Books on historical Malayalam

[Jussi Nyblom]

Swaminathan Madhuresan wrote:

> I would also like to hear about good treatments of historical
> grammars of literary Dravidian languages like Kannada, Telugu
> and Malayalam.

As for Malayalam, I have found the following books rather useful:

L. V. Ramaswami Ayyar, The evolution of Malayalam Morphology, Ernakulam,
1936 (Reprint: Thrissur: Kerala Sahitya Akademi, 1993 [distributed by
National Book Stall, Kottayam]), 185 p.

Michail S. Andronov, A Grammar of the Malayalam Language in Historical
Treatment (Beitrage zur Kenntnis sudasiatischer Sprachen und
Literaturen: 1), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1996, 212 p. [useful also for
beginners specially interested in historical matters as it includes the
rudiments of modern Malayalam grammar]

Much remains to be done, though.

Best regards,

Jussi Nyblom, almost graduated in Indology
jussi.nyblom at helsinki.fi