Malayalam grammar
Malayalam is one of the Dravidian languages and as such has an agglutinative grammar. The word order is generally subject–object–verb, although other orders are often employed for reasons such as emphasis. Nouns are inflected for case and number, whilst verbs are conjugated for tense, mood and causativity (and also in archaic language for person, gender, number and polarity).
Nouns
The declensional paradigms for some common nouns and pronouns are given below. As Malayalam is an agglutinative language, it is difficult to delineate the cases strictly and determine how many there are, although seven or eight is the generally accepted number. Alveolar plosives and nasals (although the modern Malayalam script does not distinguish the latter from the dental nasal) are marked with a macron below, following the convention of the National Library at Kolkata romanization.
Personal pronouns
Vocative forms are given in parentheses after the nominative, as the only pronominal vocatives that are used are the third person ones, which only occur in compounds.
| Singular | Plural | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | First person | Second person | Third person (masculine) | Third person (feminine) | First person (exclusive) | First person (inclusive) | Second person | Third Person |
| Nominative | ñāṉ | nī, ningal | avaṉ (voc. avaṉē) | avaḷ (voc. avaḷē) | ñaṅgaḷ | nām/ nammaḷ | niṅṅaḷ | avar (voc. avarē) |
| Accusative | eṉṉe | niṉṉe | avaṉe | avaḷe | ñaṅgaḷe | nammale | niṅgaḷe | avaru |
| Genitive | eṉṯe (also eṉ, eṉṉuṭe) | niṉṯe (also niṉ, niṉṉuṭe) | avaṉṯe (also avaṉuṭe) | avaḷuṭe | ñaṅgaḷuṭe (also ñaṅguṭe) | nammuṭe | niṅgaḷuṭe | avaruṭe |
| Dative | eṉikku | niṉakku | avaṉu | avaḷkku | ñammaḷkku | namukku | niṅgaḷkku | avarkku |
| Instrumental | eṉṉāl | niṉṉāl | avaṉāl | avaḷāl | ñaṅgaḷāl (also ñaṅṅāl) | nammāl | niṅgaḷāl (also niṅṅāl) | avarāl |
| Locative | eṉṉil (also eṅkal) | niṉṉil (also niṅkal) | avaṉil (also avaṅkal) | avaḷil (also avaḷkal) | ñaṅgaḷil | nammil | niṅgaḷil | avaril (also avaṟkal) |
| Sociative | eṉṉōṭu | niṉṉōṭu | avaṉōṭu | avaḷōṭu | ñaṅgaḷōṭu | nammōṭu | niṅgaḷōṭu | avarōṭu |
Other nouns
The following are examples of some of the most common declensional patterns.
| Word | tree | elephant | human | dog | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | maram | maraṅṅaḷ | āṉa | āṉakaḷ | maṉuṣyaṉ | maṉuṣyar | paṭṭi | paṭṭikaḷ |
| Vocative | maramē | maraṅṅaḷē | āṉē | āṉakaḷē | maṉuṣyā | maṉuṣyarē | paṭṭī | paṭṭikaḷē |
| Accusative | maratte | maraṅṅaḷe | āṉaye | āṉakaḷe | maṉuṣyaṉe | maṉuṣyare | paṭṭiye | paṭṭikaḷe |
| Genitive | marattiṉṯe | maraṅṅaḷuṭe | āṉayuṭe | āṉakaḷuṭe | maṉuṣyaṉṯe | maṉuṣyaruṭe | paṭṭiyuṭe | paṭṭikaḷuṭe |
| Dative | marattinu | maraṅṅaḷkku | āṉaykku | āṉakaḷkku | maṉuṣyaṉu | maṉuṣyarkku | paṭṭiykku | paṭṭikaḷkku |
| Instrumental | marattāl | maraṅṅaḷāl | āṉayāl | āṉakaḷāl | maṉuṣyaṉāl | maṉuṣyarāl | paṭṭiyāl | paṭṭikaḷāl |
| Locative | marattil | maraṅṅaḷil | āṉayil | āṉakaḷil | maṉuṣyaṉil | maṉuṣyaril | paṭṭiyil | paṭṭikaḷil |
| Sociative | marattōṭu | maraṅṅaḷōṭu | āṉayōṭu | āṉakaḷōṭu | maṉuṣyaṉōṭu | maṉuṣyarōṭu | paṭṭiyōṭu | paṭṭikaḷōṭu |
Words adopted from Sanskrit
When words are adopted from Sanskrit, their endings are usually changed to conform to Malayalam norms:
Nouns
1. Masculine Sanskrit nouns with a Word stem ending in a short "a" take the ending "an" in the nominative singular. For example, Kr̥ṣṇa -> Kr̥ṣṇan. The final "n" is dropped before masculine surnames, honorifics, or titles ending in "an" and beginning with a consonant other than "n" – e.g. Krishna Menon, Krishna Kaniyaan etc., but Krishnan Ezhutthachan. Surnames ending with "ar" or "aḷ" (where these are plural forms of "an" denoting respect) are treated similarly – Krishna Pothuval, Krishna Chakyar, but Krishnan Nair, Krishnan Nambiar, as are Sanskrit surnames such "Varma(n)", "Sharma(n)", or "Gupta(n)" (rare) – e.g. Krishna Varma, Krishna Sharman. If a name is a compound, only the last element undergoes this transformation – e.g. Kr̥ṣṇa + dēva = Kr̥ṣṇadēvan, not Kr̥ṣṇandēvan.
2. Feminine words ending in a long "ā" or "ī" are changed so that they now end in a short "a" or "i", for example Sītā -> Sīta andLakṣmī -> Lakṣmi. However, the long vowel still appears in compound words, such as Sītādēvi orLakṣmīdēvi. The long ī is generally reserved for the vocative forms of these names, although in Sanskrit the vocative actually takes a short "i". There are also a small number of nominative "ī" endings that have not been shortened – a prominent example being the word "strī" "woman".
3. Nouns that have a stem in -an and which end with a long "ā" in the masculine nominative singular have a "vŭ" added to them, for exampleBrahmā (stem Brahman) -> Brahmāvŭ. When the same nouns are declined in the neuter and take a short "a" ending in Sanskrit, Malayalam adds an additional "m", e.g. Brahma (neuter nominative singular of Brahman) becomes Brahmam. This is again omitted when forming compounds.
4. Words whose roots end in -an but whose nominative singular ending is -a – for example, the Sanskrit root of "Karma" is actually "Karman" –are also changed. The original root is ignored and "Karma" (the form in Malayalam being "Karmam" because it ends in a short "a") is taken as the basic form of the noun when declining.[1] However, this does not apply to all consonant stems, as "unchangeable" stems such as "manasa" ("mind") and "suhr̥ta (friend)" are identical to the Malayalam nominative singular forms (although the regularly derived "manam" sometimes occurs as an alternative to "manasa").
5. Sanskrit words describing things or animals rather than people with a stem in short "a" end with an "m" Malayalam. For example,Rāmāyaṇa -> Rāmāyaṇam. In most cases, this is actually the same as the Sanskrit ending, which is also "m" (or allophonically anusvara due to Sandhi) in the neuter nominative. However, "things and animals" and "people" are not always differentiated based on whether or not they are sentient beings – for example Narasimha becomes Narasiṃham and not Narasiṃhan, whereas Ananta becomes Anantan even though both are sentient. This does not strictly correspond to the Sanskrit neuter gender, as both "Narasiṃha" and "Ananta" are masculine nouns in the original Sanskrit.
6. Nouns with short vowel stems other than "a", such as "Viṣṇu", "Prajāpati" etc. are declined with the Sanskrit stem acting as the Malayalam nominative singular (the Sanskrit nominative singular is formed by adding a visarga, e.g. Viṣṇuḥ)
7. The original Sanskrit vocative is often used in formal or poetic Malayalam, e.g. "Harē" (for Hari) or "Prabhō" (for "Prabhu" – "lord"). This is restricted to certain contexts – mainly when addressing deities or other exalted individuals, so a normal man named Hari would usually be addressed using a Malayalam vocative such as "Harī". The Sanskrit genitive is also occasionally found in Malayalam poetry, especially the personal pronouns "mama" (my/ mine) and "tava" (thy/ thine). Other cases are less common and generally restricted to the realm of Maṇipravāḷam.
8. Along with these tatsama borrowings, there are also many tadbhava words in common use. These were borrowed into Malayalam before it became distinct from Tamil. As the language did not then accommodate Sanskrit phonology as it now does, words were changed to conform to the Old Tamil phonological system. For example: Kr̥ṣṇa -> Kaṇṇan.[2]
References
- ↑ Varma, A.R. Rajaraja (2005). Keralapanineeyam. Kottayam: D C Books. p. 303. ISBN 81-7130-672-1.
- ↑ Varma, A.R. Rajaraja (2005). Keralapanineeyam. Kottayam: D C Books. pp. 301–302. ISBN 81-7130-672-1.
3. Ravi Sankar S Nair 2012 A Grammar of Malayalam www.languageinindia.com/ravisankarmalayalamgrammar.pdf
