Editing Malayalam (section)

== History ==
[[File:Quilon Syrian copper plates (849 AD).jpg|thumbnail|The [[Quilon Syrian copper plates]] (849/850 CE) are considered as the oldest available inscription written in [[Old Malayalam]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Narayanan|first=M. G. S.|year=2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YDCngEACAAJ&q=Perumals+of+Kerala|title=Perumals of Kerala: Brahmin Oligarchy and Ritual Monarchy|publisher=CosmoBooks|isbn=9788188765072|location=Thrissur (Kerala)|orig-date=1972|access-date=7 June 2021|archive-date=7 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607091744/https://books.google.com/books?id=0YDCngEACAAJ&q=Perumals+of+Kerala|url-status=live}}</ref> Besides [[Old Malayalam]], the copper plate also contains signatures in [[Arabic]] (Kufic script), [[Middle Persian]] (cursive Pahlavi script) and [[Judeo-Persian]] (standard square [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]) scripts.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cereti|first=C. G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3gOdaiXNKkC&q=Exegisti+Monumenta:+Festschrift+in+Honour+of+Nicholas+Sims-+Williams|title=Exegisti Monumenta: Festschrift in Honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams|publisher=Harrassowitz|year=2009|isbn=978-3-447-05937-4|editor-last=Sundermann|editor-first=W.|location=Wiesbaden|chapter=The Pahlavi Signatures on the Quilon Copper Plates|editor-last2=Hintze|editor-first2=A.|editor-last3=de Blois|editor-first3=F.|access-date=7 June 2021|archive-date=5 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505085830/https://books.google.com/books?id=b3gOdaiXNKkC&q=Exegisti+Monumenta:+Festschrift+in+Honour+of+Nicholas+Sims-+Williams|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

Due to the geographical isolation of the [[Malabar Coast]] from the rest of the [[Indian subcontinent|Indian peninsula]] due to the presence of the [[Western Ghats]] mountain ranges which lie parallel to the coast, the dialect of [[Old Tamil]] spoken in [[Kerala]] was different from that spoken in [[Tamil Nadu]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The mainstream view holds that Malayalam began to grow as a distinct literary language from the western coastal dialect of [[Middle Tamil]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages |title=Dravidian languages – History, Grammar, Map, & Facts |access-date=22 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709173402/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages |archive-date=9 July 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the linguistic separation completed sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries.{{sfn|Karashima|2014|loc=p. 6|ps=: Other sources date this split to the 7th and 8th centuries.}}{{sfnp|Gopinathan Nair|2009|p=682|ps=: "[...]&nbsp;Malayalam emerged from Proto-Tamil–Malayalam; divergence occurred over a period of four or five centuries, from the 8th century onward".}} The renowned poets of [[Old Tamil|Classical Tamil]] such as [[Paranar]] (1st century CE), [[Ilango Adigal]] (2nd–3rd century CE), and [[Kulasekhara Alvar]] (9th century CE) were [[Malayali|Keralites]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The [[Sangam literature|Sangam works]] can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.<ref name="Chandran 2018a"/>

Some scholars however believe that both [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and Malayalam developed during the prehistoric period from a common ancestor, "Proto-Tamil-Malayalam", and that the notion of Malayalam being a "daughter" of [[Tamil language|Tamil]] is misplaced.{{sfn|Asher|Kumari|1997|p=xxiv}} This is based on the fact that Malayalam and several [[Dravidian languages]] on the [[Western Coastal Plains|Western Coast]] have common archaic features which are not found even in the oldest historical forms of literary Tamil.<ref>A. Govindankutty (1972) – From proto-Tamil-Malayalam to West Coast dialects. Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. 14 No. (1/2), pp. 52–60</ref> Despite this, Malayalam shares many common innovations with Tamil that emerged during the early [[Middle Tamil]] period, thus making independent descent impossible.<ref name="ayyar-1936" />{{refn|group=note|Linguist K.M Prabhakar Variar further adds: "It is an accepted principle in comparative linguistics that 'innovations' rather than 'retentions' or 'losses' are to be relied on for sub-grouping of genetically related language. Every member of a language family has a stock of 'retentions of a few proto-features' together with a stock 'innovations'. It is the later that would show the relative distances among the member languages. Therefore, retention of a few proto-features in a particular language does not prove the earlier branching of the same from the proto-language. Malayalam, of course, has retained certain phonological and morphological features which can be reconstructed as belonging to the Proto-Dravidian and which have been lost or have suffered shape changes in the other member-languages. Which language in the Dravidian family doesn't have such retentions? Has anyone measured the relative percentages of retentions of archaic features in the twenty and odd Dravidian languages?".<ref>{{cite book |last=Variar |first=K. M. Prabhakara |date=1980|editor-last=S.V.|editor-first=Subramanian|title=Heritage of the Tamils - Language and Grammar |publisher=International Institute of Tamil Studies|pages=382–392 |chapter=Early Malayalam and ancient Tamil works|isbn=}}</ref>}} For example, [[Old Tamil]] lacks the first and second person plural pronouns with the ending ''{{IAST|kaḷ}}''. It is in the Early Middle Tamil stage that ''{{IAST|kaḷ}}'' first appears:<ref>{{cite book |last=Ayyar |first=Ramaswami |url=https://archive.org/stream/TheEvolutionOfMalayalamMorphology/The-Evolution-of-Malayalam-Morphology|pages=35–37 | title=The Evolution of Malayalam Morphology|year=1936 |publisher=Cochin government press |location=Cochin, Kerala |edition=1st}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
!{{shade|80|color=violet|Language}}
!{{shade|80|color=violet| Plural Pronouns}}
|-
!scope=row {{shade|60|color=violet|[[Old Tamil]]}}
|{{shade|60|color=violet|yām, nām, nīr, nīyir}}
|-
!scope=row {{shade|40|color=violet| [[Middle Tamil]]}}
| {{shade|40|color=violet| nānkaḷ, nām, nīnkaḷ, enkaḷ}}
|-
!scope=row {{shade|20|color=violet| Malayalam }}
|{{shade|20|color=violet| ñaṅṅaḷ, nām, niṅṅaḷ, nammaḷ}}
|}

Indeed, most features of Malayalam morphology are derivable from a form of speech corresponding to early Middle Tamil.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ayyar |first=Ramaswami |url=https://archive.org/stream/TheEvolutionOfMalayalamMorphology/The-Evolution-of-Malayalam-Morphology|page=2 | title=The Evolution of Malayalam Morphology|year=1936 |publisher=Cochin government press |location=Cochin, Kerala |edition=1st}}</ref>

[[Robert Caldwell]], in his 1856 book "''A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages"'', opined that literary Malayalam branched from ''Classical Tamil'' and over time gained a large amount of [[Sanskrit]] vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs.<ref name="caldwell">Caldwell, Robert (1875). [https://archive.org/stream/comparativegramm00caldrich#page/ii/mode/2up ''A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316104706/https://archive.org/stream/comparativegramm00caldrich#page/ii/mode/2up |date=16 March 2016 }}, second edition. London: Trübner & Co.</ref> As the language of scholarship and administration, Old-Tamil, which was written in [[Tamil-Brahmi]] and the Vatteluttu alphabet later, greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam as a literary language. The [[Malayalam script]] began to diverge from the ''[[Vatteluttu]]'' and the Western [[Grantha script|Grantha]] scripts in the 8th and 9th centuries of [[Common Era]]. By the end of the 13th century, a written form of the language emerged which was unique from the ''[[Vatteluttu]]'' script that was used to write Tamil on the eastern coast.{{sfn|Mahapatra|1989|p=307}}

=== Old Malayalam ===
[[Old Malayalam]] ({{Transliteration|ml|ISO|Paḻaya Malayāḷam}}), an inscriptional language found in [[Kerala]] from circa 9th to circa 13th century CE,<ref>M. G. S. Narayanan. "Kozhikkodinte Katha". Malayalam/Essays. Mathrubhumi Books. Second Edition (2017) {{ISBN|978-81-8267-114-0}}</ref> is the earliest attested form of Malayalam.<ref name="narayanan-2013">{{Cite book|last=Narayanan|first= M. G. S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YDCngEACAAJ&q=Perumals+of+Kerala|title=Perumals of Kerala|publisher=CosmoBooks|year=2013|isbn=9788188765072|location=Thrissur|pages=380–82 |access-date= 7 June 2021|archive-date=7 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607091744/https://books.google.com/books?id=0YDCngEACAAJ&q=Perumals+of+Kerala|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ayyar|first=L. V. Ramaswami|url=https://archive.org/stream/TheEvolutionOfMalayalamMorphology/The-Evolution-of-Malayalam-Morphology|title=The Evolution of Malayalam Morphology |publisher=Rama Varma Research Institute|year=1936|edition=1st|location=Trichur|page=3}}</ref> The beginning of the development of [[Old Malayalam]] from a western coastal dialect of [[Middle Tamil]] can be dated to circa 8th century CE.{{sfn|Karashima|2014|pp=152–153}}<ref name="krishnamurti-2003" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Krishnamurti|first=Bhadriraju|title=Malayalam language|url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/Malayalam-language|url-status=live|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=27 October 2018|archive-date=16 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116043910/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Malayalam-language}}</ref> It remained a west coast dialect until circa 9th century CE or a little later.<ref name= "krishnamurti">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Krishnamurti|first=Bhadriraju|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages/Literary-languages#ref279622|url-status=live |archive-date =7 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607095036/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages/Literary-languages#ref279622|title = Dravidian Languages}}</ref>{{sfn |Karashima|2014|pp=152–153}} The origin of [[Malayalam calendar]] dates back to year 825 CE.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data1/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005b5f_93.pdf |title= Kollam Era |publisher=Indian Journal History of Science |access-date=30 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527163650/http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data1/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005b5f_93.pdf |archive-date=27 May 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=Time measurement and calendar construction|author=Broughton Richmond|year= 1956 |page=218|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gUlmAAAAMAAJ|access-date=9 June 2021|archive-date=9 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609032538/https://books.google.com/books?id=gUlmAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=History of Kerala|author=R. Leela Devi|publisher=Vidyarthi Mithram Press & Book Depot|year=1986|page=408|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pXpuAAAAMAAJ|access-date=9 June 2021|archive-date=9 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609032523/https://books.google.com/books?id=pXpuAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> It is generally agreed that the western coastal dialect of Tamil began to separate, diverge, and grow as a distinct language due to geographical separation of Kerala from the Tamil country<ref name="krishnamurti" /> and the influence of [[Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit]] from the [[Nambudiri]] [[Brahmin]]s of the [[Malabar Coast]].<ref name="narayanan-2013" /><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" />

The [[Old Malayalam]] language was employed in several official records and transactions (at the level of the [[Chera Perumals of Makotai|Chera Perumal]] kings, as well as the [[Caste|upper-caste]] ([[Nambudiri]]) village temples).<ref name="narayanan-2013" /> Most of the inscriptions in [[Old Malayalam]] were found from the [[List of districts of Kerala|northern districts of Kerala]], those lie adjacent to [[Tulu Nadu]].<ref name="narayanan-2013" /> [[Old Malayalam]] was mostly written in [[Vatteluttu]] script (with [[Grantha script|Pallava/Southern Grantha]] characters).<ref name="narayanan-2013" /> [[Old Malayalam]] had several features distinct from the contemporary Tamil, which include the nasalisation of adjoining sounds, substitution of palatal sounds for dental sounds, contraction of vowels, and the rejection of gender verbs.<ref name="narayanan-2013" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Veluthat|first=Kesavan|date=2018|title=History and Historiography in Constituting a Region: The Case of Kerala|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2348448918759852|journal=Studies in People's History|volume=5|issue=1|pages=13–31|doi=10.1177/2348448918759852|s2cid=166060066|issn=2348-4489|access-date=7 June 2021|archive-date=13 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210913063330/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2348448918759852|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Narayanan|first=M. G. S.|title=Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala|publisher=Kerala Historical Society|year=1972|location=Kerala|page=18}}</ref> ''[[Ramacharitam]]'' and ''[[Thirunizhalmala]]'' are the possible literary works of [[Old Malayalam]] found so far.

=== Middle Malayalam ===
[[Old Malayalam]] gradually developed into [[Middle Malayalam]] (''Madhyakaala Malayalam'') by the 13th century CE.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R9GbBVfrm4gC&q=%22middle+malayalam%22&pg=PA14|title=A Primer of Malayalam Literature|first=T. K. Krishna|last=Menon|date=1939|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=9788120606036|via=Google Books|access-date=7 June 2021|archive-date=7 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607091742/https://books.google.com/books?id=R9GbBVfrm4gC&q=%22middle+malayalam%22&pg=PA14|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Malayalam literature]] also completely diverged from [[Tamil literature]] during this period. Works including ''Unniyachi Charitham'', ''Unnichiruthevi Charitham'', and ''Unniyadi Charitham'', are written in [[Middle Malayalam]], and date back to the 13th and 14th centuries of the [[Common Era]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006">{{cite book|author=Dr. K. Ayyappa Panicker|url=https://archive.org/details/ASHORTHISTORYOFMALAYALAMLITERATURE|title=A Short History of Malayalam Literature|publisher=Department of Information and Public Relations, Kerala|year=2006|location=Thiruvananthapuram}}</ref><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The ''Sandesha Kavya''s of 14th century CE written in [[Manipravalam]] language include ''[[Unnuneeli Sandesam]]''.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> ''Kannassa Ramayanam'' and ''Kannassa Bharatham'' by ''Rama Panikkar'' of the [[Niranam poets]] who lived between 1350 and 1450, are representative of this language.<ref name="kerala india-2003" /> [[Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer|Ulloor]] has opined that Rama Panikkar holds the same position in [[Malayalam literature]] that [[Edmund Spenser]] does in [[English literature]].<ref name="kerala india-2003">{{Citation|last=Kerala (India)|first=Dept. of Public Relations|title=District Handbooks of Kerala: Pathanamthitta (Volume 7 of District Handbooks of Kerala, Kerala (India). Dept. of Public Relations|year=2003}}</ref> The ''[[Champu]] Kavyas'' written by Punam Nambudiri, one among the ''Pathinettara Kavikal'' (Eighteen and a half poets) in the court of the [[Zamorin of Calicut]], also belong to Middle Malayalam.<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /><ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The literary works of this period were heavily influenced by [[Manipravalam]], which was a combination of contemporary [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and [[Sanskrit]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The word ''Mani-Pravalam'' literally means ''Diamond-Coral'' or ''Ruby-Coral''. The 14th-century ''[[Lilatilakam]]'' text states Manipravalam to be a ''Bhashya'' (language) where "Dravida and Sanskrit should combine together like ruby and coral, without the least trace of any discord".<ref name="arvind raghunathan-2003">{{cite book|author1=Sheldon Pollock|author2=Arvind Raghunathan|title=Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ak9csfpY2WoC|date=19 May 2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22821-4|pages=449, 455–472|access-date=18 May 2018|archive-date=27 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227041301/https://books.google.com/books?id=ak9csfpY2WoC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ke rāmacandr̲an nāyar">Ke Rāmacandr̲an Nāyar (1971). ''Early Manipravalam: a study.'' Anjali. Foreign Language Study. pp. 78</ref> The scripts of ''[[Kolezhuthu]]'' and ''[[Malayanma]]'' were also used to write [[Middle Malayalam]]. In addition to ''Vatteluthu'' and [[Grantha script]], those were used to write [[Old Malayalam]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The literary works written in [[Middle Malayalam]] were heavily influenced by [[Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit]], while comparing them with the modern [[Malayalam literature]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /><ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" />
[[File:Copy of Ezhuthachan's Adhyathma ramayanam Kilippattu.jpg|thumb|Copy of Ezhuthachan's [[stylus]] and ''[[Adhyathmaramayanam|Adhyatma Ramayanam]]'' preserved at [[Thunchan Parambu, Tirur]]|251x251px]]

=== Modern Malayalam ===
The [[Middle Malayalam]] was succeeded by Modern Malayalam (''Aadhunika Malayalam'') by 15th century CE.<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /> The poem ''[[Krishnagatha]]'' written by [[Cherusseri Namboothiri]], who was the court poet of the king Udaya Varman Kolathiri (1446–1475) of [[Kolathunadu]], is written in modern Malayalam.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The language used in ''Krishnagatha'' is the modern spoken form of Malayalam.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> During the 16th century CE, [[Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan]] from the [[Kingdom of Tanur]] and [[Poonthanam Nambudiri]] from the [[Kingdom of Valluvanad]], followed the new trend initiated by Cherussery in their poems. The ''[[Adhyathmaramayanam Kilippattu]]'' and ''Mahabharatham [[Kilippattu]],'' written by Ezhuthachan, and ''[[Jnanappana]],'' written by Poonthanam, are also included in the earliest form of Modern Malayalam.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />
{| class="wikitable" align="right" style="margin-left:2em"
|+ Comparison of [[Grantha script|Grantha]], [[Tigalari script|Tigalari]], and [[Malayalam script]]s
|-
! || ! colspan=5 | Letter
|-
! Script !! ka !! kha !! ga !! gha !! ṅa
|-
| Malayalam || ക || ഖ || ഗ || ഘ || ങ
|-
| Grantha || 𑌕 || 𑌖 || 𑌗 || 𑌘 || 𑌙
|-
| Tigalari|| 𑎒 || 𑎓 || 𑎔 || 𑎕 || 𑎖
|-
| Tamil || க ||  ||  ||  || ங
|-
| Sinhala || ක්|| ඛ || ග || ඝ || ණ
|-
| Kannada  || ಕ || ಖ || ಗ || ಘ || ಙ
|}
[[Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan]] is also credited with developing the [[Malayalam script]] into the current form through the intermixing and modification of the erstwhile scripts of ''[[Vatteluttu]]'', ''[[Kolezhuthu]]'', and [[Grantha script]], which were used to write the inscriptions and literary works of Old and Middle Malayalam.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> He further eliminated excess and unnecessary letters from the modified script.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> Hence, Ezhuthachan is also known as ''The Father of modern Malayalam''.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The development of modern [[Malayalam script]] was also heavily influenced by the [[Tigalari script]], which was used to write [[Sanskrit]], due to the influence of [[Tuluva Brahmin]]s in Kerala.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The language used in the [[Arabi Malayalam]] works of the 16th–17th century CE is a mixture of Modern Malayalam and [[Arabic language|Arabic]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> They follow the syntax of modern Malayalam, though written in a modified form of [[Arabic script]], which is known as [[Arabi Malayalam script]].<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval work ''[[Keralolpathi]]'', which describes the [[Parashurama]] legend and the departure of the final Cheraman Perumal king to [[Mecca]], to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.<ref name="history of travancore by shungunny menon">History of Travancore by Shungunny Menon, page 28</ref>

[[Kunchan Nambiar]] introduced a new literary form called ''Thullal'', and [[Unnayi Variyar]] introduced reforms in ''[[Kathakali|Attakkatha literature]]''.<ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" /> The printing, prose literature, and [[Malayalam journalism]], developed after the latter-half of the 18th century CE. Modern literary movements in Malayalam literature began in the late 19th century with the rise of the famous Modern Triumvirate consisting of [[Kumaran Asan]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poemhunter.com/kumaran-asan/|title=Kumaran Asan – Kumaran Asan Poems – Poem Hunter|website=poemhunter.com|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729045813/https://www.poemhunter.com/kumaran-asan/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poemhunter.com/ulloor-s-parameswara-iyer/|title=Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer – Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer Poems – Poem Hunter|website=poemhunter.com|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729044216/https://www.poemhunter.com/ulloor-s-parameswara-iyer/|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Vallathol Narayana Menon]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poemhunter.com/vallathol-narayana-menon/|title=Vallathol Narayana Menon – Vallathol Narayana Menon Poems – Poem Hunter|website=poemhunter.com|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729044157/https://www.poemhunter.com/vallathol-narayana-menon/|url-status=live}}</ref> In the second half of the 20th century, [[Jnanpith]] winning poets and writers like [[G. Sankara Kurup]], [[S. K. Pottekkatt]], [[Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai]], [[M. T. Vasudevan Nair]], [[O. N. V. Kurup]], and [[Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri]], had made valuable contributions to the modern Malayalam literature.<ref name="subodh kapoor-2002" /><ref name="E.G. Smith 1994" /><ref name="nirmala sadanand publishers-1967" /><ref name="sahitya akademi-1987" /><ref name="kerala sahitya akademi-1993" /> The life and works of [[Edasseri Govindan Nair]] have assumed greater socio-literary significance after his death and Edasseri is now recognised as an important poet of Malayalam.<ref>[https://www.edasseri.org/ "Edasseri Govindan Nair"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230301220347/https://edasseri.org/ |date=1 March 2023 }}. Edasseri.org. Retrieved 7 March 2023.</ref> Later, writers like [[O. V. Vijayan]], [[Kamaladas]], [[M. Mukundan]], [[Arundhati Roy]], and [[Vaikom Muhammed Basheer]], have gained international recognition.<ref name="c gopinathan pillai-2004" /><ref name="ed vinod kumar maheshwari-2002" /><ref name="amit chaudhuri-2008" /> Malayalam has also borrowed a lot of its words from various foreign languages: mainly from the [[Semitic languages]] including [[Arabic]], and the [[Languages of Europe|European languages]] including [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], due to the long heritage of [[Indian Ocean trade]] and the Portuguese-Dutch colonization of the [[Malabar Coast]].<ref name="sreedhara menon-2007" /><ref name="dr k ayyappa panicker-2006" />