Malayalam

About Malayalam

Malayalam is the language of Kerala in southwestern India, spoken as a first language by about 37 million people. It is one of the 22 languages recognised in India's constitution and the official language of Kerala and Lakshadweep. Large Malayalam-speaking communities also live in the Gulf states.

Malayalam has its own script, one of the rounded scripts of South India, and the guides add a spelling in Latin letters. It is a Dravidian language, related to Tamil rather than to Hindi. For "you", ningal is the polite form used with elders and strangers, and nee is kept for close friends and younger people.

FamilyDravidian, South Dravidian
Native speakersabout 37 million (2019)
Official inIndia, regionally (Kerala, Lakshadweep)
ScriptMalayalam script
Codesml (ISO 639-1), mal (ISO 639-3)

Speaker number: Ethnologue (2019), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

Scroll to Top