Malayalam Tutor CD-ROM

Malayalam Tutor CD-ROM
The Vidyarambham Malayalam Tutor CD-ROM was specially designed for beginners of the language, but for those who already speak the language, it also develops the ability to read and write it as well! Developed with a educational strategy capable of addressing the individual's learning style, it has been subjected to rigorous research and proven to be an effective course of instruction. The CD-ROM teaches you how to recognize the alphabets in Malayalam, write it, and then read sentences. The ultimate aim is to be able to read, write and speak the language, which is accomplished systematically in a simple manner in a course of seven lessons. By the time the last lesson is over, you should be able to read a good storybook or the newspaper and to write to your friends in the language.
$69  

Malayalam Tutor  -   Features  -   Course Sections  -   Notes on Malayalam

Screen Shots  -   System Requirements and Pricing

The Malayalam Tutor CD-ROM course is divided into seven sections.

1. Basics
The student is expected to observe carefully, and is introduced to the Malayalam sounds and alphabet. They listen to the basic sounds, hear how the language is spoken, and have a look at how the words are written and the simpler methods of writing.

2. Writing Skills
Introduction to the alphabet, with student learning to read, write and pronounce the characters - a unique writing facility provided here, where one can practice the writing with the mouse on the board in red, blue, green or black.

3. Lessons
Helps the student to learn and speak words - lots of vocabulary, speech practice, common usages, glossary etc. are included in this section, all in an interactive animated context. Tests are also provided in order for the students to evaluate themselves.

4. Numbers
The student learn the numbers and how to write, read and speak them.

5. Riddles, Idioms and Proverbs
This section has been included mainly to increase the level of interaction of children with their parents. The method adopted here is such that the student, if a child, will start communicating with their parents to know more about the proverbs and riddles. This also gives the parent ample opportunity to interact with their child, teach them the significance of the proverbs and how it is relevant to their life. It also helps students to expand their vocabulary.

6. Stories
Gives the student a simulation of reading Malayalam storybooks. Listen to and see the story, while enjoying the entertaining graphics. Gets the student closer to Malayalam culture and customs. By now, the student starts reading long sentences in Malayalam and his or her vocabulary has also considerably improved.

7. Songs
Nostalgic rhymes to sing and read are recited here. Each one in its own specially designed background. By now, the student is able to read a Malayalam Newspaper or book.

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Basics

Evolution of Malayalam language
Malayalam (/malayALam/) is the principal language of the South Indian state of Kerala and also of the Lakshadweep Islands (Laccadives) in the west coast of India. Malayalis (speakers of Malayalam) - males and females alike - are almost totally literate and constitute 4 percent of the population of India and 96 percent of the population of Kerala (29.01 million in 1991). In terms of the number of speakers, Malayalam ranks eighth among the fifteen major languages of India. The word /malayALam/ originally meant mountainous country) (/mala/- mountain + /aLam/-place). Tamil is its neighbor on the south and east and Kannada on the north and east.

With Tamil, Kota, Telugu, Kodagu and Kannada, Malayalam belongs to the southern group of Dravidian languages. Its affinity to Tamil is the most striking. Proto-Tamil Malayalam, the common stock of Tamil and Malayalam apparently disintegrated over a period of four to five centuries from the ninth century on, resulting in the emergence of Malayalam as a language distinct from Tamil. As the language of scholarship and administration Tamil greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam. Later the irresistible inroads the Brahmins made into the cultural life of Kerala accelerated the assimilation of many Indo-Aryan features into Malayalam at different levels.

Malayalam, the dominant language of the state, has three major dialects: southern, northern and central. The language has 54 alphabets. Literary works in Malayalam are believed to be in existence from the 13th century onwards.

Development of Literature
The earliest written record of Malayalam is the /vazhappaLLi/ inscription (ca. 830 AD). The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition. Classical songs known as /pATTu/ of the Tamil tradition /maNipravALam/ of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with the Malayalam folk song rich in native elements. Malayalam poetry of the late twentieth century betrays varying degrees of the fusion of the three different strands. The oldest examples of /pattu/ and maniprvAlam respectively are /rAmacharitam/ and /vaishikatantram/, both of the twelfth century. The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, Bhashakautaliyam (12th century) on Chanakya's Arthasastra. Malayalam prose of different periods exhibit a degree of influence of different languages such as Tamil, Sanskrit, Prakrits, Pali, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Syrian, Portuguese, Dutch, French and English. Modern literature is rich in poetry, fiction, drama, biography and literary criticism.

The Script
In the early thirteenth century /vattezhuthu/ (round writing) traceable to the pan-Indian brahmi script, gave rise to the Malayalam writing system, which is syllabic in the sense that the sequence of graphic elements means that syllables have to be read as units, though in this system the elements representing individual vowels and consonants are for the most part readily identifiable.

In the 1960s Malayalam dispensed with many special letters representing less frequent conjunct consonants and combinations of the vowel /u/ with different consonants. Malayalam now consists of 53 letters including 20 long and short vowels and the rest consonants. The earlier style of writing is now substituted with a new style from 1981. This new script reduces the different letters for typeset from 900 to less than 90. This was mainly done to include Malayalam in the keyboards of typewriters and computers.

Language variation and external influence
Variations in intonation patterns, vocabulary, and distribution of grammatical and phonological elements are observable along the parameters of region, community, occupation, social stratum, style and register. Influence of Sanskrit is most prominent in the Brahmin dialects and least in the Harijan dialects. Loanwords from English, Syrian, Latin, and Portuguese abound in the Christian dialects and those from Arabic and Urdu in the Muslim dialects. Malayalam has borrowed from Sanskrit thousands of nouns, hundreds of verbs and some indeclinables. Some items of basic vocabulary (eg /mukham/ face, /nakham/ nail, /bhArya/ wife, /bharthAvu/ husband) also have found their way into Malayalam from Sanskrit. English stands only second to Sanskrit in its influence in Malayalam. Hundreds of individual lexical items and many idiomatic expressions in modern Malayalam are of English origin.

Planning and Development
As the language of administration and as the medium of instruction in schools and colleges, Malayalam is coming into its own. A scientific register in the language is slowly evolving. Remarkably liberal in their attitudes, Malayalis have always welcomed other languages to coexist with their own and the interaction of these with Malayalam has helped its development in different respects.

Literature
The earlier forms of literature include a rich collection of folk songs and ballads. The literary works of that period were in Manipravalam, a mixture of Malayalam and Sanskrit languages. It is interesting to note that Tamil, the language spoken in the nearest state is supposed to be the least sanskritised among all Indian languages. Malayalam shows evidence of influence by Pali (Magadhi), the official language of Buddhism. It also contains many Portuguese, Dutch, English, Arabic, Marathi and Persian loan words.

In the 16th century, Thunchathu Ramanujam Ezhuthachan gave a distinct style to the language with his Adhyathma Ramayanam and Mahabharatham, regional adaptations of the great Indian Epics. He is considered to be the father of Malayalam language. The growth of Kathakali as an art form in the 17th century created another branch of literature known as Attakatha, the narrative based on which Kathakali is performed. Unnai Warrier's Nalacharithum Attakatha is considered a classic.

Ramapurathu Warrier's Vanchippattu (Boat songs) and Kunchan Nambiar's Thullalppattu formed two other literary branches. The European colonisation gave a new dimension to the realm of literature.

The advent of printing promoted the concept of newspapers. Dr. Herman Gundert, a German missionary, compiled the first Malayalam-English lexicon and started the first Malayalam newspaper. The golden age of Malayalam poetry dawned in the early 20th century, the era of the trinity of Malayalam poets: Kumaranashan, Ulloor and Vallathol.

Apart from them, Changampuzha Krishna Pillai's romantic verses captured the hearts of Malayalees over the years. In the early seventies, K. Ayyappa Panicker introduced modernist and post modernist strains to Malayalam poetry.

Even though the first Malayalam novel, Kundalath was published in 1887 AD, significant contributions to prose came about only in the 20th century. Ponkannam Varkey, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, P. Kesavadev Vaikom Mohammad Basheer and M. T. Vasudevan Nair contributed to the prose literature. Kerala has also produced a number of other talented writers in all branches of literature. Though relatively small in number, the women writers and poets such as Nalappat Balamaniamma, Kamala Das, Lalithambika Antharjanam and K.Saraswathiamma made significant literary contributions.

In 1945, the Sahitya Pravarthak Sahakarana Sangham (SPCS), the first ever cooperative society of litterateurs, was formed under the stewardship of Prof. M.P. Paul and Karoor Neelkantha Pillai. The SPCS was instrumental in providing economic stability to the writers. Four writers from Kerala have bagged the Gnanpith Award, the highest literary award in India. The contribution of D.C.Kizhakkermuri, the doyen of Malayalam publishing, also deserves special mention.

Malayalam novels and stories are published in weeklies and magazines along with the sketches and caricatures. A Malayalam translation of any masterpiece of Indian or international literature is available either as books or magazine serials.