Difference Between Tamil and Malayalam
Tamil and Malayalam are two languages spoken in South India and show the differences between them when it comes to their syntax and semantics. It is indeed true that these languages belong to the family of Dravidian languages.
We speak Tamil in the State of Tamilnadu in South India while Malayalam in the state of Kerala in South India. Tamil is believed to have originated in 5th century BC or even earlier. Thus, Tamil is one of the oldest languages in the world. On the other hand, Malayalam is very not old and it began to grow only after 10th century AD.
Tamil boasts of the literature is as old as the literature of the Sanskrit language. The letter ‘zha’ is unique to the Tamil language and is logical in pronunciation. Tamil language is considered as a congregating where the root does not undergo changes in its structure but allows prefixes and other elements to join.
Malayalam is also an example of congregating language. It is said that Malayalam has close affinity with Sanskrit just like Tamil. On the other hand Tamil is believed to be an independent language and does not borrow too many words from Sanskrit. Malayalam has borrowed many words from Sanskrit. Ezhuttachan wrote the Mahabharata in Malayalam where as Kamban wrote Ramayanam in Tamil language.
It is interesting to note that both the Tamil & Malayalam are similar to each other to a large extent in their scripts. They show similarities to some extent in the formation of sentence as well. The syntax is the branch of linguistics that deals with the study of sentence formation. Both languages are recognized under the constitution of India. Tamil and Malayalam are two of the most popular languages spoken in India.