Mappila dialects

This article is about the spoken dialect of the Mappila community. For the writing system historically used by this community, see Arabi Malayalam script.

Mappila Malayalam
Mappila dialect
മാപ്പിളമലയാളം
Native toIndia
Native speakers
Malabar Muslims
Dravidian
Early forms
Malayalam script (currently)
Arabi Malayalam script (historically)
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologmopl1237

Mappila Malayalam[1] (also called Moplah Malayalam) refers to the sociolects of the Malayalam language spoken by the Mappila Muslim community of Kerala, India. Rather than a single uniform dialect, the term encompasses a variety of regional speech patterns that differ significantly by district (e.g., Kasaragod, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur). It is spoken by several million people, predominantly in the Malabar Coast of Kerala state, southern India.

Linguistically, Mappila Malayalam is mutually intelligible with other standard dialects of Malayalam.[2][3] It is classified variously as a regional dialect of northern Kerala or as a sociolect of the Mappila community. It is also described as a vernacular or, particularly during the colonial era, as a provincial patois. A defining feature of Mappila Malayalam is it's lexical admixture, which shows influence from Arabic and Persian.[3][4]

Writing system

Main article: Arabi Malayalam script

The Arabi Malayalam script is a modified version of the Arabic script. The script[5] is also known as Khatafunnani[6] or Ponnani script.[7][8] It is also used to write several minority languages such as Eranadan and Jesri.

Scholars debate the origins of the writing system. While some historians (e.g., O. Abu) argue Arabs developed it to bridge linguistic barriers, a prominent theory suggests it was developed by native Mappilas. Due to the belief that the Arabic script was divinely bestowed, early Mappilas considered it inappropriate to record sacred texts in local scripts like Vatteluttu, prompting the adaptation of the Arabic alphabet for Malayalam.[9]

Study center

The Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University in Tirur has established a centre dedicated to the study of the Arabi Malayalam literary tradition and the Mappila dialect.[10][11]

See also

References

  1. ^ Kuzhiyan, Muneer Aram. Poetics of Piety Devoting and Self Fashioning in the Mappila Literary Culture of South India (Thesis). The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. hdl:10603/213506.
  2. ^ Subramoniam, V. I. (1997). Dravidian Encyclopaedia. Vol. 3, Language and literature. Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): International School of Dravidian Linguistics. pp. 508-09. [1]
  3. ^ a b "Mappila Malayalam-1". Archived from the original on 1 May 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2007.
  4. ^ Krishna Chaitanya. Kerala. India, the Land and the People. New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 1994. [2]
  5. ^ Arafath, P. K. Yasser (July 2020). "Polyglossic Malabar: Arabi-Malayalam and the Muhiyuddinmala in the age of transition (1600s–1750s)". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 30 (3): 517–539. doi:10.1017/S1356186320000085. ISSN 1356-1863. S2CID 232345197.
  6. ^ Kunnath, Ammad (15 September 2015). The rise and growth of Ponnani from 1498 AD To 1792 AD (Thesis). Department of History. hdl:10603/49524.
  7. ^ Panakkal, Abbas (2016). Islam in Malabar (1460-1600) : a socio-cultural study /. Kulliyyah Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia. Archived from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  8. ^ Kallen, hussain Randathani. "TRADE AND CULTURE: INDIAN OCEAN INTERACTION ON THE COAST OF MALABAR IN MEDIEVAL PERIOD".
  9. ^ "Arabi Malayalam". Sahapedia. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  10. ^ "New university centre for Arabi Malayalam". Deccan Chronicle. 15 October 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  11. ^ TwoCircles.net (28 December 2015). "In Kerala, attempts to save Arabi Malayalam take final shape". TwoCircles.net. Retrieved 20 October 2020.

Further reading

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