Luna Netto

December 2023

Hello, I'm RetroCosmos. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Malayalam, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. RetroCosmos (talk) 15:48, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

If you have knowledge about this topic, we welcome your contributions, but please ensure you include a citation. A citation can include information from newspapers or academic papers. Thanks RetroCosmos (talk) 15:49, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Hello! I'm sorry for the late reply, but I'm a native speaker of Malayalam, and I can attest to the fact that modern Malayalam vocab is still heavily influenced by Sanskrit!

Take this translation of what I just said for example:

നമസ്കാരം! മറുപടി മറുപടി വൈകിയതിൽ ക്ഷമ ചൊദിക്കുനു, മലയാളം എന്റെ മാതൃഭാഷ ആന്, പക്ഷേ ആധുനിക മലയാളം പദാവലി ഇപ്പോഴും സംസ്‌കൃതത്തിന്റെ സ്വാധീനത്തിലാണ് എന്ന് എനിക്ക് സാക്ഷ്യപ്പെടുത്താൻ കഴിയും!

Transliterated as (with Sanskrit loanwords and roots emboldened*):

namaskāram! marupadi vaīkiyathin kśema ćōdhikkunu, malayāļam ente mathr̥bhaśa ānŭ, pakśe ādhunika malayāļam padhāvali ippozhum samskr̥thatthinte svadhīnatthilānņŭ ennŭ ennikŭ sākśyappedutthān kazhiyum!

To eliminate translation bias - i.e. to translate it in a way that would be used in everyday Malayalam - I used google translate to convert the paragraph, and I had my mother correct any errors.

Admittedly, Malayalam is in many ways similar to English, where you can choose between an abundance of Germanic or Romance synonyms,

but this translation is done with as directly as possible, foregoing any bells, whistles, or excessive formality**.

As we can see, over half of the words used here are Sanskrit loanwords, therefore I believe that my point that modern Malayalam is still heavily reliant on those Sanskritisms that are described as "seldom used."

• I used wiktionary as a source for the etymologies for these words.
  • For instance, words like pakśe, ćodhiyam (as in ćodhikkunu), sakśyappeduka (as in sākśyappedutthān) are all rather informal, with pakśe rarely being used outside of colloquial speech.

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On a personal note, I noticed that you're Singaporean on your page, and I used to live there too! Small world! The malay word Singapura also derives from Sanskrit, which i think is awesome :)

Luna Netto (talk) 20:27, 10 March 2024 (UTC)