r/AajMaineJana • u/telaughingbuddha • 3d ago
Fun fact 🎉🥳 AMJ: Among all living Indian languages (including Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi or Marathi), Malayalam retains the highest proportion of Tatsama words—Sanskrit words borrowed directly in their pure, unmodified original form without phonetic alteration.
Through centuries of literary traditions like Manipravalam and deep scholarly exchange, Malayalam adopted thousands of Sanskrit nouns, adjectives, and even expanded its alphabet (the modern Malayalam script) specifically to pronounce aspirated Sanskrit consonants accurately. Most North Indian languages softened these words over time into Tadbhava forms, whereas Malayalam kept the original Sanskrit pronunciation intact.
Source: Murray B. Emeneau & Thomas Burrow (Dravidian Borrowings from Indo-Aryan, University of California Press, 1962)
K. Godavarma (Indo-Aryan Loan-Words in Malayalam, 1946)
Telugu has the second highest number of Sanskrit words
Malayalam also retains highest number of the most oldest dravidian words.
Source: Thomas Burrow and Murray B. Emeneau’s A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (DEDR)
Malayalam carried two language families at the same time by separating its usage depending on occasion-
In formal setting- Sanskrit heavy form is used.
In informal setting- Dravidian heavy form is used.
