Tamil and Malayalam Diversity in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Belonging to the Dravidian language family, Tamil and Malayalam are closely related. Malayalam emerged as a separate language from Tamil in the 9^th century, which started to diverge from the combined Adi Tamil-Malayalam language in the 4^th and 5^th centuries. There are two different opinions in the research field that Malayalam originated from the Tamil of the hill country and that it developed from the Palandravida language as a synonym of Tamil. Caldwell says that Malayalam is a branch of Tamil and is distinguished from Tamil due to Purudapeda Nirasam, Samasukrit Bagulyam etc. Thus, the purpose of this article is to compare and examine the differences between Malayalam and Tamil in many ways. This article compares the differences between the Tamil grammar books Tolkappiyam and Nannul with the Malayalam grammar book Malayalam Language Grammar.