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Malayalam: a University Course and Reference Grammar

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Malayalam: a University Course and Reference Grammar DOCUMENT RESUME ED 197 626 FL 012 111 AUTHOR Moag, Rodney F. TITLE Malayalam: A Univeraity Course and Reference Grammar. INSTITUTION Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor. Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE BO GRANT G007901697 NOTE 639p. LANGUAGE English: Malayalam EDRS PRICE MF03 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Cultural Awareness: Dialogs (Language) ; *Dravidian Languages; *Grammar: *Malayalam: Pattern Drills (Language): Postsecondary Education; *Reading Skills: Second Language Learning: Textbooks; Uncommonly Taught Languages: *Vocabulary Skills; Writing Exercises ABSTRACT These materials consist of 25 lessons covering all the structures commonly encountered in written Malayalam. Each lesson contains the following elements: (1) a vocabulary list, ordered according to the sequence of occurrence in the lesson's text: (2) a reading practice exercise designed to train the student to recognize visual patterns:(3) the text in which six or seven points of grammar or usage are exemplified:(4) reading comprehension exercises that draw together much of the new vocabulary and grammar points of the lesson: and(5) exercises designed to provide practice in forming appropriate responses to stimuli in Malayalam. Some lessons contain an exercise on a point of pronunciation or a written exercise. The dialogues and other exercises contain situational and cultural information. (AMH) ,***************************************************************.******* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** MALAYALAM: A UNIVERSITY COURSE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR .0 r.- Os by Rodney F. Moag Ca La assisted by Thomas Joseph and others Produced through funds allocated under Title VI of the National Defense Education Act, U.S. Department of Education Grant No. ,G0Dfi01697 / Published in Preliminary Form by The Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies -University of Michigan October 1980 Reproduced in limited edition through funds contained in the Title VI grant, and presented with the compli- ments of the major author, and of the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Comments on this draft version are earnestly invited. U S. OE PARTMENT OF HEALTH. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS EDUCATION £ WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY COUCATION HAS BEEN GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN. ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE- DEC 1 2 1980 SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) AND USERS OF THE ERIC SYSTEM." r-- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to hereby express my gratitude to all those who have helped bring this book to reality. Firstly, thanks are due to Mrs. Julia Petrov of the U.S. Department of Education who not only gave the benefit of her long experience in the plan- ning stage, but maintained an interest in the project throughout. Jim Randolph of the University's Division of Research, Develop- ment and Administration furnished practical tips on the prepar- ation of the proposal and handled some of the administrative paperwork. connected with the eventual grant. Prof. Tom Trautmann and Prof. L.A. Peter Gosling, co-directors of the Center for South .and Southeast Asian Studies, were most helpful in their moral support and in providing an administrative home for the project. Once funding for the proposal was granted, Gregory Vick of the U.S. Department of Education saw to the adminstra- tive details of the grant at the Washington end. The day-to- day administration of the project, including budget management, was handled by the principal investigator, but I received as- sistance in minor administrative matters from the office staff of the Center and of the Linguistics Department. In the preparation of the text itself, Rema Nair aided in the drafting of the first nine lessons, attesting the Malayalam sentences, and writing the Malayalam script. The texts for some of these firstlessons were based in part on earlier unpublished lessons which the author had developed at the University of Missouri with the assistance of S. Velayudhan Asari. Beginning with Lesson Ten, Thomas Joseph stepped in to take an increasingly important role in the work. He was able to com- pose dialogues and written texts which were natural and still met the strict grammatical requirements of limited vocabulary and grammatical coverage which I imposed. All of the translation exercises, the response exercises, and the grammatical drills for the earlier lessons represent the original wdrk of the author, but all the grammar exercises for later lessons are the work of Thomas Joseph. He also revised and retranscribed the lengthy section on The Malayalam Writing System. Beyond all this, Joseph (who goes by Satish) often provided some curry, or some upma, along with South Indian coffee to restc.'e the author's flagging energies at midday. Perhaps most important of all, he brought just the right combination of serious dedication and good- humored companionship to make the long hours of labor pass quickly and fruitfully. Dr. John Vilanilam, who teaches Malayalam and currently serves as president of Kala, the Malayali cultural association in the Philadelphia area, carefully went through all of the Malayalam portions of the lessons, sending detailed and help- ful comments which led to the revisions included in the present version. Prof. James Lindholm of the University of Chicago, 3 and Prof. David McAlpin of the University of Pennsylvania, both well-known scholars of Dravidian languages, very graciously consented to serve as informal consultants on the project with- out remuneration. Their advice was especially helpful during the early work while refining the goals Jf the text and settling on a standard format for the lessons. All of the grammar notes represent the author's original work, but I was aided both by daily consultations with Thomas Joseph and by occasional advice from the two informal consult- ants. Several published works on Malayalam were also consulted at various points, and some help was gleaned with them, though I did not always agree with their analysis in every detail. It also fell to the author to type the camera-ready copy of the grammar notes, instructions for exercises, and section titles. Thomas Joseph and Larry Laffrey both helped signifi- cantly in making corrections to these typed portions of the manuscript. Regretably, there was neither time nor money to have the English portions of the vocabulary lists, reference lists, and some appendices put into typing as originally planned. Some will, doubtless, find Thomas Joseph's hand- writing a welcome and unique feature of these sections. Finally, Larry Laffrey came in toward the end of the pro- ject to prepare and type the Table of Contents and assist with editing, correction and typing of the introductory'parts of the text. The book's cover design represents his collaborative efforts with Satish. Any errors and shortcomings which remain in these pages are, of course, completely my responsibility and not that of those who assisted me. I should also like to thank my wife and family for their support and encouragement during this pxoject. Rodney F. Moag Ann Arbor, Michigan October, 1980 ii 4 PREFACE The Place of Malayalam in the Modern World- Malayalam, along with its older sister language Tamil, are the two major members of the South Dravidian subgroup of languages. The Dravidian language family comprises some 22 separate languages, usually classified into North, Central, and South Dravidian. The two other major Dravidian languages, more distantly related to Malayalam than Tamil, are Kannada and Telugu, the state languages of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in South India respectively:Until recently, it was thought that the Dravidian language family had existed solely in India, but careful work by David McAlpin has produced strong evidence that Elamite, a little known dead language of the Near East of which only some inscriptions survive, is also of Dravidian stock. Whatever its history outside the subcontinent, the Dra- vidian language family is acknowledged to have had a tremendous influence on the language of the Indo-Aryan invaders who began penetrating North India from Iran before 1500 B.C. As they gradually conquered and settled the whole of North India, the various forms of Sanskrit spoken by these cousins of the early Greeks and other predecessors of the Germanic, Latin, and Slavic peoples eventually took on some of the salient characteristics of the Dravidian languages with which they came into contact. Among these assimilated features were retroflex sounds, and a number of the grammatical features of Malayalam covered in these lessons. Malayalam, itself, is recognized from inscriptional evi- dence to have existed as a separate language from the older Tamil since the ninth or tenth century A.D. It has a liter- ature dating from the thirteenth century. Until recently, its main genres were those of translated Hindu epics and lyric poetry. The last century ha.3 seen the development of both serious and popular supposecUy Western genres such as the essay, short story, novel, detective and love stories, travelogue, and the like. The successof these new genres was primarily due to the spread of mass education-in Kerala and the high literacy rates (over 80% in some parts of the state) which it engendered. The same trend is in all of the state languages in India, but Malayalam is so far unique in terms of the degree ofmass par- ticipation in literacy. House servants, peons, boatmen, and laborers read the daily papers just as avidlyas do profes- sionals, businessmen, civil servants, and educators. Because of this trend, literacy skills in Malayalam have become more and more crucial for a scholar to establishrap- port and credibility if he intends to study or do research in Kerala.
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