Malayalam and Tamil are close enough that people ask whether they are really different languages. They are, and Malayalam is one of the best documented cases in the world of a language becoming itself. Languages separate through the same four forces every time, and Malayalam shows all four cleanly: 1. Geography, the Western Ghats reduced contact 2. Politics, separate rulers meant separate centres of prestige 3. Differential contact, one side took a heavy dose of Sanskrit and the other did not 4. Internal innovation, each side changed on its own and the changes stopped at the barrier Latin split into Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian this way. Old Norse split into Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish this way. Malayalam split from Tamil this way, more recently. Malayalam has one of the largest sound inventories of any language in India, because it carries a full Dravidian set and a full Sanskrit set at the same time. If you have ever wondered why the Malayalam alphabet is so long, that is why. And the script followed the sounds. Malayalam writing descends from Grantha, a script built in the south specifically to write Sanskrit. Older Kerala writing used വട്ടെഴുത്ത് (vattezhuthu), a rounded script from the Tamil tradition, and a variant called കോലെഴുത്ത് (kolezhuthu). Modern Tamil script descends from that older line, which is why it has fewer letters and cannot write the Sanskrit distinctions at all. Two neighbouring languages, two script traditions, two entirely different attitudes to a third language, all visible in the shape of the letters. Slow and clear, for English speakers, heritage learners and the Malayali diaspora. No prior classes needed. Which side of the Ghats is your family from? Comment below.