Kasaragod Malayalam

Referenced locally as Kasrod Malyalam or kasrod MalayalamThe language spoken by the Malayali community in the Kasaragod district of Kerala and the Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka, varies from the standard Malayalam to a great extent. Unlike typical Malayalam, this has remained relatively uninfluenced by Sanskrit. Studies in this idiom have been useful in knowing the nature of evolution of the South Indian languages.

Salient features

• Extensive usage of 'ny' (ñ ) compared to neighbouring Tulu and Kannada.
• Lack of or loss of Approximant consonants like neighbouring Tulu and Kannada.
• Presence of sound 'b' instead of 'v'(in standard Malayalam) like neighbouring Tulu and Kannada.
• Words end with aa whereas in other colloquial Malayalam they end with o.
• People generally use pronouns during direct conversation like neighbouring Tulu, Kannada people unlike in standard Malayalam.
• Occurrence of 'y' in the place of 'zh'. For example, 'payam' instead of 'pazham'.
• Some of the words start with 'i' in which place standard Malayalam employs 'u'. For example indu (undu), ipperi (upperi).

Unique words

Present state

Kasaragod Malayalam is very spontaneous and natural-sounding compared to the Malayalam that is spoken in South Kerala. The time taken to complete a sentence in Kasaragod Malayalam is nearly half that taken to complete the same sentence in the South Kerala dialect of Malayalam. Kasaragod Malayalam is deeply influenced and contains...
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