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. 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.

References

3. Ravi Sankar S Nair 2012 A Grammar of Malayalam www.languageinindia.com/ravisankarmalayalamgrammar.pdf