about and walked’ structurally all the four verbs are past tense forms. But the last verb non-naṭannu alone is the verb proper others are adverbial participles.
The structure of Malayalam is such that a sentence can take only one finite verb. Therefore when English sentence are translated in to Malayalam, all except one verb have to be reduced to participles.
Ponmān ōṭI - no participle
Ponmān ōṭiccaṭI - ōṭi is participle
Ponmān ōṭiccaṭi kkaḷiccu ōṭI and cāṭi are participles
Ponmān ōṭiccaṭikkaḷiccu naṭannu - ooṭi, cāṭi kaḷūm are participles
kaṛaṅṅI kaṛaṅṅI (taale) vīṅu - kaṛaṅṅi and karaṅṅi are participles
paran̄n̄u kēṭṭu
paran̄n̄u tarāmō
paran̄n̄u koṭuttu
ērreṭuttu (ērru̇ + eṭuttu)
iḷakipōyi (iḷaki pōyi)
ōṭiyakanņu (ōṭi + akannu)
parannaṭuttu (parannu + aṭuttu)
ettikkaḷin̄n̄u (etti + kaḷin̄n̄u)
cōticcumanasilāki
In the above examples, the last word is the verb proper and the verbs or verbal forms which precede are nothing but the adverbial participles, though in many cases the form alone will not reveal it. And in a number of cases, this level of combination gives birth to idioms in the language. Take for instance the verbs.
piṭiccu (caught) and keṭṭI tied
piṭiccukkeṭṭI ‘caught and bound’
keṭṭipiṭiccu embraced
In the latter, keṭṭI assumes a new emphasis. Similarly ‘kuṭiccucattu̇’ means got drowned.
Identification of the adverbial participle (Past)
An adverbial participle is identifies by its position in a sentence. As pointed out earlier, it usually comes just before the finite verb.
eg: avan tāmas’iccu paṭiccu (He stayed and studied)
avan paṭiccu tāmas’iccu (He studied and stayed) /p>
In the first example ‘tāmas’iccu’ is the participle, while in the second it is the finite verb.
When the two verbs are written close to each other there is no need of changing the form of the adverb participle. If there is a pause between them, then the participle will end in u̇ (a neutral vowel)
eg: tāmas’iccu̇ + paṭiccu
Rule: the past adverbial participle (affirmative) is formed by changing the final (u) of the past tense into (u̇). When the past tense is formed in (i) the participle and the verb in the past tense are the same.
eg: paran̄n̄u + kēṭṭu
ōṭi + pōyi
Sometimes the participle will not be close to the finite verb as in
eg: vimānattil kayari rāmanum ṣutayum pōyi
Here ‘kayari’ is adverbial participle
Alternative form of adverbial participle. The adverbial participle (past) has an alternative form with an increment ‘iṭṭu’.
eg: ōṭivannu - ōṭiyiṭṭu vannu
ceytu pōyi - ceytiṭṭu pōyi
tāmasiccupaṭiccu - tāmaṣicciṭṭu paṭiccu
This is used to strengthen the past adverbial participle and cannot be used in every case.
The negative form of the past adverbial participle is obtained by adding ‘āte’ to the conjugational base.
eg: kaḷikkāte ‘without playing, not having played’
ooṭaate ‘without running, not having run’
Adverbial participles have present and future forms also. The future form becomes the infinitive of purpose.
eg: kāņān vannu (come to see)
koṭukkān paran̄n̄u (said to give)
The present adverbial participle in the regular simple infinitive
ceyyavēņam
naṭakka aayirunnu
Some grammarians’ consular verb conditional also as an adverbial participle and there is some justification for it.
Ezhuthachan. K. N 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theories in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, Trivandrum.
George. K. M 1971 Malayalam Grammar and Reader
Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative
Society, Kerala.
Pp: 201 – 204.
Nouns from Nouns
taddhita nāmes are defined as new nouns derived from the old. They are divided into (1) personal nouns (puruṣanāmaṅṅaḷ) and (2) Abstract nouns (bhāva nāmaṅṅaḷ).
These are formed by
(a) adding an (masc): andtti (fem)
eg: Malayan (hill tribe mas)
Malayi, malayatti (fem)
(b) avan, avaḷ, atu etc are also added
eg: vānavan (God)
vānavar (Gods)
nammuḷētu (oun)
kaņiyān (one belonging to the astrologer caste)
Kanniyāḷ (maiden)
(c) i suffix used for all the genders (taddhita trilingam is noted.
eg: nālkkāli (cattle, quadrapeds)
i caṅṅāti (friend)
(d) Sanskrit i ending words:
guņkvati (lady who has good qualities)
(e) Similarly suffixes like kāran, kāri in Sanskrit and Malayalam.
eg: rathakāran (skt. One who makes Chariot)
vēlakkāran (mal. Servant)
pūjakāri, pūjāri (one who conducts worship)
(f) Words ending in āḷam, āḷI etc are very common.
eg: Malayāḷam (the country of Malabar)
Malayāḷi (a resident of malabar)
paṭayāḷi (warier)
mutāḷI (capitalist)
The important suffixes are
a. mā āņma (masculinity) mēnma (greatness)
b. āmņ kūṭṭāyma kavarca (robbery)
According to the author, āyma is derived from āḷI stated above. In this view, Malayāyma (> malayālma > malayāņma derived from malayāḷI) has become the name of language (Malayalam) later.
c. tanam – irappattanam (beggary, meanness)
d. Sanskrit suffixes tvam or ta is found.
Prbhutvam (nobility) sūrata (courage)
These are used in Malayalam also
eg: āņatvam (for āņattam masculinity)
ūḷatvam (foolishness)
(These are only examples of Sanskritisation)
Gundert’s treatment of derivative suffixes is comprehensive and gives a lot of information about the old usages which have became obsolete. For obvious only bare outlines have been given above.
Ezhuthachan. K. N 1975 The History of the grammatical
Theories in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic
Association of India,
Trivandrum. Pp: 600 – 601.
Gundert. H 1962 Malayņḷa bhņṣņ vyņkaraņam
Part II, Basel Misslen Mangalore
Pp: 179.
There are nouns derived from the root or other forms of the verb. They can be broadly divided into three categories.
1. Participle nouns
2. Verbal Noun Proper and Derivative Noun.
Let us take the verbal base URaṅu̇ (to) sleep.
a. Participle nouns are formed by suffixing the third person pronoun (demonstrative pronouns in some uses) to the relative participles.
Uraṅunnavan URaṅiyavan
b. Simple verbal nouns are formed
(i) By suffixing uka (sometimes shortened to k or
a. To the conjugational base of the verb
eg: URaṅuka (act of sleeping)
(ii) By adding al (sometimes ccil, kkal, or ttal) to the base.
eg: URaṅal (act of sleeping)
(c) Derivative nouns have no governing power of the verb. They express an idea Urakkam (sleep).
There are many ways of forming such nouns
eg: Verbal Nouns
Varika act of coming
Pōvuka act of going
ōṭikkal act of driving
vāral act of collecting
nīntal act of swimming
eḷutuka act of writing
kūval act of crying
varavu̇ coming
pōkụ̇ going
Urakkam sleeping
KayaRRam sleep ascend
IRakkam slope
valvu̇ bend
arivu̇ knowledge
uņarcca wakefulness
nōṭṭam look
cāṭṭam jump
eluttu letter
From the above example, is clear that derivative nouns are nouns embodying ideas, mostly abstract. They are also called abstract nouns.
The simple verbal noun is a noun signifying a defined act and as such a negative form is possible.
eg: varika – varātirikkuka
Uraṅal - Uranātirikkaḷ
As pointed out above, verbal nouns proper can be formed in two ways.
a. The first is the infinitive form and it is from the context that we know that it is a verbal noun.
Uraṅuka (to sleep) unf
Uraṅuka (act of sleeping)
Pakal Uraṅunnatụ̇ nannalla sleeping during daytime is not good
Kallam parayuka s’ariyalla speaking his is not right
In the above example, it is also possible to use Uraṅunnatụ̇, parayannatu̇ respectively to get the same meaning.
eg: pakal Uraṅunnatu̇ nannalla
In the usage Uraṅunnatu̇, the suffix atu̇ converts the participle to the noun form.
b. al (or ccil, kkal, ttal)
eg: nīntal act of swimming
taṭukkal act of preventing
kuttal act of hitting, stabbing
paraccil act of saying
Though on grounds of grammar, such forms should be possible for all verbs, in reality it is not so. For instance the following usage will be considered unusual. paṭikkal, naṭakkal ōṭal, pāṭal.
eg:
kaḷ kaḷvi fame
kayis koyu̇ttu barvest
kiṭa kiṭappu̇ posture of lying down
eņņ eņņam number
ōr ōrmma memory (remembrance)
veyu̇ veyil sunshine
George. K. M 1983 Malayalam Grammar &
Reader, Sahitya Pravarthaka
Co-operative society,
Kottayam, PP: 123 – 125.
Adjectives and nouns are syntactically similar in a number of ways. Thus the traditional three-way distinction between verbs, adjectives and nouns may perhaps descriptive and quantitative adjectives are derived from nouns.
Adjectives are those denoting quality. In Bases of this type ‘ma’ can be added to denote the meaning of tanmātra. Among the adjectives those which we termed as ‘Sud’dham’ are base forms and all of them take ‘ma’. In addition to this, certain nouns and bases are taken as qualitative and to them ‘ma’ is added. It is to convey this sense the statement ‘bheedakaartha prakruti’ was made for the other adjectives, the suffix ‘ttam’ is used.
Examples:
Putu (new) putuma (novelty)
veḷ (white) veņma (whiteness)
nēr (straight, thin) nēṛma (straightness, thinness)
ceṛu (small) ceṛuma (smallness)
āņ (male) āņma (maleness)
pala (old) palama (aged)
teḷi (clear) teḷima (clarity)
van (big) vanma (bigness)
aṭi (foot) aṭima (slave)
kōn (lord) kōnma (lordship)
maṭayan (foolishman) maṭayattam (foolishness)
kaḷḷan (thief) kaḷḷattanam (falsehood)
In words borrowed from Sanskrit, the Sanskrit forms can be used.
mṛudu (soft)-mṛudutvam, mārdavam, mṛuduta mṛadima (softness).
Sundara (beautiful) – saundaryam, sundaratvam (beauty)
ramaņīyam (attractive) - rāmaņiiyakam
ramaņīyata (attractiveness)
Raja Raja Varma A. R 1999 Kērala Pāņinyam
Translated by C. J. Roy International School of
Dravidian Linguistics
Trivandrum.
Pp: 161-162.
Adjectival Nouns (Kaarakakrutt)
The Kārakakrutt makes verbs less important by changing them as modifiers and providing prominence to one of the karakas concerned by making if the modified. The prominent kaarakam is the subject other karakas also can be made the subject as desired. So it may be argued that the subject alone comes under the sense conveyed by the kārakakrutt. However, it is recognised that kaarakakrutt occurs in the meanings of all the kaaratas.
The kaarakakrutt has two suffixes, namely ‘a’ and ‘i’. They are to be used as found suitable. The process is not systematic.
eg: In the sense of the subject
noņa (l,e) - noņaya - noņayan (man who lies)
noņacci (women who lies)
cati (cheating) – catiya – catiyan (man who cheats)
caticci (women who cheats)
uruḷ (to roll) - urụḷ - uruḷan (that which is round)
tuvar (to become dry) – tuvava – tuvaran (that which is dried)
teņt - (to leg) - teņṭi (beggar)
moņṭ (to lame) - moņti (lame person)
In the sense of object etc
ari (to sift) – arippan (sifting spoon) – instrument
aṭa (to close) - aṭappan (lid) – object
tānn (to support) - kālttānņI (support to leg) location
The suffix ‘i’ is usually seen in samaasam.
eg:
maramcāṭi (that which jumps in tree)
kāṭōṭi (that which runs in forest)
miinkolli (that which kills fish)
kāṛṛāṭi (that which swings in air)
vāyāṭi (person who wags with mouth)
nilam talli (thing with which the floor is beaten)
pākkuveṭṭi (thing with which the betel nut is cut)
tutōnṭi (thing with which fire is tilted)
kaluvēṛi (person who climbs the gallows)
ānappāṛṛi (that which scatters elephant)
nāņam kuņaṅṅi (person swaggering due to shyness)
There are also instances involving a mixture of the form of kṛutikṛutt and meaning of kārakakṛutt. This is a feature of all languages.
Raja Raja Varma. A. R 1999 Keerala Paņinyam
Translated by C. J. Roy International School of
Dravidian Linguistics
Trivandrum.
PP: 264 – 266.
Compounds can be divided into three types taking the importance of component part into consideration.
1. tatpuruṣun – Importance for the later word
eg: tala - vēdana (head-ache)
2. bahuvrīhi – Importance for the word standing outside the compound words (exocentric) eg: tāmarakkaņņan (one whose eyes are like lotus)
3. drandvan – some importance given to all words
eg: acchanammamār (father and mother)
(a) tatpuruṣa is a compound where two words are joined the qualifier and qualified relation (vis’ēṣaņa vis’ēṣya bhāva)
The components may be a noun, verb or adjective, tatpuruṣan of various types depending upon the case suffixes omitted.
eg: The meaning of the case Compound Vigraha (Dissolution)
1. Nirdēsika (I case) bhēdamāvuka bhēdam āvuka of-
(to become compound according of the cured) meaning)
2. Pratigrāhika (II case) pākku veṭṭI An instrument which cuts the areca nut
3. samyōjika (III case) pantokkam Thing which is like a ball
4. uddēsika (IV case) hōmappura House for doing hōma
5. prayōjika (V case) māṅnākkari A curry prepared by mango
6. sambandhika (VI case) marappoṭI The dust of timber
7. Ādhārika (VII case) tōḷvaḷa An ornament put an the shoulder
8. niṅṅu (gati) nāṭuniṅṅI Departed from land
9. kuriccu (gati) ānabhrāntu̇ malady regarding elephant
(b) a tatpuruṣa of the nirdēs’ika type in which the first word qualifies the second is called karmahāraya.
eg: konnatteṅṅu̇ - very long coconut tree (konna āya teṅṅu̇) nīlattāmara blue lotus (Here the adjective is in samānādhikaraņa or linear relation with second word)
(c) A tatpuruṣa where two words are brought together in metaphorical identity it is called rūpaka compound.
eg: aṭimalar - aṭiyākunna malar. i.e. the flower in the shape of aṭI (foot). samāra sāgara – the ocean in the shape of world.
(d) Some middle words are omitted from soma compounds out the meaning will be clear due to the popularity of the words. They are called madhyama padolāci compounds and is a variety of tatpuruṣa.
eg: maňňu toppi (A cap which protects from deal)
(The word meaning ‘protect’ is omitted from the compound tivaņṭI (train, lit.
A vehicle which runs by the aid of fire)
(e) When kārakas are joined with verbs we have kāraka tatpuruṣan
eg: vēḷikalikka (to marry)
(In this case the first word stands in the karmakāraka with the verb (vēīI
marriage)
(f) Compounds which come in vibhakti meanings can be called by the case names or kārakas, like samyōjika (soual) tatpuruṣa, karaņa-(instrumental) but puruṣa etc. Introducing sub-divisions in compounds will be an endless job, says the author.
(g) In Sanskrit compounds mostly relate to nouns. Hence verbal compounds like tēccukuḷI (oll bath) piṭiccupari (robbery) will not be found in Sanskrit (In the above words the components are verbs).
(a) A viŗēṣaņa is compounded with viŗņṣya to show the meaning ‘one who has’ is a bahuvrihi compound.
eg: nān – mukhan (one who has four faces)
(b) Following Sanskrit writers bahuvrihi is divided into three.
(i) upamāgarbha
kaňjanērmili (A lady whose eye is like lotus)
(Here the word denoting similarity is mentioned ie, nēr)
(ii) upamālupta (where the word showing similarity like ňer etc, remains understood
matimakhi (one whose face is like the moon)
(iii) upamānalupta (where upamāna ie, the object with which the comparison is made) is not expressed.
pēṭakkaņņI (a lady whose eyes are like those of a dear)
a. Words of equal importance are combined omitting the collative conjunction.
eg: acchanammamār (father and mother)
b. The dvandvan compounds of numerals show the meaning of ‘or’
eg: aňcāru (fire or six)
pattu pati naňcu (ten or fifteen)
In alupta (aluk) compounds the gender and case suffixes are not elided.
eg: umparkōn (Dēvēndra, plural suffix ‘ar’ is not elided)
maram kayattam (climbing the tree, gender suffix ‘am’ of the first word not elided.
Ezhuthachan K. N. 1975 The History of the Grammatical
Theories in Malayalam
Dravidian Linguistic Association
of India, Trivanrum.
Pp: 422 – 424.
Rajasajavarma. A. R. 1917 Keerala Paņinīyam,
Sahitya Pravarthaka
Co-operative society Ltd,
Kottayam, Kerala.
Gundert. H 1962 Malayāḷa bhāṣā vyākaruņam
Part V, Basel Mission Press,
Bangalore.e). Pharyngalization
f) Nazalisation
ii) Double Articulation
4. Aspiration
Aspiration and its absence
5. Vowel Retroflexion
7. Diphthongs and Related Phenomenon
a) Lip Position
c) Tongue Position
d) Distribution of Diphthong
8. Voice Quality
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Dento-Alveolar Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar
Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Stop p ph b t d ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍha c ch j k kh g Aspirated th Nasals m n n ņ n̄ ṅ Laterals l ḷ Flapped r r Fricatives s ŗ ṣ h Continuant v l y Stop (Plosives)
Nasals
Laterals
Flapped
Fricatives
Continuants
Length Consonants
2. Distinctive features
a) Consonant
b) Obstruent
Continuants
Back Root
Laminal
Palatal
Retroflex
Voiced
Aspiratedness
Retracted
Nasal
Laterals
High
3. Phonetic Variants
4. Allophones and their distribution
Vowels
Consonants
Bilabial Stops
Apical Stops
Dental stops
Voiceless Dental Stop
Aspirated dental steps
Voiced dental stop
Alveolar Stop
Retroflex Stop
Aspirated retroflex stop
Velar Stops
Nasals
Laterals
Fricatives
Continuant
5. Phonotactic Patterning
8. Morphophonemic Alternation
b) Terminals
10. Juncture (Pause)
12. Intonation
14. Syllable – Types and Structure
Types
Disyllabic Words
Syllabic Structure
C. Morphology (Word Structure)
a) Parts of Speech
1. a) i) Semantic Classification of Nouns:
ii) a) Number
b) Gender
Gender Markers
c) Case (Vibhakti)
Nominal forms:
i) Personal Pronouns
ii) Demonstrative
iii) Interrogative and Question Words
iv) Possessive
v) Reciprocal
c) Verb Morphology (Finite and Non-Finite Verb)
i) Voice
Passive Voice
ii) Tense
Past Tense
Augments in verbs – General remarks
Future Tense
Present Tense
I Present Tense
II Present Tense
Past Tense
Present Tense
Future Tense
iii) Mood
The origin of the model suffixes.
iv) The agreement
f) Clitics/ Particles
Partially Bound Clitics
Demonstratives
Distant Domonstratives
Proximate Demonstratives
Interrogatives
Interrogative Base 2
Verb and Noun Attributes
ii) Bound Clitics
Locative
Temporal
Comparison
Expletive
Continuity
Possession
Directional
Proximity
Distributive
Emphatic, Expletive, Interrogative
Interrogative
Connective
Temporal
Negative
Positive
Relationship
i) Conditional
Negative Forms
ii) Conjunction and co-ordination
Conjunctive Particles
Concordance
d) Adjectives
Formation of Adjectives
Nouns used adjectivally
i) Post Positions
1.Past Participles
2.kuRiccْu; about
3.paRRi about
4.ninnu from
5.vaccu ‘at, among, in’
6.kūţI ‘through’ , with along’
7.colli about
8.ottْu with
9.oliccْu ‘except’
10.āgi for
11.toţţu from
12.puraskariccu ‘about’
13.sambandhiccْu about, on
14.koḷḷiccْu ‘about’
15.vēņţI ‘for’
16.ooţţu ‘to’ ‘into’
17 tuţaْnْnI from
2.Present Participles
1.vare ‘upto’ ‘till’ ‘until’
2.oţţāke throughtout
3.kūţe ‘with’, through’, ‘along’
4.mumpāke ‘in front of’, ‘before’
5.nēre ‘towards, at’
6.olike ‘except’
3.Future Participles
1.tooRum each
4.Derived Nouns
1.Nominatives
2.mutal ‘from’
3.oppam ‘with, along with’
4.vali through, along, via
5.pakram ‘instead of’
6.mul after, above
7.pakkal ‘with’
8.akam before, within
9.taale below
2.Locatives
1.uḷḷil ‘within’ ‘before’
2.kīlil under
3.peril ‘In the name of’
4.mūnil ‘before’
5.akattْu ‘before’ ‘with in’
3.Datives
1.ēkkْu to into for for about’
2.oţţukkْu ‘throughout
4.Sanskrit Loan Words
1.mūlam ‘because of, due to’
2.kāraņam because of, due to
3.nimittam because of, due to
4.vaŗam- with
5.ŗēṣam after
6.mārgam ‘by’
b) The Numerals | Quantifies
b.Further Numerals
c.Ordinals
d.Distributive Numerals
e.Fractions
f.Time of Day
g.Use of case ending corresponding to on and at.
e) Adverbs
Accessorial (Adverb of Manner)
Adverb of Time
Intentional (Adverb of Purpose)
Adverbial Participle
Other examples
Negative Form:
Present and feature forms:
2. Derivational Morphology:
1.Personal nouns:
2.Abstract Nouns (bhāva nāmaْnْnaḷ)
Nouns from Verbs
Verbal Nouns
2.Verbal and derivative nouns:
Derivative Nouns
3.The two forms of verbal nouns proper
Derivative Nouns
Adjectives Derived from Nouns
Adjectives from Nouns
b) Compound Morphology
i) tatpuruṣan
ii) Bahurvihi
iii) Dvandvan
iv) Alupta Compunds
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