Malayalam, a language of God's own country! Options

[Nimii]

I always found Malayalam a sweet language. It is a bit sing a song when spoken.

It is an interesting thing to note that most of the south indian languages have lot of words with a bit of change in the sound so similar. Dr.Unni what does thou have to say here?

N

[gkshyam]

Oh Well....Unni......I wasn't aware of that situation in your household.....Must've had quite a tough time in the beginning, right?

Also....I agree with you Tres......I stay in Mumbai......and I've seen innumerable......(really lost count....guess almost 90%) Malayalee families using Hindi as their main spoken language at home......And in all the cases, the kids at home.....are not so confident with Malayalam.......(can speak a bit broken Malayalam though)....Definitely the fault lies with the parents.......If this tradition goes on.......in the future.......All the languages (not only Malayalam) will die a slow death....definitely in terms of quality....

Another thing to note here is that everyone knows the employment situation in Kerala.....and with all the communalism prevelant there....More and more ppl are migrating elsewhere.....either to "Gelf" or to other parts of India, in search of jobs.......once they start a family there.....thats it.......the kids and parents and everyone is conversing in Hindi or English.....or some such language........Possibly the families sticking to Kerala as their home, may not have this bad a problem.....But with more ppl getting out of Kerala.....the future looks uncertain...........

(And even in the cases in other cities where the parents or children speak Malayalam at home.....its not the traditional Malayalam that we know of.......they speak a cocktail kind of Malayalam......with other local accents and words coming in.....even the parents....)

[bhanuvarma]

Oh Well....Unni......I wasn't aware of that situation in your household.....Must've had quite  a tough time in the beginning, right?

Also....I agree with you Tres......I stay in Mumbai......and I've seen innumerable......(really lost count....guess almost 90%) Malayalee families using Hindi as their main spoken language at home......And in all the cases, the kids at home.....are not so confident with Malayalam.......(can speak a bit broken Malayalam though)....Definitely the fault lies with the parents.......If this tradition goes on.......in the future.......All the languages (not only Malayalam) will die a slow death....definitely in terms of quality....

Another thing to note here is that everyone knows the employment situation in Kerala.....and with all the communalism prevelant there....More and more ppl are migrating elsewhere.....either to "Gelf" or to other parts of India, in search of jobs.......once they start a family there.....thats it.......the kids and parents and everyone is conversing in Hindi or English.....or some such language........Possibly the families sticking to Kerala as their home, may not have this bad a problem.....But with more ppl getting out of Kerala.....the future looks uncertain...........

(And even in the cases in other cities where the parents or children speak Malayalam at home.....its not the traditional Malayalam that we know of.......they speak a cocktail kind of Malayalam......with other local accents and words coming in.....even the parents....)

May I, another confirmed MALLU, butt into this very interesting 7 months old thread to offer my thoughts????

I agree with the fact that very soon the influence of mother toungue is going to die a slow death if parents continued to encourage use of languages, other than the mother toungue, at home....however, I have honestly noticed this trend ONLY AMONG MALLUS.... I have personally come across Gujjus hitting it off in Gujju from the word GO, two tamils will probe each other just enuf to know that they r Tamils and then its Tamil all the way....Maharashtrians would 'amhi-marathi-manus' each other and carry on....Its only among Mallus that i have noticed a strange shame in acknowledging that they are Mallus....They gladly admit (with relief, many a times) that they know nothing of the language and they can speak in bits and pieces only......Ahhhhhhhh welllllll, strange are the ways of the world!!!!!!

As for me, urs truly can read, write and converse Malayalam, verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry fluently

[hits]

May I, another confirmed MALLU, butt into this very interesting 7 months old thread to offer my thoughts????   

I agree with the fact that very soon the influence of mother toungue is going to die a slow death if parents continued to encourage use of languages, other than the mother toungue, at home....however, I have honestly noticed this trend ONLY AMONG MALLUS.... I have personally come across Gujjus hitting it off in Gujju from the word GO, two tamils will probe each other just enuf to know that they r Tamils and then its Tamil all the way....Maharashtrians would 'amhi-marathi-manus' each other and carry on....Its only among Mallus that i have noticed a strange shame in acknowledging that they are Mallus....They gladly admit (with relief, many a times) that they know nothing of the language and they can speak in bits and pieces only......Ahhhhhhhh welllllll, strange are the ways of the world!!!!!!           

As for me, urs truly can read, write and converse Malayalam, verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry fluently

Ditto.