Basic Course in Malayalam

By Dr. Rakesh Cherucodu | Southern Regional Language Center (SRLC),CIIL, Mysuru

Learners enrolled: 646

This 12-week, 4-credit course is designed for four-year degree students and other learners interested in learning Malayalam. It begins with basics like Malayalam script, phonetics, greetings, and daily conversations. The course progresses through grammar essentials, vocabulary building, and listening practice, then advances to reading comprehension and writing skills. Participants explore Malayalam literature, practice speaking in various settings, and learn about Malayalam culture. The course concludes with a review and final assessment covering listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, with reflection on their language learning journey and future goals.

Summary

Course Status :	Upcoming
Course Type :	Not Applicable
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Language
Credit Points :	4
Level :	Undergraduate
Start Date :	01 Jan 2025
End Date :	30 Apr 2025
Enrollment Ends :	28 Feb 2025
Exam Date :	17 May 2025 IST
Exam Shift :	Shift- II

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week	Topics/ Videos Lecture
Week 1	Greetings: Self Introduction welcome and other forms, Introduction to Kerala land and culture, Script group- 1, Script group- 2 and 3, Script group- 4 and 5, Script group- 7,6and 8, Script group- 9,10,11 and 12.
Week 2	Personal Pronouns Kinship terms and possessive forms, Basic Adjectives, Interrogative marker of Copula verb, Plural nouns and co- coordinating suffix, Numerals, Cardinal and ordinal numbers , Locative case ,directions and post positions, Pronominal predicates, Demonstrative adjectives.
Week 3	Basic adjectives and adjectival predicates, Different types of masculine and feminine plural forms, Interrogative marker of Copula verb, Plural nouns and co- coordinating suffix, Exclamatory sentences and vocative marker , Past tense and its interrogative marker of copula verb, Dative case, Locative case and future tense of copula verb.
Week 4	Defective verbs and its question marker, Past tense of copula verb and vegetable name, Action verbs, Definite imperatives, negative imperatives and prohibitive forms, Optative contractions(desire ,permission and blessing, Obligatory sentences indicating wish and desire, Verbs showing ability and privilege.
Week 5	Defective verbs, Present and habitual-future usage along with respective negations with internal changes.
Week 6	Purposive infinitive, Prohibitive forms and purposive infinitive, Usage of- To know-verb, Present tense marker, Present tense expanded by ablative case, Present tense expanded by dative case, Present tense expanded by sociative and instrumental case.
Week 7	Transitive ,Intransitive and causative verbs, Future tense, Future Tense-use age in Habitual purpose , Past tense marker and domestic animals name, Past tense marker, Past tense marker, Verbal participles derived from past tense.
Week 8	Complex sentences formed with verbal participle, Reflexive constrictions, Present continues tense, Different shades of meaning of verbal participles, Verbal participles and some auxiliary verbs, Verbal participle and future probabilities, Discussion about the previous class.
Week 9	Restrictive constrictions, Conditional forms, Another type of conditional contraction, Relative participles, Negative verbal adjectives, Participial nouns and expanded forms, Reported speech.
Week 10	Passive voice, Active voice, Special usage of compound words, Sample of letter writing, idioms, Proverbs, Complex sentence contractions.
Week 11	Cultural vocabulary, About festivals, Folk story, Phrases, About Celebrations, stories , About Celebrations.
Week 12	Over view of all structure.

Books and references

1. An Intensive Course in Malayalam B Syamalakumari.

2. Bharathiya Bhsha Jyothi-Malayalam, CIIL, Mysore.

3. Malayalam Grammar and Reader KM George, National Book Stall, Kottayam.

4. An Intensive course in Malayalam AP Andrewskutty, DLA, Thiruvananthapuram.

Instructor bio

Dr. Rakesh Cherucodu

Southern Regional Language Center (SRLC),CIIL, Mysuru

Dr. Rakesh Cherucodu holds an MA in Malayalam from the University of Kerala, obtained in 2007, and an MA in Linguistics from Annamali University, completed in 2021. He earned his PhD in 2015 from the University of Kerala, focusing on the influence of colonialism in cultural spaces. He qualified the NET and JRF conducted by UGC in 2007. Currently, Dr. Rakesh Cherucodu serves as a lecturer and the Principal In Charge of SRLC at the Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysuru.

Dr. Rakesh Cherucodu has authored three books on literary and cultural criticism and has edited several others, including "Keralapaniniyam: Readings & Representations," "Kerala Land & Culture," and "Balaramayana." He has contributed over 30 articles to research journals and popular periodicals. Additionally, he has delivered more than 50 lectures and paper presentations at national and international seminars and conferences.

Dr. Rakesh Cherucodu's achievements include the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award for literary criticism, the Thanima Award for Best Film Criticism, and the Special Jury Award for Best Film Criticism from Kerala Chalachithra Academy, conferred by the Chief Minister of Kerala in 2021. His areas of expertise encompass language teaching, literature criticism, and film studies.

Dr. Aiswaria G. Shajan (Instructor) is a Resource Person at the National Testing Service-India (NTS-I), Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Department of Linguistics, University of Kerala. With over 12 years of experience, she is an enthusiastic research scholar dedicated to linguistics, literature, and academia. Her research interests span language teaching, tribal linguistics, sociolinguistics, gender studies, language contact, and more. She authored several papers that delve into linguistic and language perspectives. Her teaching philosophy centres on fostering an inclusive and dynamic learning environment where students are encouraged to engage deeply with language study.

Mrs. Nirmala M. P. (Instructor) is working as a Recourse Person of Malayalam in Southern Regional Language Center, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru. She has 14 years of Second Language Teaching experience with diverse groups of learners. She has prepared language laboratory materials and graded learning materials for the group. She is passionate about helping students unlock their linguistic potential and build confidence in their communication skills. Mrs. Nirmala M. P. specializes in creating engaging, student-centred lessons integrating cultural insights with language instruction.

Dr. Sajila S. (Instructor) is a Senior Resource Person at the Linguistic Data Consortium for Indian Languages (LDC-IL) under the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru. With expertise in core linguistics, computational linguistics, natural language processing (NLP), and language acquisition, she has contributed significantly to linguistic research and corpus development, especially in Malayalam. Dr. Sajila has authored and co-authored several books and research papers and has been actively involved in the development of language resources like the Malayalam Raw Text and Speech Corpus.

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