Dravidian · ISO 639-3 mal · ml
Malayalam Language മലയാളം
Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken by about 42 million people in 7 countries. It is written in the Malayalam, Eastern Syriac and Latin scripts.
Where Malayalam is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Malayalam
About the Malayalam language
Malayalam (മലയാളം) is spoken by about 42 million people, which makes it the 42nd most spoken language in the world — just behind Algerian Arabic (42 million) and ahead of Xiang Chinese (40 million). It belongs to the Dravidian language family and, more precisely, to the Malayalamoid group within the South Dravidian I branch.
Where is Malayalam spoken?
Malayalam is used in 7 countries. The largest communities live in India (45 million), United Arab Emirates (702,254), Malaysia (51,847), Bahrain (51,707) and Singapore (24,113).
Share of the population that speaks Malayalam: India 3.2% (45 million), United Arab Emirates 7% (702,254), Malaysia 0.2% (51,847), Bahrain 3.3% (51,707), Singapore 0.4% (24,113) and Israel <0.1% (7,992).
Malayalam is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in India.
Writing system and status
Malayalam is written in the Malayalam, Eastern Syriac and Latin scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Tamil, Kannada and Tulu.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ml, ISO 639-3 mal.
Frequently asked questions about Malayalam
How many people speak Malayalam?
Where is Malayalam spoken?
What language family does Malayalam belong to?
What is Malayalam called in Malayalam?
Is Malayalam an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.