Malayalam is the principal language spoken in state of Kerala and the Lakshadweep Islands in India. It is a Dravidian language with about 36 million speakers.
Malayalam can be divided into three regional dialects. As with many Indian languages or dialects, differences between each dialect in Malayalam are related to the caste system and social structures. Its unique alphabet has changed many times. The most recent change was during the 1970’s and 1980’s, when it was simplified to ease printing and typesetting. But this change was not applied consistently; therefore modern writing is often a combination of both traditional and simplified Malayalam characters.
