dittolearnslanguages

[dittolearnslanguages]

progress log 16/02/2023

took a break yesterday due to feeling lazy, but it made me more excited to get back into it today

malayalam:

i found out the verb tenses i learnt over the past few weeks were wrong! so i'm starting over from scratch. spent today just learning useless vocabulary

the game plan is to find a place where i can learn sentence structure and then build my vocab from there. this has put a dent in my february goals 🥴🤡

korean:

korean is going far more swimmingly thanks to better resources. i'm still on consonant assimilation -- it's taking longer than i thought, but i'm now halfway through the video! maybe tomorrow i'll spend double time on it

today was spent on ㄷ batchim, along with other '-eut' batchim that had similar rules (ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ)

reflections:

i'm getting to the end of my leave from work and things are going to get way more hectic from monday, then even more once I start uni. i want to spend some time finding ways i can continue learning -- or at least revising -- when i'm time poor

[dittolearnslanguages]

progress log 14/02/2023

malayalam:

did two more verbs: പോകുക (pokuka; to go) and ���ിട്ടുക (kittuka; to get)

i didn't refer to resources, instead converting to various tenses based on grammar rules i've learnt. i'll need to verify with my family if they're correct (will report on that tomorrow!)

korean:

spent a lot of time today and yesterday on consonant assimilation. i've been taking it one batchim consonant at a time, so yesterday I covered ㄱ and today I looked into ㄴ. slow progress, but i'm learning better this way

I've been using miss vicky to learn hangul and all its rules, i love her teaching style

[dittolearnslanguages]

progress log 12/02/2023

only studied malayalam today. i've set up a notion to help store all my info digitally because it's getting hard for me to find things in my notebook. I will continue to write by hand as that's how I learn! but I may transfer notes to notion as a means of revision

malayalam:

i've learnt 10 verbs so i'm diving into them in more depth. finding resources for this is obscenely difficult. i focused on ചെയ്യുക (cheyyuka; to do). i created a very simple template to write the different tenses but i think i'd like to use examples of the word in use as well, but those will take more work.

[dittolearnslanguages]

LGBTQ+ TV-SHOWS UPDATE 🌈

Last month I explained how my friend needs feedback for his website Lingopie where you can learn a language watching movies and tv-shows with dual subtitles and effective tools to progress super, super quick! Here is how it works by the way:

I did a poll asking if people would be interested in them obtaining licensing for LGBTQ+ tv-shows and movies…but the problem was that they have limited funds…

98% or so of you were in favor of them adding LGBTQ shows to their learning platform. I passed on all your replies and he was thrilled to see so many of you willing to help. He's been working hard these past couple weeks on adding LGBTQ+ tv-shows in a variety of languages so I am excited to announce you can now learn the following languages in gay!

Japanese 🇯🇵, Korean 🇰🇷, Spanish 🇪🇸, French 🇫🇷, German 🇩🇪, Italian 🇮🇹, Portuguese 🇵🇹 and English 🇺🇸

Video streaming takes a lot of data, so usually there is no free trial but as a thank you, he wants to invite you to test Lingopie 7-days for free and get a big discount when you sign up! This offer is only available for a limited time.

Hope you have fun learning a new language and acing those exams if you have any!

Click here to try it out! ✨

[dittolearnslanguages]

A textbook called Grammatical Theory by Stefan Müller just came out, and man, he's dropping some truth bombs!

Furthermore, the claim that first language acquisition is effortless and rapid when compared to second language acquisition is a myth as has been shown by estimations by Klein (1986: 9): if we assume that children hear linguistic utterances for five hours a day (as a conservative estimate), then in the first five years of their lives, they have 9100 hours of linguistic training. But at the age of five, they have still not acquired all complex constructions. In comparison, second-language learners, assuming the necessary motivation, can learn the grammar of a language rather well in a six-week crash course with twelve hours a day (500 hours in total).

And then...

In Chapter 13, it was shown that all the evidence that has previously been brought forward in favor of innate linguistic knowledge is in fact controversial. In some cases, the facts are irrelevant to the discussion and in other cases, they could be explained in other ways. Sometimes, the chains of argumentation are not logically sound or the premises are not supported. In other cases, the argumentation is circular. As a result, the question of whether is innate linguistic knowledge remains unanswered. All theories that presuppose the existence of this kind of knowledge are making very strong assumptions.

In short: Human linguistic abilities aren't magic, and children aren't elves.

In meme form:

[dittolearnslanguages]

progress log 11/02/2023

haven't had the opportunity to learn a lot the past week as I was on holiday, but i'm getting back into the rhythm now

malayalam:

learnt some new verbs yesterday and today. i will revise by focusing in one some of these and turning them into tables. so far i've learnt the base form, past and basic future tense but i know there are other tenses out there

verbs learnt:

ചെയ്യുക (cheyyuka) - to do

പോക്കുക (pokkuka) - to go

കിട്ടുക (kittuka) - to get

ഉണ്ടാക്കുക (undakkuka) - to make

അരിയുക (ariyuka) - to know

ചിന്തിക്കുക (chinthikkuka) - to think

എടുക്കുക (edukkuka) - to take

കാണുക (kaanuka) - to see

വരിക (varika) - to come

ഉപയോഗിക്കുക (upayogikkuka) - to understand

i thought വരിക caught me off guard because i've heard it a lot, but the tenses are irregular. but ഉപയോഗിക്കുക is a word i've never heard in my life

korean:

spent the past two days on learning batchim in detail. i've yet to tackle consonant assimilation but i thought i'd stop here to make it easier. getting a bit antsy and want to tackle some actual vocab but i know this part is important!

[dittolearnslanguages]

progress log 03/02/23

malayalam:

didn't do much today other than revise what i learnt yesterday. i might learn some new verbs later tonight if i'm feeling up to it but I wanted to focus on hangul today

Verbs I learnt yesterday:

നടക്കുക (nadakkuka) - to walk

കഴിക്കുക (kazhikkuka) - to eat

നോക്കുക (nokkuka) - to look

സംസാരിക്കുക (samsaarikkuka) - to speak

പരയുക (parayuka) - to tell

korean:

again, didn't learn anything knew but i practiced reading hangul to see how much i'd memorised. i'm surprised at how quickly i've picked the script up, even with all the trouble I had with batchim yesterday.

i read a bunch of news headlines in korean and sounded them out, but since i didn't understand them, it was hard to know if i did any good. so i switched to trying to write the names of the members of kpop groups i was into since those names had a set spelling. i actually found it really helpful and can now differentiate between ㅐ and ㅔ!

i struggle the most with the complex vowels and ㅗ vs ㅜ. that will come with time

[dittolearnslanguages]

progress log 02/02/23

feel like i accidentally choose to learn any language on hard mode and stubbornly go on with it once i realise what i’ve done. my head hurts, my brain is exhausted, and it doesn’t help that i’m running on two hours’ sleep

malayalam: 

i thought this was going to be the hard one of the day since i was taking on sentence structure and finding a good resource was proving to be difficult. I tried a text book but that was too technical -- finally fell back on my usual youtube channel and found a good video on verb tenses

i only got halfway. the search took me so long that when she mentioned there were 12 past tense forms, i checked out. i’ve had a long week!

korean: 

my first hangul lesson. I didn’t expect it to be easy but i’m pretty good at picking up new scripts and attaching them to sounds, so i didn’t expect it to be hard?? i chose this video because it kept coming up in my recommended, expecting it would take me way longer than 30 minutes. things were fine until I got to the batchim.

the idea that there is a longer, even more detailed batchim video in this series is a bit intimidating, but i'll press on nonetheless

what I should have done:

cut the video short once things start to get hard. i want to be consistent, but my goal is to learn and not just to push myself, so I want to be kind to myself too!

[dittolearnslanguages]

progress log 31/01/23

malayalam: 

it’s been a month and i’m getting a lot better at reading the letters without needing to refer to my alphabet guide. my focus on writing has held me back from being able to construct sentences outside the most basic, so february will be about grammar

korean: 

still on basic phrases, but tomorrow’s task is to learn hangul. i learnt 12 new phrases and the chinese number system from 0-10. pronounciation is easier than i thought!

goals for february 

malayalam: hold a 30 minute conversation with my parents, 10 minutes with my grandma

korean: get through the basics - hangul, basic phrases, some verbs and a base understanding of the speech levels

since i’m so new to korean, i don’t know if my goals are too ambitious

[dittolearnslanguages]

Langblr Activation Challenge

The langblr community is rather dead. What can we do about it? Maybe another langblr challenge would inspire people to keep the community alive? Let’s give it a try.  This challenge is called Langblr Activation Challenge and I really hope as many people as possible will join! The challenge consists of 5 tasks you have to do, one task per week. The tag for the challenge is #langblractivationchallenge, please use it if participating! 

The tasks

Week 1: Write an introduction post. Even if you have made one before and everyone knows you already. Tell us who you are, what your native language is, what other languages you speak, what languages you’re studying, what other hobbies/interests you have, etc. Let’s get to know each other a bit!  Week 2: Promote other langblrs. You can promote your favourite langblrs, the langblrs you’re following, the langblrs following you, or just random langblrs you find in the polyglot/languages/langblr/etc. tags. This is a great opportunity to find and help others find new langblrs to follow. Week 3: Join a langblr group chat/discord server. They are great for getting to know other people in the community and practicing your target languages. If joining a group chat/discord server sounds too overwhelming and/or intimidating, just send a message to some other langblr.   Week 4: Make some original langblr content. It can be anything: a vocabulary list, grammar explanation, resource list, list of songs/movies/books in your native/target language(s), a song with translation/vocabulary list of the lyrics, “questions for langblrs”, langblr challenge, picture of your language books/notes, tips to learn a language/languages in general, etc. Don’t forget to tag it with tags such as #polyglot #languages #langblr to make sure as many people as possible see it! Week 5: Participate in another langblr challenge! You can find some challenges here. If none of them spark your interest, make your own challenge! Langblr challenges are a great way to improve your language skills and keep the community alive. 

Good luck everyone!

[dittolearnslanguages]

Resource List for Learning Malayalam

Hello! Do you want to learn Malayalam but don't know where to start? Then I've got the perfect resource list for you and you can find its link below! Let me know if you have any suggestions to improve it. Here is what the resource list contains;

"Handmade" resources on certain grammar concepts for easy understanding.

Resources on learning the script.

Websites to practice reading the script.

Documents to enhance your vocabulary.

Notes on Colloquial.

Music playlists

List of podcasts/audiobooks And a compiled + organized list of websites you can use to get hold of grammar!

[dittolearnslanguages]

langblr intro~

hi, i’m ditto! this is my first attempt at langblr and I only started consistently learning languages about a month ago. i want a place to log my progress 

i’m partially using @prepolyglot​‘s langblr reactivation challenge to guide this intro, as well as how some other users have introduced themselves

about me

pronouns: she/her (I think)

birth year: 1995

i have two jobs and part-time uni so i have very little time 🫡🤡

i work in media and am studying screen production and journalism, and i’m interested in foreign correspondence so i’m trying to build up a language learning rhythm bc i’ll need to learn a lot in the future

i’m of indian (malayali) background but english is the only language i’m fluent in

i follow from @hekateoftorches​ and I don’t use tumblr very often (once or twice a week)

languages 

english: first language, very fluent

malayalam: my native language, can understand it but cannot speak, read or write. i’ve been learning both conversational malayalam and the script for the past month 

korean: JUST started, this language is my priority as i am hoping to do an internship in seoul next year

i’ve also learnt french and hindi in the past and am not actively learning either nor am i good, but am happy to practice comprehension and conversation

this blog

occasional progress logs

resources for malayalam and korean (mostly reblogged)

short diary entries in malayalam once i’m confident in my ability to do so

short news headlines in korean once i’m confident in my ability to do so 

potential vocabulary logs 

at some point, i will build a master vocab list of all the words i’ve learnt! 

as stated above, i have very little time to dedicate to language learning so i’m taking things very slow! i also don’t have the time to make pretty notes, as much as i would love to~

[dittolearnslanguages]

One-Page Masterlist

안녕하세요! Hey everyone! I recently got an ask about my old masterlist, which is the same as my broken-down masterlist except it has all of my lessons on one page, rather than on multiple separate posts. Some may find this expanded version easier to navigate, so I’ll keep this up for y’all! My broken-up masterlist, of course, will still be available for those who find that more helpful :)

Hangul Lessons

Consonants

Vowels

Writing/Reading Korean Syllables

Some 받침 Rules

Diphthongs

Stroke Order

Some More 받침 Rules

Irregular Verbs

The Basics

Common Phrases

Numbers

Sino-Korean vs. Native Korean Numbers (Instagram Post)

Sentence Structure and Particles

Present-Tense Conjugations and Formal Language

Adjectives

Questions

Honorifics and Casual Language

Beginner

Negative Sentences

잘 and 못

Past Tense

Future Tense (-ㄹ / 을 것이다)

-ㄹ / 을 까요? (Shall we…? / I wonder…?)

-(으)세요 (Giving Commands / Asking Questions)

Telling Time

-고 싶다 (I want to…)

How to Say “And”

-지만 (However)

아/어/여서 (So…)

Negative Commands

Spacing (띄어쓰기)

Adverbs

ㅂ Irregular

Comparatives and Superlatives

Upper-Beginner

 -(으)면 (If…)

아/어/여도 (Even though…/Even if…)

(으)면 되다 / 아/어/여도 되다 (I can…/You may…)

-아/어도 되다: Asking for and Giving Permission (Instagram post)

-(으)면 되다 & -(으)면 안 되다 (Instagram post)

아/어/여야 되다 and 아/어/여야 하다(Have to / Should)

Present Progressive (-고 있다)

How to Say “Or”

-아/어/여하다

All About 중

How to Use -(으)로

Before & After

-ㄴ/은 채로

Intermediate

Describing Nouns with Verbs (-는 것)

Describing Nouns with Verbs - Past & Future Tense (-ㄴ/은 / -ㄹ/을 것)

Nominalization

것 같다 (I think… / It seems…)

-러 가다 / -러 오다

-(으)려고 (In order to…)

-기로 하다 (to Decide to do Smth)

척하다 (To Pretend)

-게 되다 

-군요 / -구나

아/어/여 보다 (to try…)

-은/ㄴ 적 있다 / 없다 (I have / have not)

-ㄹ/을 게요 (Future Tense)

겠다 

-ㄹ/을 수 있다/없다 (I can / cannot)

-ㄹ/을 때 (When…)

-ㄴ/는다면 (If)

-(으)면서 and -(으)며

-(으)니까 (Because / So)

-아/어/여주다

-(ㄴ/는)다 (Narrative Form)

Quoting

Let’s…

Quoting continued

(으)ㄹ래요? (Wanna…?)

-죠

-대로

More Quoting - 대 & 래

잘하다 & 못하다 vs. 잘 하다 & 못 하다 

-아/어 가지고

-(으)려면

-는 길에 & -는 길이다

-(으)면 vs. -ㄴ/는다면 (Instagram Post)

-았/었을 것이다

-느라고

-는 데(에)

-ㄹ/을 뻔하다

Upper-Intermediate

-ㄴ/는데

-(으)ㄴ/는지 (Whether or not)

-(이)라는…

All About 아무리

-잖아요

Expressing Surprise

-시 (Honorific)

Making Comparisons

-아/어/여지다

I might…

So that…/To the point where…

Causative Verbs

시키다

Passive Verbs (part 1)

Passive Verbs (part 2)

-ㄴ/은가 보다 & -나 보다 (I guess…)

-ㄹ/을수록

Other Meanings of 싶다

-자마자 & -는 대로(As soon as…)

-긴 하다

-치고

-김에

차라리 (Rather)

-(으)ㅁ Nominalization

-기는 무슨 & -기는 개뿔

-고 보니까

-듯(이)

버리다

-(으)면 좋겠다 & -(으)면 하다

Advanced

-거든(요)

-줄 알다/모르다

-ㄹ/을 테니까 and -ㄹ/을 텐데

-았/었던

아니라 and 대신에

-ㄹ/을 리가 없다

편이다, 별로, and More

-지 그렇다 (Why don’t you…?)

-ㄹ/을 걸

-ㄹ/을 까 보다

-다면서요

-다니 part 1 

-다니 part 2

뜻이다 & 말이다

-다가

-더라고(요)

-더니

Some colloquialisms: 아니시에이팅 and 뭐 이렇게

-(으)ㅁ Sentence Ending

 -다 보니까

What does 따위 mean?

-ㄴ/는데도

Vocabulary

Must-Know People

Must-Know Places

Must-Know Things

Must-Know Verbs

Must-Know Adjectives

Countries

Months, Days of the Week, and More

Clothing (옷)

School (학교)

Autumn (가을)

Autumn (w/Pictures!)

More Questions

House / Apartment (집 / 아파트)

Emotions / Feelings ( 감정)

Animals (동물)

Loan / Konglish Words

Food and Drink (먹을 것과 마실 것)

Parts of the Body (몸)

Counters

Modes of Transportation (교통 수단)

Colors (색깔)

Colors (with Pictures!)

Weather (날씨)

Winter (겨울)

Music & Instruments (음악과 악기)

Baking Gingerbread Cookies

Emergency (비상)

Hygiene & Bathroom (위생 & 화장실)

Indefinite Pronouns

Work / Office (일 / 사무실)

Spring (봄)

Coronavirus Prevention (코로나바이러스 방역)

How to Wash Your Hands (손을 씻기)

Time (시간)

Korean Cuisine (한식)

Summer (여름)

Summer (여름) w/Pictures!

Graduation (졸업)

Identity (독자성)

Korean Text Slang

Similar Words

Makeup w/Pictures! (화장품)

Family (with Pictures!)

Pronouns

How to Say “Still” and “Already” in Korean

Tastes & Textures (맛과 질감)

K-Pop Fandom Terminology

Different Ways to Say “Change”

Hanja Lessons

최

수

악

식

급

동

부 & 불

애

출

퇴

예

음

중

학

습

연

생

대

입

인

Charts

Present, Past, and Future Tense

Question Words

잘 vs. 못 and Negative Conjugations 

Future Tenses 

-았/었던 vs. -던 (at end of lesson)

Particles

Some 받침 Rules

Gifving Commands

Conjunctions and -아/어/여서 vs. -(으)니까

-(으)면 vs. -다/라면 and Different Ways to Say “And”

How to Say “Or” (at end of lesson)

Telling Time (at end of lesson)

Comparatives and Superlatives

잘하다 & 못하다 vs. 잘 하다 & 못 하다 (at end of lesson)

Comparing 잘하다/못하다, 잘 하다/못 하다, & 수 있다/수 없다

Irregular Verbs

Pop Quizzes

Level 1

K-Pop Breakdowns

TXT - “Cat & Dog”

Twice - “Feel Special”

Enhypen - “Fever”

2NE1 - “Go Away”

Lee Hi - “Only”

“기억을 걷는 시간 (Time Spent Walking Through Memories)”

KCM - “An Old Love Story (흑백사진)”

Taeyeon - “Can’t Control Myself”

Epik High - “Lost One”

Colde - “A Song Nobody Knows”

IU - “My Sea”

Enhypen - “Polaroid Love”

유라 (youra) - “하양 (RAL 9002)″

BTS - “Ddaeng”

Stray Kids - “For You”

Woozie - “어떤 미래 (What Kind of Future)

TXT - “Eternally”

LOONA - “Heart Attack”

[dittolearnslanguages]

reaffirming my ❤️ for മലയാളം

1. A Palindrome

Malayalam is perhaps the world’s only language that is a palindrome when written in English.

The word Malayalam is a combination of 2 words – ‘Mala’ meaning ‘mountain’ and ‘Alam’ meaning ‘region’. Thus the word literally means ‘the mountain region’.

The term originally refers to the land under the Chera dynasty. Later on, it became the name of the region’s language.

Until the 16th century, Malayalam,  referred to by several other closely related names, including Malayanma and Malayalama.

2. A classical language with origins in Tamil

The popularly held opinion is that the Malayalam language evolved from Middle Tamil between the 9th and 13th centuries. Until then it was a western coastal dialect of Tamil.

However, there is also a contrary view that Malayalam did not originate from Tamil. Rather, both Malayalam and Tamil evolved from a common ancestor known as ‘Proto Tamil-Malayalam’.

‘Manipravalam’ was a macaronic language used in certain Malayalam language texts before it established its modern form in the 16th century. It was a combination of Tamil and Sanskrit.

The Manipravalam language and its script influence the modern form of the language greatly, so much so that Malayalam continues to be the one Dravidian language with extensive Sanskrit influence.

In 2013 Malayalam accorded the status of classical language by the Government of India.

3. Malayalam has some of the most complicated alphabets

Written in the Brahmic script, Malayalam has 15 vowels, 42 consonants, and certain other symbols. In fact, the language has some of the most specific and complicated sounds represented in letters. Equivalent differences hardly exist in other Indian languages.

There are 2 separate alphabets to denote the sound ‘r’- one for ‘r’ (ര) as in Spanish tres and the other for ‘ṟ’ (റ)   as in Spanish Rojo. Equivalent pronunciation differences do not exist in English or Hindi.

Malayalam also has the alphabet ‘ഴ’(zha) which pronounced like the rhotic r as in ‘purse’ in English. This rhotic consonant is absent in almost all other Indian languages.

There are 2 separate consonants for the sound ‘l’ – one for ‘l’ (ല) as in ‘language’ and the other for ḷ  (ള ) as in ‘plumber’.

4. Distinct nasal tones

Nasal sounds form an indispensable part of the spoken form of the Malayalam language.

The most basic pronoun ‘me’ is a nasal tone, pronounced as ‘ñaan’, where the ‘ña’ sounds like the NY in ‘canyon’. So is the nasal sound ‘ng’ as in ‘sing’ used extensively.

Several words that may have equivalent forms in other Indian languages like Hindi, take on a nasal tone in pronunciation in Malayalam.

For example in the Hindi word ‘Sundar’, the d sound distinctly pronounced in the NDA cluster.

However, in the equivalent Malayalam word ‘Sundaram’, the d sound becomes silent in the NDA cluster and instead pronounced as ‘sunnaram’, producing a distinct nasal tone in its place.

5. The Malayalam script was literally and figuratively ‘moulded’ for the printing press

The original Malayalam script that began as what is called the Vattelettu, has undergone significant changes. These changes made so as to accommodate the needs of making moulds for the printing press.

Until Benjamin Bailey, a British missionary brought the printing press to Kerala, Malayalam was written and printed in the Grantha script with square type fonts.

In 1829, Bailey ushered in a momentous change in the history of Malayalam by replacing these with the round script that is used to date.

The script from Bailey underwent further changes as the needs of the press changed. Local newspapers like the Malayala Manorama have done significant changes in the script.  

6. The European hand in Malayalam

Not just Benjamin Bailey, several Europeans have had a decisive role in the development of the modern form of Malayalam language.

The first book to have Malayalam script printed in it was the Hortus Malabaricus, written in Latin by Henrik Van Rheede, the Governor of Dutch Malabar in 1678.

First Malayalam book Sampkshepa Vedartham which came out in 1772 didn’t publish anywhere in India but in Rome!

The first dictionary in Malayalam compiled by German scholar Herman Gundert. He has also extensively written about and codified Malayalam grammar.

7. Malayalam was written in multiple scripts by different communities

Before the evolution of the modern script, different communities in Kerala adopted Malayalam into the script of their liturgical languages.

Arabi-Malayalam is a script still in limited use among the Muslim community of Kerala. It is a variant form of the Arabic script used to write Malayalam.

Suriyani Malayalam or Syriac Malayalam was a script in popular use among the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, also known as the Nasranis. Malayalam, adopted into the Syriac alphabet with certain additional orthographic changes.

8. Distinct Dialects

Though not as many dialects as other Dravidian languages like Tamil, significant variations exist in spoken Malayalam.

The Dravidian encyclopedia enlists regional dialects of Malayalam into 13 dialect areas.

Caste and communal dialects are visible in Malayalam. The spoken form of Malayalam among the Mappila Muslims of Kerala has considerable influence on Arabic and Persian. Portuguese, Greek, and Syriac words find their way into certain dialects spoken by Christian communities.

While Hebrew, Syriac, and Ladino were dominant in Judeo Malayalam- a dialect spoken by the Cochin Jews who are virtually non-existent now in Kerala.

Jeseri and Byaare are 2 dialects of Malayalam that are extremely divergent from the Malayalam spoken in mainland Kerala.

While Jeseri is spoken in Lakshadweep, Byaare is spoken in Northern Kerala and Southern Karnataka.

9. A plethora of Loan Words

Malayalam is heavily influenced by several other languages that it consists of too many loan words.

These loan words that have come from languages like Portuguese, Dutch, and Arabichave become so ingrained into the everyday usage of Malayalam.

Common words in Malayalam for chair (kasera), table (mesha), pen (pena), paper (kadalas) and window (janala) all come from the Portuguese words cadeira, mesa, pena, cartez, and Janela respectively.

Malayalam has also given loanwords to Portuguese. The Portuguese words for jackfruit (jaca), teak (teca), and jaggery (jagra) have its origins in the Malayalam words chakka, thekku, and chakkara respectively.

In fact, the very word for toilet in Malayalam, ‘kakkoos’ comes from the Dutch ‘kakhuis’!

Arabic and Persian influences also abound in the language.

10. ‘New Gen’ slang words

Thanks to Malayali youngsters, the language now has a repository of ‘new gen’ words. These are existing Malayalam words that have taken on completely new meanings and connotations according to the changing times.

Social media and movies have boosted the popularity of these new words.

‘Thallu’ which originally means ‘to push’ is one of the most popular ‘new-gen’ slang. Thallu now refers to any statement that comes off as boasting.

‘Theppu’ is another latest addition which means ‘to ditch’ a lover. However, the word originally means ‘to iron something’.

‘Pani Kitti’ is a phrase that popularly meant ‘got a job’ until a few years back. But now it means that you’ve landed up in trouble!

The Malayalam language is as interesting and versatile as Kerala. Cultural transactions with a plethora of communities from across the world have shaped the language.

In a constant state of evolution, the next time you explore the language, Malayalam will have added a whole new set of quirky facts to itself!