Malayalam on a screen — phones, messaging, WhatsApp, and what happened to a Dravidian script when it met a keyboard. Most of the Malayalam you are actually sent arrives on a phone, and much of it is not in Malayalam script at all. I am Dr. Reshmi R. Nair, an applied linguist from Kerala. I have taught hundreds of learners to speak Malayalam as it is actually spoken. THE SENTENCES YOU WILL USE TODAY ഒന്ന് വിളിക്കാമോ? - onnu vilikkamo? - could you call me? ഞാൻ പിന്നെ വിളിക്കാം - njan pinne vilikkam - I will call later കേൾക്കുന്നില്ല - kelkkunnilla - I cannot hear you ഒന്ന് ഉറക്കെ പറയാമോ? - onnu urakke parayamo? - could you speak louder? റേഞ്ച് ഇല്ല - range illa - there is no signal ചാർജ് തീർന്നു - charge theernnu - the battery died വാട്സാപ്പിൽ അയക്കാമോ? - WhatsApp-il ayakkamo? - can you send it on WhatsApp? ONE VERB WORTH NOTICING വിളിക്കുക - vilikkuka - to call. The same verb also means to invite and to summon. WHY ALMOST EVERY NOUN HERE IS ENGLISH Phone, mobile, number, message, charge, battery, screen, app, internet, data, wifi, recharge, password, link. Official coinages exist — in textbooks and government documents and nowhere else. That is not decline; it is what any language does when a technology arrives from outside, and Malayalam has always absorbed without embarrassment. WHAT THE KEYBOARD DID TO THE SCRIPT Vowel signs attach on both sides of a consonant, and the conjunct clusters are many. None of it fits a keyboard built for 26 letters. In 1971 Kerala adopted a simplified orthography, driven largely by the limits of typewriters: signs were detached and clusters split with a ചന്ദ്രക്കല. പഴയ ലിപി - pazhaya lipi - the old script പുതിയ ലിപി - puthiya lipi - the new, reformed script And then there is Manglish — Malayalam typed in Roman letters — which is how much of it is actually written between friends. Which do you get sent more: script or Manglish? #LearnMalayalam #Malayalam #Kerala