A Kerala kitchen holds a Portuguese table, a Portuguese chair and a Portuguese cupboard, and everyone considers all of it Malayali. After the Sanskrit layer comes everything else. Spotting a loanword tells you that you may already know it, and it also tells Kerala's history in words. You hear the everyday Portuguese words left by a century of trade, the thin Dutch layer, the Arabic and Persian words of trade and administration, a small rare Syriac layer, and the huge English layer, including ചെയ്യുക for turning any English noun into a verb and English words whose meaning shifted in Kerala. Words and phrases in this class: ജനൽ (janal) – window (Portuguese janela) മേശ (mesha) – table (Portuguese mesa) കസേര (kasera) – chair (Portuguese cadeira) അലമാര (alamaara) – cupboard (Portuguese armário) തൂവാല (thoovaala) – towel (Portuguese toalha) പേന (pena) – pen (Portuguese pena) കക്കൂസ് (kakkoos) – toilet (traced to Dutch) കടലാസ് (kadalaasu) – paper (from Arabic) അസ്സൽ (assal) – genuine, original വക്കീൽ (vakkeel) – lawyer ജില്ല (jilla) – district ഹോട്ടൽ (hotel) – restaurant, in Kerala usage കറന്റ് (current) – electricity, in Kerala usage ബുക്ക് ചെയ്യുക (book cheyyuka) – to book In this class: • Portuguese words for the furniture of every Kerala home • The Dutch layer, and a botanical record of Kerala's plants • Arabic and Persian words of trade and administration • The English layer, ചെയ്യുക verbs, and words that changed meaning Quizzes below. Dr. Reshmi R Nair — SpeakMalayalam.