The Malayalam of work — jobs, offices, salary, leave — and then the part almost nobody teaches: what Malayalam turns into on a form and at a government counter, where it becomes a different language from the one you have been learning. 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 WORKPLACE ജോലി (joli) - work, and also a job പണി (pani) - work, earthier and more manual, and it also means trouble സ്ഥാപനം (sthaapanam) - institution, establishment സഹപ്രവർത്തകൻ (sahapravarthakan) - colleague ജീവനക്കാരൻ (jeevanakkaaran) - employee, staff member ശമ്പളം (shambalam) - salary ജോലിസമയം (jolisamayam) - working hours അവധി (avadhi) - leave, a holiday യോഗം (yogam) - meeting അപേക്ഷ (apeksha) - application ഒപ്പ് (oppu) - signature രേഖകൾ (rekhakal) - documents പകർപ്പ് (pakarppu) - a copy THE VERBS ജോലി ചെയ്യുക (joli cheyyuka) - to work തുടങ്ങുക (thudanguka) - to begin തീർക്കുക (theerkkuka) - to finish something ഏൽപ്പിക്കുക (elppikkuka) - to hand over, to entrust ഓർമിപ്പിക്കുക (ormippikkuka) - to remind ശ്രദ്ധിക്കുക (shraddhikkuka) - to attend to, to pay attention THE OTHER MALAYALAM — THE ONE ON THE FORM Official Malayalam uses a Sanskritised layer that spoken Malayalam never touches. You need to RECOGNISE it, and never try to speak it. പ്രസ്തുത (prasthutha) - the aforesaid മേൽപ്പറഞ്ഞ (melpparanja) - the above-mentioned ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട (bandhappetta) - concerned, relevant അപേക്ഷകൻ (apekshakan) - the applicant സമർപ്പിക്കുക (samarppikkuka) - to submit നടപടി (nadapadi) - action, proceedings തീർപ്പ് (theerppu) - a ruling, a resolution ഉത്തരവ് (utharavu) - an order Linguists call this diglossia: one speech community keeping a high written variety and an everyday spoken one side by side. Kerala's version is unusually wide. Which counter has defeated you so far? Comment and I will give you the sentence. #LearnMalayalam #Malayalam #Kerala