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List of Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists

 * See also History of Unitarianism

A number of notable people have considered themselves Unitarians, Universalists, and following the merger of these denominations in the United States and Canada in 1961, Unitarian Universalists. Additionally, there are persons who, because of their writings or reputation, are considered to have held Unitarian or Universalist beliefs. Individuals who held unitarian (nontrinitarian) beliefs but were not affiliated with Unitarian organizations are often referred to as "small 'u unitarians. The same principle can be applied to those who believed in universal salvation but were not members of Universalist organizations. This article, therefore, makes the distinction between capitalized "Unitarians" and "Universalists" and lowercase "unitarians" and "universalists".

The Unitarians and Universalists are groups that existed long before the creation of Unitarian Universalism.

Early Unitarians did not hold Universalist beliefs, and early Universalists did not hold Unitarian beliefs. But beginning in the nineteenth century the theologies of the two groups started becoming more similar.

Additionally, their eventual merger as the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) did not eliminate divergent Unitarian and Universalist congregations, especially outside the US. Even within the US, some congregations still keep only one of the two names, "Unitarian" or "Universalist". However, with only a few exceptions, all belong to the UUA—even those that maintain dual affiliation (e.g., Unitarian and Quaker). Transcendentalism was a movement that diverged from contemporary American Unitarianism but has been embraced by later Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists.

In Northern Ireland, Unitarian churches are officially called "Non-Subscribing Presbyterian", but are informally known as "Unitarian" and are affiliated with the Unitarian churches of the rest of the world.

A

 * Francis Ellingwood Abbot (1836–1903) – Unitarian minister who led a group that attempted to liberalize the Unitarian constitution and preamble. He later helped found the Free Religious Association.
 * Abigail Adams (1744–1818) – women's rights advocate and first Second Lady and the second First Lady of the United States
 * James Luther Adams (1901–1994) – Unitarian theologian.
 * John Adams (1735–1826) – second President of the United States.
 * John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) – sixth President of the United States. Co-founder, All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.C.)
 * Sarah Fuller Adams (1805–1848) – English poet and hymn writer
 * Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) – poet
 * Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) – author of Little Women.
 * Horatio Alger Sr. (1806–1881) – Unitarian Minister father of Horatio Alger.
 * Ethan Allen (1738–1789) – author of Reason the Only Oracle of Man, and the chief source of Hosea Ballou's universalist ideas
 * Joseph Henry Allen (1820–1898) – American Unitarian scholar and minister
 * Arthur J. Altmeyer (1891–1972) – father of Social Security
 * Oliver Ames Jr. (1807–1877) – Massachusetts businessman and industrialist who commissioned the building of the Unity Church of North Easton
 * J. M. Andrews (1871–1956) – Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (a Non-subscribing Presbyterian member)
 * Thomas Andrews (1873–1912) – Master-shipbuilder of the RMS Oceanic (1899), "Big Four", and Olympic-class ocean liners (a Non-subscribing Presbyterian member)
 * Tom Andrews (born 1953) – U.S. Representative from Maine
 * Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) – Quaker
 * Robert Aspland (1782–1845) – English Unitarian minister, editor and activist, founder of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
 * Robert Brook Aspland (1805–1869) – English Unitarian minister and editor, son of Robert Aspland

B

 * Samuel Bache (1804–1876) – English Unitarian minister
 * E. Burdette Backus (1888–1955) – Unitarian Humanist minister (originally a Universalist)
 * Blanche Pentecost Bagley (1858–1928) – British-born American Unitarian minister
 * Bill Baird (born 1932) – abortion rights pioneer, Unitarian.
 * Sara Josephine Baker (1873–1945) – physician and public health worker.
 * Emily Greene Balch (1867–1961) – Nobel Peace Laureate
 * Roger Nash Baldwin (1884–1981) – founder of American Civil Liberties Union
 * Adin Ballou (1803–1890) – abolitionist and former Baptist who became a Universalist minister, then a Unitarian minister.
 * Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) – American Universalist leader. (Universalist minister and a unitarian in theology)
 * Aaron Bancroft (1755–1839) – Congregationalist Unitarian minister
 * John Bardeen (1908–1991) – physicist, Nobel Laureate 1956 (inventing the transistor) and in 1972 (superconductivity)
 * Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810–1891) – American showman and Circus Owner
 * Ysaye Maria Barnwell (born 1946) – member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, founded the Jubilee Singers, a choir at All Souls Church in Washington, D.C.
 * Béla Bartók (1881–1945) – composer.
 * Clara Barton (1821–1912) – organizer of American Red Cross, Universalist
 * Clara Bancroft Beatley (1858–1923) – educator, lecturer, author
 * Christopher C. Bell (born 1933) – author
 * Ami Bera (born 1965) – U.S. Representative for California
 * Henry Bergh (1811–1888) – founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
 * Tim Berners-Lee (born 1955) – inventor of the World Wide Web.
 * Paul Blanshard (1892–1980) – activist.
 * Joani Blank (1937–2016) – sexuality educator and co-housing activist.
 * Chester Bliss Bowles (1901–1986) – Connecticut Governor and diplomat.
 * Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) – author.
 * Andre Braugher (1962–2023) – American actor
 * T. Berry Brazelton (1918–2018) – pediatrician, author, TV show host.
 * Alice Williams Brotherton (1848–1930), poet and magazine writer
 * Olympia Brown (1835–1926) – suffragist, Universalist minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent Ohio
 * Percival Brundage (1892–1979) – technocrat
 * John A. Buehrens (born 1947) – president of the Unitarian Universalist Association from 1993–2001
 * Charles Bulfinch (1763–1844) – most notable for being Architect of the Capitol. Co-founder, All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.C.)
 * Ralph Wendell Burhoe (1911–1997) – scholar
 * Harold Hitz Burton (1888–1964) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1945–1958
 * Edmund Butcher (1757–1822) – English minister

C

 * John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) – U.S. Vice President and Senator Co-founder, All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.C.)
 * Walter Bradford Cannon (1871–1945) – experimental physiologist
 * Louise Whitfield Carnegie (1857–1946) – wife of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. After Carnegie died Louise made donations to charities.
 * Lant Carpenter (1780–1840) – English Unitarian minister, author and educator
 * Russell Lant Carpenter (1816–1892) – Unitarian minister. Son and biographer of Dr. Lant Carpenter
 * William Herbert Carruth (1859–1924) – educator, poet, President of Pacific Coast Conference of the Unitarian Church
 * Samuel Carter (1805–1878) – British MP and early railway solicitor
 * Lee Carter (born 1987) — delegate for Virginia's 50th House of Delegates district (according to his campaign website, he and his family attend their local Unitarian Universalist Church)
 * Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914) – Manufacturer, Unitarian, founder of local government in Britain.
 * Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) – Unitarian, then an agnostic and, British Prime Minister.
 * Augusta Jane Chapin (1836–1905) – American Universalist minister, educator and activist for women's rights
 * William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) – Unitarian minister, whose 1819 sermon "Unitarian Christianity" laid the foundations for American Unitarianism.
 * Charles Chauncy (1592–1672) – Unitarian Congregationalist minister.
 * Jesse Chickering (1797–1855) – Unitarian minister and economist
 * Brock Chisholm (1896–1971) – director, World Health Organization
 * Parley P. Christensen (1869–1954) – Utah and California politician, Esperantist
 * Judy Chu (born 1953) – Congressperson representing California's 27th Congressional District. First Chinese-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress
 * Annie Clark (born 1982) – musician and singer-songwriter, better known by her stage name, St. Vincent (musician).
 * Andrew Inglis Clark (1848–1907) – Tasmanian politician. Responsible for the adoption of the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation by the Parliament of Tasmania
 * Grenville Clark (1882–1931) – author
 * Joseph S. Clark (1901–1990) – U.S. Senator and mayor of Philadelphia
 * Laurel Clark (1961–2003) – U.S. Navy officer and NASA Astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
 * James Freeman Clarke (1810–1888) – Unitarian minister, theologian and author
 * Stanley Cobb (1887–1968) – neurologist and psychiatrist
 * William Cohen (born 1940) – U.S. Secretary of Defense (1997–2001), U.S. Senator from Maine (1979–1997)
 * Emily Parmely Collins (1814–1909) — American suffragist, activist, writer
 * Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) – American historian and biographer of Theodore Parker
 * Kent Conrad (born 1948) – U.S. Senator from North Dakota (1992–2013)
 * Maria Cook (1779–1835) – first woman to be recognized as a Universalist preacher.
 * Mary Leggett Cooke (1852–1938) – Unitarian minister; member of the Iowa Sisterhood
 * William David Coolidge (1873–1975) – inventor, physician, research director
 * Peter Cooper (1791–1883) – industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and politician; founder of The Cooper Union.
 * Norman Cousins (1915–1990) – editor and writer, Unitarian friend
 * E. E. Cummings (1894–1962) – poet and painter
 * William Cushing (1732–1810) – one of the original US Supreme Court Justices, appointed by Geo. Washington and longest serving of the original justices (1789–1810).

D

 * Cyrus Dallin (1861–1944) – American sculptor
 * Charles Darwin (1809–1882) – English naturalist and biologist
 * Ferenc Dávid (born as Franz David Hertel, often rendered as Francis David or Francis Davidis) (1510–1579) – Transylvanian priest, minister and bishop, founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, first to use the word "Unitarian" to describe his faith
 * A. Powell Davies (1902–1957) Unitarian minister, author
 * George de Benneville (1703–1793) – Universalist
 * Morris Dees (born 1936) – attorney, cofounder, chief legal counsel of Southern Poverty Law Center
 * Karl W. Deutsch (1912–1992) – international political scientist
 * John Dewey (1859–1952) – author of A Common Faith, Unitarian friend
 * Charles Dickens (1812–1870) – English novelist.
 * Dorothea Dix (1802–1887) – prison reformer in New England.
 * John H. Dietrich (1878–1957) – Unitarian minister
 * James Drummond Dole (1877–1958) – entrepreneur
 * Emily Taft Douglas (1899–1994) – U.S. Representative, Illinois
 * Paul Douglas (1892–1976) – U.S. Senator, also a Quaker
 * Madelyn Dunham (1922–2008) – grandmother of U.S. President Barack Obama
 * Stanley Armour Dunham (1918–1992) – grandfather of Barack Obama
 * Stanley Ann Dunham (1942–1995) – mother of Barack Obama

E

 * Richard Eddy (1828–1906) – minister and author of 1886 book Universalism in America.
 * James Chuter Ede (1882–1965) – British teacher, trade unionist and politician, Home Secretary (1945–1951) and President of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
 * Charles William Eliot (1834–1926) – landscape architect
 * Samuel Atkins Eliot (1862–1950) – first president of the Unitarians
 * Thomas H. Eliot (1907–1991) – legislator and educator
 * Thomas Lamb Eliot (1841–1936) – minister, founder of First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon, and Reed College
 * Mary Elvira Elliott (1851–1942) – American writer and lecturer
 * Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) – Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist
 * William Emerson (1873–1957) – MIT dean of architecture
 * Ephraim Emerton (1851–1935) – historian and educator
 * Marc Estrin (born 1939) – American novelist and political activist
 * Charles Carroll Everett (1829–1900) – Unitarian minister and Harvard Divinity professor from Maine
 * Charles Wesley Emerson (1837–1908) – Unitarian minister and founder of Emerson College

F

 * Sophia Lyon Fahs (1876–1978) – liberal religious educator
 * Millard Fillmore (1800–1874) – thirteenth President of the United States
 * Joseph L. Fisher (1914–1992) – U.S. congressman
 * Hermann van Flekwyk (d. 1569) – Dutch anabaptist
 * Benjamin Flower (1755–1829) – English radical writer
 * James Freeman (1759–1835) – first American preacher to call himself a Unitarian
 * Caleb Fleming (1698–1779) – English anti-Trinitarian dissenting minister
 * Robert Fulghum (born 1937) – UU minister and writer
 * Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) – inventor, engineer
 * Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) – journalist
 * János Füzi (1776–1833) – Unitarian minister, teacher

G

 * Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865) – British novelist and social reformer
 * Frank Gannett (1876–1957) – newspaper publisher
 * Greta Gerwig (born 1983) – actor, screenwriter and director
 * Thomas Field Gibson (1803–1889) – English manufacturer who aided the welfare of the Spitalfields silk weavers
 * Henry Giles (1809–1882) – British-American Unitarian minister and writer
 * Hilary Goodridge – the lead plaintiff in the landmark case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
 * Eleanor Gordon (1852–1942) – minister and member of the Iowa Sisterhood.
 * Mike Gravel (1930–2021) – U.S. Senator; 2008 Democratic presidential candidate
 * Mary H. Graves (1839–1908) – minister, literary editor, writer
 * Dana Greeley (1908–1986) – the first president of the Unitarian Universalist Association
 * Horace Greeley (1811–1872) – newspaper editor, presidential candidate, Universalist
 * Robert Joseph Greene (born 1973) – Canadian author and LGBT Activist
 * Chester Greenwood (1858–1937) – inventor
 * Gary Gygax (1938–2008) – game designer and creator of Dungeons & Dragons, called himself a Christian, "albeit one that is of the Arian (Unitarian) persuasion."

H

 * Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909) – American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman
 * George Ernest Hale (1884–1966), Unitarian minister in South Australia
 * Ellen L. Hamilton (1921–1996) – artist, author, advocate for homeless teens, and member of UUA Board of Trustees (1973–1977).
 * Phebe Ann Coffin Hannaford (1829–1921) – first lesbian minister, biographer
 * Frances Harper (1825–1911) – abolitionist, suffragist, poet, teacher, public speaker, and writer; one of the first African-American women to be published in the United States. Unitarian.
 * Donald S. Harrington (1914–2005)
 * Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000) – theologian, who developed Process Theology
 * John Hayward – philosopher of religion and the arts
 * William Hazlitt (1737–1820) – influential Unitarian minister and father of the writer of the same name
 * Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925) – self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician, and physicist
 * Iacob Heraclid (1527–1563) – Greek Maltese adventurer, missionary, Prince of Moldavia
 * Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911) – Unitarian Minister and member of the Secret Six who funded John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.
 * Lotta Hitschmanova (1909–1990) – founder, Unitarian Service Committee of Canada
 * Jessica Holmes (born 1973) – cast member of Air Farce.
 * John Holmes (1904–1962) – poet
 * Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) – American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932. Unitarian
 * W. R. Holway (1893–1981) – engineer in Tulsa, co-founded All Souls Unitarian Church in 1921.
 * Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910) – author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
 * Roman Hruska (1904–1999) – conservative Republican Senator from Nebraska
 * David Hubel (1926–2013) – Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine 1981
 * Charles Hudson (1795–1881) – Universalist minister and politician
 * Harm Jan Huidekoper (1776–1854) – businessman, essayist and lay theologian, a vice president of the American Unitarian Association, and co-founder of the Meadville Theological School
 * Michelle Huneven (born August 14, 1953) – American novelist and journalist. She attends Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena, California.

J

 * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) – third president of the U.S., unitarian but not affiliated with any sect
 * Joseph Johnson (1738–1809) – English publisher
 * Jenkin Lloyd Jones (1843–1918) – Unitarian missionary and minister in the United States
 * Richard Lloyd Jones (1873–1963) – son of Jenkin Lloyd Jones, editor and publisher of the Tulsa Tribune, also co-founder of All Souls Unitarian Church in 1921.
 * Annie Bizzell Jordan Willis (1893–1977) – daughter of Rev. Joseph Fletcher Jordan, a religious educator and integrationist

K

 * György Kepes (1906–2001) – visual artist
 * Naomi King (born 1970) – Unitarian minister, daughter of author Stephen King
 * Thomas Starr King (1824–1864) – minister who during his career served both in Universalist and in Unitarian churches. Namesake of Starr King School.
 * James R. Killian (1904–1988) – president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 * W.M. Kiplinger (1891–1967) – publisher of the Kiplinger Letters
 * Webster Kitchell (1931–2009) – theologian
 * Abner Kneeland (1774–1844) – Universalist minister and denominational leader who, after leaving the denomination to become a leader in the freethought movement, was convicted and jailed for blasphemy.
 * Richard Knight (1768–1844) – friend, colleague and follower of Joseph Priestley, developed the first method to make platinum malleable. Stored Priestley's library during his escape to America.
 * Penney Kome (born 1948) – Canadian author and journalist

L

 * William L. Langer (1896–1977) – historian of diplomacy
 * Margaret Laurence (1926–1987) – author
 * Alfred McClung Lee (1906–1992) – sociologist
 * John Lewis (philosopher) (1889–1976) – British Unitarian minister and Marxist philosopher and author of many works on philosophy, anthropology, and religion.
 * Arthur Lismer (1885–1969) – Canadian painter, educator
 * Viola Liuzzo (1925–1965) – civil rights activist
 * Mary Livermore (1820–1905) – Universalist
 * James W. Loewen (born 1942) – sociologist
 * Arthur Lovejoy (1873–1962) – founder of the History of Ideas movement

M

 * Carrie Mac (born 1975) – Canadian author
 * John P. Marquand (1893–1960) – author
 * Peter Finch Martineau (1755–1847) – English businessman and community benefactor
 * Charlotte Garrigue Masaryk(ová) (1850–1923) – wife of first President of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
 * Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937) – first President of Czechoslovakia
 * Bernard Maybeck (1862–1957) – architect, Unitarian
 * Scotty McLennan (born 1948) – dean for Religious Life at Stanford University, Minister of Stanford Memorial Church, and inspiration for the Reverend Scot Sloan character in the comic strip Doonesbury
 * Adrian Melott (born 1947) – physicist and cosmologist
 * Herman Melville (1819–1891) – American writer best known for Moby-Dick.
 * Samuel Freeman Miller (1816–1890) – United States Supreme Court Justice from 1862 to 1890
 * Robert Millikan (1868–1953) – Nobel Laureate in Physics 1923 for determining the charge of the electron, taught at Caltech in Pasadena CA
 * Walt Minnick (born 1942) – Politician and representative for Idaho's 1st congressional district, United States House of Representatives
 * Théodore Monod (1902–2000) – French activist. Founding president of the Francophone Unitarian Association
 * Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) – anthropologist and social biologist
 * Slim Moon (born 1967) – American music producer
 * Christopher Moore – founder of the Chicago Children's Choir
 * Mary Carr Moore (1873–1957) – composer, teacher, Far Western activist for American Music
 * Peter Morales – eighth president of the Unitarian Universalist Association
 * Arthur E. Morgan (1878–1975) – human engineer and college president
 * John Murray (1741–1815) – Universalist minister and leader
 * Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820) – American writer, held a local Universalist preacher's license in the 1790s, an advocate of Universalism and women's rights

N

 * Isaac Newton (1642–1726) – English physicist and mathematician
 * Maurine Neuberger (1907–2000) – U.S. Senator
 * Paul Newman (1925–2008) – actor, film director
 * Andrews Norton (1786–1853) – Once known as the “Unitarian Pope”
 * Joseph Nye (1937-Present) Rhodes Scholar, Former Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and one of the most influential figures in American foreign policy history by Foreign Policy Magazine

O

 * Keith Olbermann (born 1959) – news anchor, political commentator, and sports journalist
 * Mary White Ovington (1865–1951) – NAACP founder

P

 * Bob Packwood (born 1932) – U.S. Senator from Oregon (1969–1995)
 * John Palmer (1742–1786) – English Unitarian minister
 * David Park (1911–1960) – West coast painter.
 * Isaac Parker (1768–1830) – Massachusetts Congressman and jurist, including Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1814 to his death.
 * Theodore Parker (1810–1860) – Unitarian minister and transcendentalist
 * Linus Pauling (1901–1994) – Nobel Laureate for Peace and for Chemistry
 * Randy Pausch (1960–2008) – computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Author of The Last Lecture
 * Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900–1979) – astronomer and astrophysicist.
 * Richard Peacock (1820–1889) – British locomotive engineer and philanthropist
 * Laura Pedersen (born 1965) – American author, journalist, playwright and humorist. Books and plays with humanist themes. Lifelong UU, Interfaith minister.
 * Sarah Maria Clinton Perkins (1824–1905) – American Universalist minister, social reformer, lecturer, editor, author
 * Melissa Harris-Perry (born 1973) – professor, author, and political commentator on MSNBC hosting the Melissa Harris-Perry TV program.
 * William James Perry, (born 1927) – former United States Secretary of Defense
 * William T. Pheiffer (1898–1986) – American lawyer/politician
 * Utah Phillips, (1935–2008) – American singer, songwriter and homeless advocate
 * William Pickering (1910–2004) – space explorer
 * James Pierpont (1822–1893) – songwriter ("Jingle Bells")
 * Daniel Pinkham (1923–2006) – composer
 * John Platts (1775–1837) – English Unitarian minister and author
 * Van Rensselaer Potter (1911–2001) – global bioethicist
 * Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) – discoverer of oxygen and Unitarian minister
 * George Pullman (1831–1897) – Universalist
 * Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) – American writer, poet
 * Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) – British children's writer of the famous "Peter Rabbit" stories

R

 * Bonnie Raitt, singer and guitarist
 * Mary Jane Rathbun (1860–1943) – marine zoologist
 * James Reeb (1927–1965) – civil-rights martyr
 * Curtis W. Reese (1887–1961) – religious humanist
 * Christopher Reeve (1952–2004) – actor and Unitarian Universalist
 * James Relly (c. 1722–1778) – Universalist
 * Paul Revere (1735–1818) – American silversmith, industrialist and patriot
 * David Ricardo (1772–1823) – British classical economist noted for creating the concept of comparative advantage
 * Malvina Reynolds (1900–1978) – songwriter / singer / activist
 * Mark Ritchie (born 1951) – Minnesota Secretary of State (2007–)
 * Amber E. Robinson (1867–1961), educator, postmaster, poet, reporter, and social reformer
 * Hugh Ronalds (1760–1833) – British horticulturalist and nurseryman
 * Francis Ronalds (1788–1873) – English inventor of the electric telegraph
 * Benjamin Rush (1745–1813) – very active in the Universalist movement, although never technically joined a Universalist congregation

S

 * Mary Augusta Safford (1851–1927) – Unitarian Minister and leader of the Iowa Sisterhood.
 * Leverett Saltonstall (1892–1979) – U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
 * Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (1831–1917) – one of the Secret Six who funded John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry; social scientist and memorialist of transcendentalism.
 * May Sarton (1912–1995) – poet
 * Ellery Schempp (born 1940) – physicist who was the primary student involved in the landmark 1963 United States Supreme Court case of Abington School District v. Schempp, which declared that public school-sanctioned Bible readings were unconstitutional.
 * Arthur Schlesinger (1917–2007) – American historian
 * Richard Schultes (1915–2001) – explorer of the Amazon jungle
 * William F. Schulz (born 1949) – former executive director of Amnesty International USA, former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association
 * Ferdinand Schumacher (1822–1908) – one of the founders of companies which merged to become the Quaker Oats Company.
 * Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) – Nobel Peace Laureate 1953, late in life unitarian; honorary member of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (Unitarian Friend)
 * Pete Seeger (1919–2014) – folk singer and song writer
 * Roy Wood Sellars (1880–1973) – philosopher of religious humanism
 * Rod Serling (1924–1975) – writer; creator of The Twilight Zone television series.
 * Martha Sharp (1905–1999) – an American Unitarian who was named by the Yad Vashem organization as "Righteous Among the Nations."
 * Waitstill Sharp (1902–1983) – a Unitarian minister who along with his wife Martha were named by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations."
 * Lemuel Shaw (1781–1861) – Unitarian and chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Under his leadership, the court convicted Abner Kneeland, a former Universalist, of blasphemy.
 * Robert Gould Shaw (1837–1863) – colonel of the 54th Massachusetts, first regiment of free blacks in the Union Army.
 * Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001) – Nobel Laureate in Economics 1978, artificial intelligence pioneer
 * Rev. William G. Sinkford (born 1946) – seventh president of the Unitarian Universalist Association
 * Fred Small (born 1952) – Singer-songwriter and UU minister.
 * Caroline Soule (1824–1903) – American writer, ordained Universalist minister, first woman ordained as a minister in the UK in 1880
 * Vanessa Southern, minister of the Unitarian Church in Summit
 * Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910) – Australian suffragette and political reformer
 * Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) – American abolitionist and anarchist.
 * Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) – American suffragist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early women's rights movement
 * Pete Stark (1931–2020) – U.S. Representative, D-California.
 * Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879–1962) – Arctic explorer and champion of Native American rights
 * Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923) – Prussian-American electrical engineer and mathematician
 * Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) – Illinois governor, and Democratic presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956
 * George D. Stoddard (1897–1981) – president of University of Illinois and the University of the State of New York.
 * Lucy Stone (1818—1893) American orator, abolitionist, and suffragist
 * Joseph Story (1779–1845) – United States Supreme Court Justice from 1811 to 1845.
 * Dirk Jan Struik (1894–2000) – mathematician
 * Jedediah Strutt (1726–1797) – pioneer cotton spinner and philanthropic employer.
 * Margaret Sutton (1903–2001) – author of the Judy Bolton series and other children's books
 * Jude Sylvan (b. 1982) American poet, author, performer, producer, and performing artist and UU minister.

T

 * William Howard Taft (1857–1930) – President of the United States (1909–1913) and Chief Justice of the United States
 * Robin Tanner – American Unitarian Universalist Minister and advocate for LBGT rights and voting rights.
 * Clementia Taylor (1810–1908) – women's activist and radical
 * Joyce Tischler – Founder of Animal Legal Defense Fund, referred to as the "Mother of Animal Law."
 * Clyde Tombaugh (1906–1997) – American astronomer who discovered Pluto
 * Amos G. Throop (1811–1894) – Founder of Throop University, which later became the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he was also the city's third mayor. Throop Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena, a Unitarian Universalist congregation founded in 1923, was named after him.

V

 * William Vidler (1758–1816) – English Universalist and Unitarian minister
 * Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) – writer

W

 * George Wald (1906–1997) – Nobel Laureate in Medicine 1967
 * Zach Wahls (born 1991) – LGBT activist, Iowa State Senator-elect
 * Caroline Farrar Ware (1899–1990) – historian and social activist
 * William D. Washburn (1831–1912) – Universalist American politician and businessman
 * Daniel Webster (1782–1852)
 * Dawud Wharnsby (born 1972) – poet, singer and songwriter (Unitarian Universalist and Muslim)
 * Alfred Tredway White (1846–1921) – housing reformer and philanthropist
 * Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) – philosopher (Unitarian Friend)
 * Willis Rodney Whitney (1868–1958) – the "Father of Basic Research in Industry"
 * Thomas Whittemore (1800–1861) – Universalist Minister, author and publisher
 * David Rhys Williams (1890–1970) – American Unitarian minister
 * Edward Williams (bardic name Iolo Morganwg) (1747–1826) – Welsh antiquarian, poet, collector, forger
 * William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) – physician and author
 * Samuel Williston (1861–1963) – dean of America's legal profession.
 * Edwin H. Wilson (1898–1993) – Unitarian Humanist leader
 * Ross Winans (1796–1877) – inventor and railroad pioneer
 * John Crawford Woods (1824–1906), Unitarian minister of Adelaide, South Australia
 * Joanne Woodward (born 1930) – actress, wife of Paul Newman
 * Theodore Paul Wright (1895–1970) – aeronautical engineer
 * Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) – among Wright's architectural works were Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, and First Unitarian Society in Madison, Wisconsin.
 * Quincy Wright (1890–1970) – author of A Study of War
 * Richard Wright (1764–1836) – English Unitarian minister and missionary
 * Sewall Wright (1889–1988) – evolutionary theorist.
 * N. C. Wyeth (1882–1945) – illustrator and painter

Y

 * Owen D. Young (1874–1962) – president and chairman of General Electric. Founder of Radio Corporation of America which helped found National Broadcasting Company. Drafted the Young Plan after World War I.
 * Whitney M. Young (1921–1971) – social work administrator

Z

 * John II Sigismund Zápolya (1540–1570) – king of Hungary, then prince of Transylvania.


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Criminal procedure

Criminal procedure is the adjudication process of the criminal law. While criminal procedure differs dramatically by jurisdiction, the process generally begins with a formal criminal charge with the person on trial either being free on bail or incarcerated, and results in the conviction or acquittal of the defendant. Criminal procedure can be either in form of inquisitorial or adversarial criminal procedure.

Basic rights
Currently, in many countries with a democratic system and the rule of law, criminal procedure puts the burden of proof on the prosecution – that is, it is up to the prosecution to prove that the defendant is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, as opposed to having the defense prove that they are innocent, and any doubt is resolved in favor of the defendant. This provision, known as the presumption of innocence, is required, for example, in the 46 countries that are members of the Council of Europe, under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and it is included in other human rights documents. However, in practice, it operates somewhat differently in different countries. Such basic rights also include the right for the defendant to know what offence he or she has been arrested for or is being charged with, and the right to appear before a judicial official within a certain time of being arrested. Many jurisdictions also allow the defendant the right to legal counsel and provide any defendant who cannot afford their own lawyer with a lawyer paid for at the public expense.

Difference between criminal and civil cases
Countries using the common law tend to make a clear distinction between civil and criminal procedures. For example, an English criminal court may force a convicted accused to pay a fine to the Crown as punishment for the crime, and sometimes to pay the legal costs of the prosecution, but does not normally order the convicted accused to pay any compensation to the victim of the crime. The victim must pursue their claim for compensation in a civil, not a criminal, action. In countries using the continental civil law system, such as France and Italy, the victim of a crime (known as the "injured party") may be awarded damages by a criminal court judge.

The standards of proof are higher in a criminal action than in a civil one since the loser risks not only financial penalties but also being sent to prison (or, in some countries, execution). In English law the prosecution must prove the guilt of a criminal "beyond reasonable doubt"; but the plaintiff in a civil action is required to prove his case "on the balance of probabilities". "Beyond reasonable doubt" is not defined for the jury which decides the verdict, but it has been said by appeal courts that proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt requires the prosecution to exclude any reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence: Plomp v. R. In a civil case, however, the court simply weighs the evidence and decides what is most probable.

Criminal and civil procedure are different. Although some systems, including the English, allow a private citizen to bring a criminal prosecution against another citizen, criminal actions are nearly always started by the state. Civil actions, on the other hand, are usually started by individuals.

In Anglo-American law, the party bringing a criminal action (that is, in most cases, the state) is called the prosecution, but the party bringing a civil action is the plaintiff. In a civil action the other party is known as the defendant. In a criminal case, the private party may be known as the defendant or the accused. A criminal case in the United States against a person named Ms. Sanchez would be entitled United States v. (short for versus, or against) Sanchez if initiated by the federal government; if brought by a state, the case would typically be called State v. Sanchez or People v. Sanchez. In the United Kingdom, the criminal case would be styled R. (short for Rex or Regina, that is, the King or Queen) v. Sanchez. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, a civil action between Ms. Sanchez and a Mr. Smith would be Sanchez v. Smith if started by Sanchez and Smith v. Sanchez if begun by Smith.

Evidence given at a criminal trial is not necessarily admissible in a civil action about the same matter, just as evidence given in a civil cause is not necessarily admissible on a criminal trial. For example, the victim of a road accident does not directly benefit if the driver who injured him is found guilty of the crime of careless driving. He still has to prove his case in a civil action. In fact he may be able to prove his civil case even when the driver is found not guilty in the criminal trial. If the accused has given evidence on his trial he may be cross-examined on those statements in a subsequent civil action regardless of the criminal verdict.

Once the plaintiff has shown that the defendant is liable, the main argument in a civil court is about the amount of money, or damages, which the defendant should pay to the plaintiff.

Differences between civil law and common law systems

 * The majority of civil law jurisdictions ('civil law' as a type of law system, not as opposed to criminal law) follow an inquisitorial system of adjudication, in which judges undertake an active investigation of the claims by examining the evidence at the trial (while other judges contribute likewise by preparing reports).
 * In common law systems, the trial judge presides over proceedings grounded in the adversarial system of dispute resolution, where both the prosecution and the defence prepare arguments to be presented before the court. Some civil law systems have adopted adversarial procedures.

Proponents of either system tend to consider that their system defends best the rights of the innocent. There is a tendency in common law countries to believe that civil law / inquisitorial systems do not have the so-called "presumption of innocence", and do not provide the defence with adequate rights. Conversely, there is a tendency in countries with an inquisitorial system to believe that accusatorial proceedings unduly favour rich defendants who can afford large legal teams, and therefore disfavour poorer defendants.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Criminal procedure


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Media

Media may refer to:

Arts, entertainment, and media

 * Media (album), the 1998 album by The Faint
 * Media, a 2017 American TV thriller film directed by Craig Ross Jr.
 * List of art media, materials and techniques used by an artist to produce a work of art

Communication

 * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
 * Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
 * Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass electronic communication networks
 * Digital media, electronic media used to store, transmit, and receive digitized information
 * Electronic media, communications delivered via electronic or electromechanical energy
 * Hypermedia, media with hyperlinks
 * Interactive media, media that is interactive
 * Mass media, technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication
 * MEDIA Programme, a European Union initiative to support the European audiovisual sector
 * Multimedia, communications that incorporate multiple forms of information content and processing
 * New media, the combination of traditional media and computer and communications technology
 * News media, mass media focused on communicating news
 * Print media, communications delivered via paper or canvas
 * Published media, any media made available to the public
 * Recording medium, devices used to store information
 * Social media, media disseminated through social interactions

Computing

 * Media player (software), for playing audio and video
 * Storage media, in data storage devices

Life sciences

 * Media, a group of insect wing veins in the Comstock-Needham system
 * Growth medium, objects in which microorganisms or cells can experience growth
 * Media filter, a filter consisting of several different filter materials
 * Tunica media, the middle layer of the wall of a blood vessel

United States

 * Media, Illinois
 * Media, Kansas
 * Media, Pennsylvania
 * Media Township, Henderson County, Illinois

Elsewhere

 * Media, Africa, an Ancient city and former bishopric, now a Latin Catholic titular see in Algeria
 * Media (castra), a fort in the Roman province of Dacia
 * Media (region), a region of and former empire based in north-western Iran

Transport

 * Media (automobile company)
 * Media, a World War II US Navy ship that was never commissioned
 * RMS Media, a Cunard Line cargo liner in service 1948–61

title: Media


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Malayalam

Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was designated a "Classical Language of India" in 2013. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé),  and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep and is spoken by 35 million people in India. Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with a significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Kanyakumari, Coimbatore and Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the Malayali Diaspora worldwide, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, due to the large populations of Malayali expatriates there. They are a significant population in each city in India including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad etc.

The origin of Malayalam remains a matter of dispute among scholars. The mainstream view holds that Malayalam descends from early Middle Tamil and separated from it sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries. A second view argues for the development of the two languages out of "Proto-Dravidian" or "Proto-Tamil-Malayalam" in the prehistoric era, although this is generally rejected by historical linguists. The Quilon Syrian copper plates of 849/850 CE are considered by some to be the oldest available inscription written in Old Malayalam. However, the existence of Old Malayalam is sometimes disputed by scholars. They regard the Chera Perumal inscriptional language as a diverging dialect or variety of contemporary Tamil. The oldest extant literary work in Malayalam distinct from the Tamil tradition is Ramacharitam (late 12th or early 13th century).

The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu script. The current Malayalam script is based on the Vatteluttu script, which was extended with Grantha script letters to adopt Indo-Aryan loanwords. It bears high similarity with the Tigalari script, a historical script that was used to write the Tulu language in South Canara, and Sanskrit in the adjacent Malabar region. The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE. The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785.

Robert Caldwell describes the extent of Malayalam in the 19th century as extending from the vicinity of Kumbla in the north where it supersedes with Tulu to Kanyakumari in the south, where it begins to be superseded by Tamil, besides the inhabited islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.

Etymology
The word originated from the words, meaning 'mountain', and , meaning 'region' or '-ship' (as in "township");  thus translates directly as 'the mountain region'. The term Malabar was used as an alternative term for Malayalam in foreign trade circles to denote the southwestern coast of the Indian peninsula, which also means The land of hills. The term originally referred to the western hilly land of the Chera dynasty (later Zamorins and the Kingdom of Cochin), Kingdom of Ezhimala (later Kolathunadu), and Ay kingdom (later Travancore), and only later became the name of its language. The language Malayalam was alternatively called, , , , , , , and until the early 19th century CE.

The earliest extant literary works in the regional language of present-day Kerala probably date back to as early as the 12th century. At that time the language was differentiated by the name Kerala Bhasha. The distinctive 'Malayalam' named identity of this language appears to have come into existence only around the 16th century, when it was known as "Malayayma" or "Malayanma"; the words were also used to refer to the script and the region. According to Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese visitor who visited Kerala in the early 16th century CE, the people in the southwestern Malabar coast of India from Kumbla in north to Kanyakumari in south had a unique language, which was called "Maliama" by them.

Prior to this period, the people of Kerala usually referred to their language as 'Tamil', and both terms overlapped into the colonial period.

History

Due to the geographical isolation of the Malabar Coast from the rest of the Indian peninsula due to the presence of the Western Ghats mountain ranges which lie parallel to the coast, the dialect of Old Tamil spoken in Kerala was different from that spoken in Tamil Nadu. The mainstream view holds that Malayalam began to grow as a distinct literary language from the western coastal dialect of Middle Tamil and the linguistic separation completed sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries. The renowned poets of Classical Tamil such as Paranar (1st century CE), Ilango Adigal (2nd–3rd century CE), and Kulasekhara Alvar (9th century CE) were Keralites. The Sangam works can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam.

Some scholars however believe that both Tamil and Malayalam developed during the prehistoric period from a common ancestor, 'Proto-Tamil-Malayalam', and that the notion of Malayalam being a 'daughter' of Tamil is misplaced. This is based on the fact that Malayalam and several Dravidian languages on the Western Coast have common archaic features which are not found even in the oldest historical forms of literary Tamil. Despite this Malayalam shares many common innovations with Tamil that emerged during the early Middle Tamil period, thus making independent descent impossible. For example, Old Tamil lacks the first and second person plural pronouns with the ending . It is in the Early Middle Tamil stage that  first appears:

Indeed, most features of Malayalam morphology are derivable from a form of speech corresponding to early Middle Tamil.

Robert Caldwell, in his 1856 book "A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages", opined that literary Malayalam branched from Classical Tamil and over time gained a large amount of Sanskrit vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs. As the language of scholarship and administration, Old-Tamil, which was written in Tamil-Brahmi and the Vatteluttu alphabet later, greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam as a literary language. The Malayalam script began to diverge from the Vatteluttu and the Western Grantha scripts in the 8th and 9th centuries of Common Era. And by the end of the 13th century a written form of the language emerged which was unique from the Vatteluttu script that was used to write Tamil on the eastern coast.

Old Malayalam
Old Malayalam (Paḻaya Malayāḷam), an inscriptional language found in Kerala from c. 9th to c. 13th century CE, is the earliest attested form of Malayalam. The beginning of the development of Old Malayalam from a western coastal dialect of Middle Tamil can be dated to c. 8th century CE. It remained a west coast dialect until c. 9th century CE or a little later. The origin of Malayalam calendar dates back to year 825 CE. It is generally agreed that the western coastal dialect of Tamil began to separate, diverge, and grow as a distinct language due to geographical separation of Kerala from the Tamil country and the influence of Sanskrit and Prakrit from the Nambudiri Brahmins of the Malabar Coast.

The Old Malayalam language was employed in several official records and transactions (at the level of the Chera Perumal kings as well as the upper-caste (Nambudiri) village temples). Most of the inscriptions in Old Malayalam were found from the northern districts of Kerala, those lie adjacent to Tulu Nadu. Old Malayalam was mostly written in Vatteluttu script (with Pallava/Southern Grantha characters). Old Malayalam had several features distinct from the contemporary Tamil, which include the nasalisation of adjoining sounds, substitution of palatal sounds for dental sounds, contraction of vowels, and the rejection of gender verbs. Ramacharitam and Thirunizhalmala are the possible literary works of Old Malayalam found so far.

Middle Malayalam
Old Malayalam gradually developed into Middle Malayalam (Madhyakaala Malayalam) by 13th century CE. Malayalam literature also completely diverged from Tamil literature during this period. Works including Unniyachi Charitham, Unnichiruthevi Charitham, and Unniyadi Charitham, are written in Middle Malayalam, and date back to 13th and 14th centuries of Common Era. The Sandesha Kavyas of 14th century CE written in Manipravalam language include Unnuneeli Sandesam. Kannassa Ramayanam and Kannassa Bharatham by Rama Panikkar of the Niranam poets who lived between 1350 and 1450, are representative of this language. Ulloor has opined that Rama Panikkar holds the same position in Malayalam literature that Edmund Spenser does in English literature. The Champu Kavyas written by Punam Nambudiri, one among the Pathinettara Kavikal (Eighteen and a half poets) in the court of the Zamorin of Calicut, also belong to Middle Malayalam. The literary works of this period were heavily influenced by Manipravalam, which was a combination of contemporary Tamil and Sanskrit. The word Mani-Pravalam literally means Diamond-Coral or Ruby-Coral. The 14th-century Lilatilakam text states Manipravalam to be a Bhashya (language) where "Dravida and Sanskrit should combine together like ruby and coral, without the least trace of any discord". The scripts of Kolezhuthu and Malayanma were also used to write Middle Malayalam, in addition to Vatteluthu and Grantha script those were used to write Old Malayalam. The literary works written in Middle Malayalam were heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Prakrit, while comparing them with the modern Malayalam literature.

Modern Malayalam
The Middle Malayalam was succeeded by Modern Malayalam (Aadhunika Malayalam) by 15th century CE. The poem Krishnagatha written by Cherusseri Namboothiri, who was the court poet of the king Udaya Varman Kolathiri (1446–1475) of Kolathunadu, is written in modern Malayalam. The language used in Krishnagatha is the modern spoken form of Malayalam. During the 16th century CE, Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan from the Kingdom of Tanur and Poonthanam Nambudiri from the Kingdom of Valluvanad followed the new trend initiated by Cherussery in their poems. The Adhyathmaramayanam Kilippattu and Mahabharatham Kilippattu written by Ezhuthachan and Jnanappana written by Poonthanam are also included in the earliest form of Modern Malayalam. It is Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan who is also credited with the development of Malayalam script into the current form through the intermixing and modification of the erstwhile scripts of Vatteluttu, Kolezhuthu, and Grantha script, which were used to write the inscriptions and literary works of Old and Middle Malayalam. He further eliminated excess and unnecessary letters from the modified script. Hence, Ezhuthachan is also known as The Father of modern Malayalam. The development of modern Malayalam script was also heavily influenced by the Tigalari script, which was used to write Sanskrit, due to the influence of Tuluva Brahmins in Kerala. The language used in the Arabi Malayalam works of 16th–17th century CE is a mixture of Modern Malayalam and Arabic. They follow the syntax of modern Malayalam, though written in a modified form of Arabic script, which is known as Arabi Malayalam script. P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval work Keralolpathi, which describes the Parashurama legend and the departure of the final Cheraman Perumal king to Mecca, to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.

Kunchan Nambiar introduced a new literary form called Thullal, and Unnayi Variyar introduced reforms in Attakkatha literature. The printing, prose literature, and Malayalam journalism, developed after the latter-half of 18th century CE. Modern literary movements in Malayalam literature began in the late 19th century with the rise of the famous Modern Triumvirate consisting of Kumaran Asan, Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer and Vallathol Narayana Menon. In the second half of the 20th century, Jnanpith winning poets and writers like G. Sankara Kurup, S. K. Pottekkatt, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, O. N. V. Kurup, and Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, had made valuable contributions to the modern Malayalam literature. The life and works of Edasseri Govindan Nair have assumed greater socio-literary significance after his death and Edasseri is now recognised as an important poet of Malayalam. Later, writers like O. V. Vijayan, Kamaladas, M. Mukundan, Arundhati Roy, Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, have gained international recognition. Malayalam has also borrowed a lot of its words from various foreign languages, mainly from the Semitic languages including Arabic, and the European languages including Dutch and Portuguese, due to the long heritage of Indian Ocean trade and the Portuguese-Dutch colonisation of the Malabar Coast.

Dialects
Variations in intonation patterns, vocabulary, and distribution of grammatical and phonological elements are observable along the parameters of region, religion, community, occupation, social stratum, style and register.

According to the Dravidian Encyclopedia, the regional dialects of Malayalam can be divided into fifteen dialect areas. They are as follows:

 * Kasaragod
 * North Malabar
 * Wayanad
 * Kozhikode
 * Eranad
 * Valluvanad (South Malabar)
 * Palakkad
 * Thrissur-Kochi
 * North Travancore
 * West Vembanad
 * Central Travancore
 * South Travancore
 * Lakshadweep
 * Beary
 * Ravula

According to Ethnologue, the dialects are: Malabar, Nagari-Malayalam, North Kerala, Central Kerala, South Kerala, Kayavar, Namboodiri, Nair, Mappila, Beary, Jeseri, Yerava, Pulaya, Nasrani, and Kasargod. The community dialects are: Namboodiri, Nair, Arabi Malayalam, Pulaya, and Nasrani. Whereas both the Namboothiri and Nair dialects have a common nature, the Arabi Malayalam is among the most divergent of dialects, differing considerably from literary Malayalam. Jeseri is a dialect of Malayalam spoken mainly in the Union territory of Lakshadweep and Beary is spoken in Tulu Nadu which are nearer to Kerala. Of the total 33,066,392 Malayalam speakers in India in 2001, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke the Yerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations like Eranadan.

The dialects of Malayalam spoken in the districts like Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, and Malappuram in the former Malabar District have few influences from Kannada. For example, the words those start with the sound "V" in Malayalam become "B" in these districts as in Kannada. Also the Voiced retroflex approximant (/ɻ/) which is seen in both Tamil and the standard form of Malayalam, are not seen in the northern dialects of Malayalam, as in Kannada. For example, the words Vazhi (Path), Vili (Call), Vere (Another), and Vaa (Come/Mouth), become Bayi, Bili, Bere, and Baa in the northern dialects of Malayalam. Similarly the Malayalam spoken in the southern districts of Kerala, i.e., Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam-Pathanamthitta area is influenced by Tamil.

Labels such as "Nampoothiri Dialect", "Mappila Dialect", and "Nasrani Dialect" refer to overall patterns constituted by the sub-dialects spoken by the subcastes or sub-groups of each such caste. The most outstanding features of the major communal dialects of Malayalam are summarized below:
 * Lexical items with phonological features reminiscent of Sanskrit (e.g., meaning 'fool'),  'lie',  'impudence',  'impurity', and  and  (both meaning 'good-for-nothing fellow') abound in Nampoothiri dialect.
 * The Muslim dialect, also known as Arabi Malayalam, shows maximum divergence from the literary Standard Dialect of Malayalam. It is very much influenced by Arabic and Persian rather than by Sanskrit or by English. The retroflex continuant of the literary dialect is realised in the Muslim dialect as the palatal . In some other dialects of Northern Kerala too,  of the literary dialect is realised as.
 * The Syrian Christian or Nasrani dialect of Malayalam is quite close to the Nair dialect, especially in phonology. The speech of the educated section among Syrian Christians and that of those who are close to the church are peculiar in having a number of assimilated as well as unassimilated loan words from English and Syriac. The few loan words which have found their way into the Christian dialect are assimilated in many cases through the process of de-aspiration.
 * The Ravula is a tribal dialect of Malayalam spoken by the members of Ravula, an indigenous people's tribe who are primarily inhabitants of the Kodagu district of Karnataka.
 * Tamil spoken in the Kanyakumari district has influences from Malayalam language.

External influences and loanwords
Malayalam has incorporated many elements from other languages over the years, the most notable of these being Sanskrit and later, English. According to Sooranad Kunjan Pillai who compiled the authoritative Malayalam lexicon, the other principal languages whose vocabulary was incorporated over the ages were Arabic, Dutch, Hindustani, Pali, Persian, Portuguese, Prakrit, and Syriac.

 * Many medieval liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam. The influence of Sanskrit was very prominent in formal Malayalam used in the medieval literature. Malayalam has a substantially high number of Sanskrit loanwords but these are seldom used.
 * Some Arabic loanwords like adālattŭ (court of justice), jāmyaṃ (bail), japti (foreclosure), jilla (district), tālukkŭ (subdistrict), etc., are used in the formal literary Malayalam for administrative purposes.
 * Loanwords and influences also from Hebrew, Syriac, and Ladino abound in the Jewish Malayalam dialects, as well as English, Portuguese, Syriac, and Greek in the Christian dialects, while Arabic and Persian elements predominate in the Muslim dialects.
 * The Muslim dialect known as Mappila Malayalam is predominantly in the northern districts of Kerala. Another Muslim dialect called Beary bashe is used in the extreme northern part of Kerala along with the southern part of Karnataka in a former region called Tulu Nadu.

Geographic distribution and population
Malayalam is a language spoken by the native people of southwestern India and the islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea. According to the Indian census of 2011, there were 32,413,213 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 97.03% of the total population of the state. There were a further 701,673 (1.14% of the total number) in Karnataka, 957,705 (2.70%) in Tamil Nadu, and 406,358 (1.2%) in Maharashtra.

The number of Malayalam speakers in Lakshadweep is 51,100, which is only 0.15% of the total number, but is as much as about 84% of the population of Lakshadweep. Malayalam was the most spoken language in erstwhile Gudalur taluk (now Gudalur and Panthalur taluks) of Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu which accounts for 48.8% population and it was the second most spoken language in Mangalore and Puttur taluks of South Canara accounting for 21.2% and 15.4% respectively according to 1951 census report. 25.57% of the total population in the Kodagu district of Karnataka are Malayalis, and they form the single largest linguistic group accounting for 35.5% in the Virajpet Taluk. Around one-third of the Malayalis in Kodagu district speak the Yerava dialect according to the 2011 census, which is native to Kodagu and Wayanad.

In all, Malayalis made up 3.22% of the total Indian population in 2011. Of the total 34,713,130 Malayalam speakers in India in 2011, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke the Yerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations like Eranadan. As per the 1991 census data, 28.85% of all Malayalam speakers in India spoke a second language and 19.64% of the total knew three or more languages.

Just before independence, Malaya attracted many Malayalis. Large numbers of Malayalis have settled in Chennai, Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Mysuru and Delhi. Many Malayalis have also emigrated to the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. There were 179,860 speakers of Malayalam in the United States, according to the 2000 census, with the highest concentrations in Bergen County, New Jersey, and Rockland County, New York. There are 144,000 of Malayalam speakers in Malaysia. There were 11,687 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2016. The 2001 Canadian census reported 7,070 people who listed Malayalam as their mother tongue, mainly in Toronto. The 2006 New Zealand census reported 2,139 speakers. 134 Malayalam speaking households were reported in 1956 in Fiji. There is also a considerable Malayali population in the Persian Gulf regions, especially in Dubai and Doha.

Phonology

For the consonants and vowels, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbol is given, followed by the Malayalam character and the ISO 15919 transliteration. The current Malayalam script bears high similarity with Tigalari script, which was used for writing the Tulu language, spoken in coastal Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts) and the northernmost Kasargod district of Kerala. Tigalari script was also used for writing Sanskrit in Malabar region.

Vowels

 * ⟨്⟩ formed from word final short /u/'s but now there are /u/'s finally as well, mostly in loanwords but also natively like in guru, kuru, puẓu and native pērŭ, there are minimal pairs as well appŭ "water", appu a given name; It is also added to the end of loanwords ending in some consonants, e.g. Sanskrit manas, suhr̥t, Malayalam manassŭ, suhr̥ttŭ, English current Ml. karaṇṭŭ. It is the, an epenthentic vowel in Malayalam. Therefore, it has no independent vowel letter (because it never occurs at the beginning of words) but, when it comes after a consonant, there are various ways of representing it. In medieval times, it was just represented with the symbol for  ⟨കു⟩, but later on it was just completely omitted (that is, written as an inherent vowel ⟨ക⟩, thus, ⟨പേര്⟩ pērŭ "name" was once written as ⟨പേര⟩ pēra which means "guava"). In modern times, it is written in two different ways – the Northern style, in which a chandrakkala is used ⟨ക്⟩, and the Southern or Travancore style, in which the diacritic for a  is attached to the preceding consonant and a chandrakkala is written above ⟨കു്⟩. According to one author, this alternative form ⟨കു്⟩ is historically more correct, though the simplified form without a vowel sign u is common nowadays.
 * (phonetically central: ) is represented as basic or the "default" vowel in the abugida script.

Malayalam has also borrowed the Sanskrit diphthongs of (represented in Malayalam as ഐ, ai) and  (represented in Malayalam as ഔ, au) although these mostly occur only in Sanskrit loanwords. Traditionally (as in Sanskrit), four vocalic consonants (usually pronounced in Malayalam as consonants followed by the, which is not officially a vowel, and not as actual vocalic consonants) have been classified as vowels: vocalic r (ഋ, , r̥), long vocalic r (ൠ, , r̥̄), vocalic l (ഌ, , l̥) and long vocalic l (ൡ, , l̥̄). Except for the first, the other three have been omitted from the current script used in Kerala as there are no words in current Malayalam that use them.

Some authors say that Malayalam has no diphthongs and /ai̯, au̯/ are clusters of V+glide j/ʋ while others consider all V+glide clusters to be diphthongs /ai̯, aːi̯, au̯, ei̯, oi̯, i̯a/ as in kai, vāypa, auṣadhaṁ, cey, koy and kāryaṁ

Vowel length is phonemic and all of the vowels have minimal pairs for example kaṭṭi "thickness", kāṭṭi "showed", koṭṭi "tapped", kōṭṭi "twisted, stick, marble", er̠i "throw", ēr̠i "lots"

Some speakers also have /æː/, /ɔː/, /ə/ from English loanwords e.g. /bæːŋgɨ̆/ "bank" but most speakers replace it with /aː/, /eː/ or /ja/; /oː/ or /aː/ and /e/ or /a/.

Consonants

 * As in other Dravidian languages, the retroflex series are true subapical consonants, in which the underside of the tongue contacts the roof.
 * All of the alveolars except /s/ are apical.
 * /,, , , / can either be postalveolar or alveolo-palatal depending upon the speaker and dialect; the postalveolar and alveolo-palatal realizations are in free variation.
 * The alveolar nasal once had a separate character ⟨ഩ⟩ that is now obsolete and the sound is now almost always represented by the symbol that was originally used only for the dental nasal. However, both sounds are extensively used in current colloquial and official Malayalam, and although they were allophones in Old Malayalam, they now occasionally contrast in gemination – for example, ('by me', first person singular pronoun in the instrumental case) and  ('if that is so'), which are both written  (എന്നാൽ).
 * The unaspirated alveolar stop also had a separate character ⟨ഺ⟩ but it has become obsolete, as the sound only occurs in geminate form (when geminated it is written with a റ below another റ ⟨റ്റ⟩) or immediately following other consonants (in these cases, റ or ററ are usually written in small size underneath the first consonant).
 * The proto Dravidian alveolar stop *ṯ developed into an alveolar trill /r/ in many of the Dravidian languages and *ṉṯ became nn in Malayalam while *ṯṯ remained. Currently Malayalam only has [nd] in the genitive case ending -ṉṟe and a word formed with it taṉṟēṭam; Malayalam regained it from the older genitive case ending -ṉuṭaiya > -ṉuṭe > -ṉṭe > -ṉṟe, Malayalam still retains both forms in words like eṉṉuṭe and eṉṟe though the former is dated, a similar process happened in some Sri Lankan Tamil dialects.
 * ന്റ is pronounced only as [nd] but ൻറ can be pronounced as [nd] or [nr]; [nr] doesn't occur natively but it occurs in loans like എൻറോൾ (en̠r̠ōḷ) 'enroll' or ഹെൻറി (hen̠r̠i) 'Henry'.
 * All non geminated voiceless stops and affricate become voiced intervocalically and after a nasal as in Tamil.
 * The geminated velars /kk/ and /ŋŋ/ are sometimes palatalized word medially after /j, i, e/ like in the words കിടക്കുക [kiɖɐk:ugɐ] vs ഇരിക്കുക [iɾikʲ:ugɐ] and മങ്ങൽ [mɐŋ:ɐl] vs. മത്തങ്ങ [mɐt̪:ɐŋʲ:ɐ], their distribution is unpredictable e.g. it doesn't palatalize in vikkŭ but does in irikkŭ. If the palatalization is from /j/ it is sometimes deleted e.g. poykko can be [pojkʲːo] or [pokʲːo], aḍaykka as [ɐɖɐjkʲːɐ] or [ɐɖɐkʲːɐ]. Some of the northern dialects might pronounce them without palatalization.
 * The letter ഫ represents both, a phoneme occurring in Sanskrit loanwords, and , which is mostly found in comparatively recent borrowings from European languages. Though nowadays most people (especially youngsters) pronounce as  like in the word ഫലം . In the Jesari dialect the native word-initial /p/ too spirantized to [f].
 * are unreleased word finally. Words will never begin or end with a geminated consonant. never occur word initially. All consonants appear word medially.
 * The plain stops, affricates, nasals, laterals, the fricatives and  and approximants other than  can be geminated and gemination can sometimes change the meaning of the word, e.g. കളം /kaɭam/ 'cell', കള്ളം  'lie'.  only occur in geminated form intervocalically.
 * The retroflex lateral is clearly retroflex, but may be more of a flap (= ) than an approximant . The approximant  has both rhotic and lateral qualities, and is indeterminate between an approximant and a fricative, but is laminal post-alveolar rather than a true retroflex. The articulation changes part-way through, perhaps explaining why it behaves as both a rhotic and a lateral, both an approximant and a fricative, but the nature of the change is not understood.
 * are weakly palatalized and have an advanced tongue root while are clear or velarized and have a retracted tongue root, particularly noticeable in geminates.
 * /ʋ/ may be realized as [ʋ], [v], [w] or [β̞].
 * Around 75% of nk and 50% of ñc and nt from Old Malayalam got assimilated to ṅṅ, ññ and nn, almost all of the ṉṯ merged with nn suggesting an earlier merger of some of the n̠t̠ and nt (for e.g. the cognate of Tamil nan̠r̠i is spelt as nandi and pronounced nanni); mp and ṇṭ were unchanged, e.g. Tamil mūṉṟu, maruntu, kañci, teṅku, Malayalam mūnnŭ, marunnŭ, kaññi, teṅṅŭ. Word final ai, āy and ey became a unless the word is monosyllabic, e.g. Tamil avai, māṅgāy, veṇṇey Malayalam ava, māṅṅa, veṇṇa. Final āy in monosyllabic words became āya e.g. Tamil kāy, Malayalam kāya.
 * Loanwords with /z/ are replaced with /s/ and not with /d͡ʒ/ like in Hindi or Telugu e.g. /brasi:l/ English "Brazil" unless it was loaned through Hindi then the Hindi pronunciation is taken e.g. /d͡ʒilla/ Hi. Per., other Perso-Arabic phonemes like  are replaced with /k, kʰ, g, h, C, ∅, ∅/, sometimes /q, x/ are replaced with /kʰ, k/ e.g. Arabic قطر qaṭar, خَطّ xaṭṭ as ഖത്തർ khattaṟ, കത്ത് kattŭ. English loans with /θ, ð, ʒ/ are replaced with ; the dentals do not clash with English loans with /t, d/, which are replaced with [t, d] or [ʈ, ɖ] though [d] is rare because of the limited distribution natively e.g. "taxi" as ṯāksi or more commonly ṭāksi. The English /ɹ/ is loaned as either /ɾ/ or /r/ unpredictably, for e.g. 'current' got loaned as karaṇḍŭ but 'maroon' got loaned as mar̠ūṇ or mer̠ūṇ but the cluster /ɹs/ is loaned as /ɻs/ other clusters are loaned as /rC/ or /ɾC/, /ɻ/ only occurs in words with /ɹs/ e.g. 'force' as fōḻsŭ. Speakers with non rhotic English accents don't have /ɹC/ clusters in English loans and pronounce it as fōs(ŭ). In Sanskrit loans with /t̪C/ and /d̪C/ (unless C is a sonorant or a dental stop) sometimes the /t̪, d̪/ becomes /l/ especially in /t̪s/ e.g. utsava > ulsavam, utpādana > ulpādaṉam, udghāṭana > ulghāḍaṉam. There are some native words with /s/ (urasŭ) and /ʃ/ (vīśŭ) but rest of the fricatives (except /f/ in native words of Jesari) and aspirates are only found in loans.
 * Rarely some speakers pronounce the voiced aspirated consonants as voiceless so words like dhaṉam as thaṉam, it is more commonly deaspirated so dhaṉam as daṉam and kharam as karam, intervocalically the voiceless aspirate also becomes voiced so mukham as mugam.
 * The pronunciation of chillu letters is often omitted, in a manner akin to the final single consonants in French.

Sample text
The following text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

English
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Malayalam
മനുഷ്യരെല്ലാവരും തുല്യാവകാശങ്ങളോടും അന്തസ്സോടും സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യത്തോടുംകൂടി ജനിച്ചിട്ടുള്ളവരാണ്. അന്യോന്യം ഭ്രാതൃഭാവത്തോടെ പെരുമാറുവാനാണ് മനുഷ്യന് വിവേകബുദ്ധിയും മനസാക്ഷിയും സിദ്ധമായിരിക്കുന്നത്.

Romanisation (ISO 15919)
manuṣyarellāvaruṁ tulyāvakāśaṅṅaḷōṭuṁ antassōṭuṁ svātantryattōṭuṅkūṭi janicciṭṭuḷḷavarāṇ‌ŭ. anyōnyaṁ bhrātr̥bhāvattōṭe perumāṟuvānāṇ‌ŭ manuṣyanŭ vivēkabuddhiyuṁ manasākṣiyuṁ siddhamāyirikkunnatŭ.

IPA
/manuʂjaɾellaːʋaɾum t̪uljaːʋakaːʃaŋŋaɭoːʈum an̪t̪assoːʈum sʋaːt̪an̪tɾjat̪t̪oːʈuŋkuːʈi d͡ʒanit͡ʃt͡ʃiʈʈuɭɭaʋaɾaːɳɨ̆ ǁ anjoːnjam bʱraːt̪rɨ̆bʱaːʋat̪t̪oːʈe peɾumaːruʋaːnaːɳɨ̆ manuʂjanɨ̆ ʋiʋeːkabud̪d̪ʱijum manasaːkʂijum sid̪d̪ʱamaːjiɾikkun̪ːat̪ɨ̆ ǁ/

Grammar
Malayalam has a canonical word order of SOV (subject–object–verb), as do other Dravidian languages. A rare OSV word order occurs in interrogative clauses when the interrogative word is the subject. Both adjectives and possessive adjectives precede the nouns they modify. Malayalam has 6 or 7 grammatical cases. Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood and aspect, but not for person, gender nor number except in archaic or poetic language. The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE.

Nouns
The declensional paradigms for some common nouns and pronouns are given below. As Malayalam is an agglutinative language, it is difficult to delineate the cases strictly and determine how many there are, although seven or eight is the generally accepted number. Alveolar plosives and nasals (although the modern Malayalam script does not distinguish the latter from the dental nasal) are underlined for clarity, following the convention of the National Library at Kolkata romanization.

Personal pronouns
Vocative forms are given in parentheses after the nominative, as the only pronominal vocatives that are used are the third person ones, which only occur in compounds.

Other nouns
The following are examples of some of the most common declension patterns.

Words adopted from Sanskrit
When words are adopted from Sanskrit, their endings are usually changed to conform to Malayalam norms:

Nouns

 * Masculine Sanskrit nouns with a word stem ending in a short /a/ take the ending /an/ in the nominative singular. For example, Kr̥ṣṇa → Kr̥ṣṇan. The final /n/ is dropped before masculine surnames, honorifics, or titles ending in /an/ and beginning with a consonant other than /n/ – e.g., "Krishna Menon", "Krishna Kaniyaan" etc., but "Krishnan Ezhutthachan". Surnames ending with /ar/ or /aḷ/ (where these are plural forms of "an" denoting respect) are treated similarly – "Krishna Pothuval", "Krishna Chakyar", but "Krishnan Nair", "Krishnan Nambiar", as are Sanskrit surnames such "Varma(n)", "Sharma(n)", or "Gupta(n)" (rare) – e.g., "Krishna Varma", "Krishna Sharman". If a name is a compound, only the last element undergoes this transformation – e.g., "Kr̥ṣṇa" + "dēva" = "Kr̥ṣṇadēvan", not "Kr̥ṣṇandēvan".
 * Feminine words ending in a long /ā/ or /ī/ are changed to end in a short /a/ or /i/, for example "Sītā" → "Sīta" and "Lakṣmī" → "Lakṣmi". However, the long vowel still appears in compound words, such as "Sītādēvi" or" Lakṣmīdēvi". The long ī is generally reserved for the vocative forms of these names, although in Sanskrit the vocative actually takes a short /i/. There are also a small number of nominative /ī/ endings that have not been shortened – a prominent example being the word "strī" for "woman".
 * Nouns that have a stem in /-an/ and which end with a long /ā/ in the masculine nominative singular have /vŭ/ added to them, for example "Brahmā" (stem "Brahman") → "Brahmāvŭ". When the same nouns are declined in the neuter and take a short /a/ ending in Sanskrit, Malayalam adds an additional /m/, e.g. "Brahma" (neuter nominative singular of "Brahman") becomes "Brahmam". This is again omitted when forming compounds.
 * Words whose roots end in /-an/ but whose nominative singular ending is /-a-/ (for example, the Sanskrit root of "karma" is actually "karman") are also changed. The original root is ignored and "karma" (the form in Malayalam being "karmam" because it ends in a short /a/) is taken as the basic form of the noun when declining. However, this does not apply to all consonant stems, as "unchangeable" stems such as "manas" ("mind") and "suhr̥t" ("friend") are identical to the Malayalam nominative singular forms (although the regularly derived "manam" sometimes occurs as an alternative to "manas").
 * Sanskrit words describing things or animals rather than people with a stem in short /a/ end with an /m/ in Malayalam. For example, "Rāmāyaṇa" → "Rāmāyaṇam". In most cases, this is actually the same as the Sanskrit accusative case ending, which is also /m/ (or, allophonically, anusvara due to the requirements of the sandhi word-combining rules) in the neuter nominative. However, "things and animals" and "people" are not always differentiated based on whether or not they are sentient beings; for example, "Narasimha" becomes "Narasiṃham" and not "Narasiṃhan", whereas "Ananta" becomes "Anantan" even though both are sentient. This does not strictly correspond to the Sanskrit neuter gender, as both "Narasiṃha" and "Ananta" are masculine nouns in the original Sanskrit.
 * Nouns with short vowel stems other than /a/, such as "Viṣṇu", "Prajāpati" etc. are declined with the Sanskrit stem acting as the Malayalam nominative singular (the Sanskrit nominative singular is formed by adding a visarga, e.g., as in "Viṣṇuḥ")
 * The original Sanskrit vocative is often used in formal or poetic Malayalam, e.g. "Harē" (for "Hari") or "Prabhō" (for "Prabhu" – "Lord"). This is restricted to certain contexts – mainly when addressing deities or other exalted individuals, so a normal man named Hari would usually be addressed using a Malayalam vocative such as "Harī". The Sanskrit genitive is also occasionally found in Malayalam poetry, especially the personal pronouns "mama" ("my" or "mine") and "tava" ("thy" or "thine"). Other cases are less common and generally restricted to the realm of Maṇipravāḷam.
 * Along with these tatsama borrowings, there are also many tadbhava words in common use. These were incorporated via borrowing before the separation of Malayalam and Tamil. As the language did not then accommodate Sanskrit phonology as it now does, words were changed to conform to the Old Tamil phonological system, for example "Kr̥ṣṇa" → "Kaṇṇan". Most of his works are oriented on the basic Malayalam family and cultures and many of them were path-breaking in the history of Malayalam literature

Writing system
Aside from the Malayalam script, the Malayalam language has been written in other scripts like Latin, Syriac  and Arabic. Suriyani Malayalam was used by Saint Thomas Christians (also known as Nasranis) until the 19th century. Arabic scripts particularly were taught in madrasahs in Kerala and the Lakshadweep Islands.

Malayalam script
Historically, several scripts were used to write Malayalam. Among these were the Vatteluttu, Kolezhuthu and Malayanma scripts. But it was the Grantha script, another Southern Brahmi variation, which gave rise to the modern Malayalam script. The modern Malayalam script bears high similarity to Tigalari script, which was used for writing Tulu language in Coastal Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts) and the northernmost Kasaragod district of Kerala. It is syllabic in the sense that the sequence of graphic elements means that syllables have to be read as units, though in this system the elements representing individual vowels and consonants are for the most part readily identifiable. In the 1960s Malayalam dispensed with many special letters representing less frequent conjunct consonants and combinations of the vowel /u, u:/ with different consonants.

Malayalam script consists of a total of 578 characters. The script contains 52 letters including 16 vowels and 36 consonants, which forms 576 syllabic characters, and contains two additional diacritic characters named anusvāra and visarga. The earlier style of writing has been superseded by a new style as of 1981. This new script reduces the different letters for typesetting from 900 to fewer than 90. This was mainly done to include Malayalam in the keyboards of typewriters and computers.

In 1999 a group named "Rachana Akshara Vedi" produced a set of free fonts containing the entire character repertoire of more than 900 glyphs. This was announced and released along with a text editor in the same year at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala. In 2004, the fonts were released under the GPL license by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation at the Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kochi, Kerala.

Chillu letters
A chillu (ചില്ല്, ), or a chillaksharam (ചില്ലക്ഷരം, ), is a special consonant letter that represents a pure consonant independently, without help of a virama. Unlike a consonant represented by an ordinary consonant letter, this consonant is never followed by an inherent vowel. Anusvara and visarga fit this definition but are not usually included. ISCII and Unicode 5.0 treat a chillu as a glyph variant of a normal ("base") consonant letter. In Unicode 5.1 and later, chillu letters are treated as independent characters, encoded atomically.

Numerals
Malayalam numbers and fractions are written as follows. These are archaic and no longer used. Instead, the common Hindu-Arabic numeral system is followed. There is a confusion about the glyph of Malayalam digit zero. The correct form is oval-shaped, but occasionally the glyph for $⟨m⟩$ (൳) is erroneously shown as the glyph for 0.

Number "11" is written as "൰൧" and not "൧൧". "32" is written as "൩൰൨" similar to the Tamil numeral system.

For example, the number "2013" is read in Malayalam as രണ്ടായിരത്തി പതിമൂന്ന്. It is split into:

 * രണ്ട് : 2 – ൨
 * ആയിരം : 1000 – ൲
 * പത്ത് : 10 – ൰
 * മൂന്ന് : 3 – ൩

Combine them together to get the Malayalam number '''൨൲൰൩. '''

And 1,00,000 as "൱൲" = hundred(൱), thousand(൲) (100×1000), 10,00,000 as "൰൱൲" = ten(൰), hundred(൱), thousand(൲) (10×100×1000) and 1,00,00,000 as "൱൱൲" = hundred(൱), hundred(൱), thousand(൲) (100×100×1000).

Later on this system got reformed to be more similar to the Hindu-Arabic numerals so 10,00,000 in the reformed numerals it would be ൧൦൦൦൦൦൦.

Fractions
In Malayalam you can transcribe any fraction by affixing after the denominator followed by the numerator, so a fraction like $⟨n⟩$ would be read as പത്തിൽ ഏഴ്  'out of ten, seven' but fractions like $⟨ṉ⟩$ $⟨ṇ⟩$ and $⟨ñ⟩$ have distinct names  and $⟨ṅ⟩$  'half quarter'.

Vattezhuthu alphabet
Vatteluttu (, "round writing") is a script that had evolved from Tamil-Brahmi and was once used extensively in the southern part of present-day Tamil Nadu and in Kerala.

Malayalam was first written in Vattezhuthu. The Vazhappally inscription issued by Rajashekhara Varman is the earliest example, dating from about 830 CE. During the medieval period, the Tigalari script that was used for writing Tulu in South Canara, and Sanskrit in the adjacent Malabar region, had a close similarity to the modern Malayalam script. In the Tamil country, the modern Tamil script had supplanted Vattezhuthu by the 15th century, but in the Malabar region, Vattezhuthu remained in general use up to the 17th century, or the 18th century. A variant form of this script, Kolezhuthu, was used until about the 19th century mainly in the Malabar-Cochin area.

Vatteluttu was in general use, but was not suitable for literature where many Sanskrit words were used. Like Tamil-Brahmi, it was originally used to write Tamil, and as such, did not have letters for voiced or aspirated consonants used in Sanskrit but not used in Tamil. For this reason, Vatteluttu and the Grantha alphabet were sometimes mixed, as in the Manipravalam. One of the oldest examples of the Manipravalam literature, Vaishikatantram (വൈശികതന്ത്രം, Vaiśikatantram), dates back to the 12th century, where the earliest form of the Malayalam script was used, which seems to have been systematized to some extent by the first half of the 13th century.

Another variant form, Malayanma, was used in the south of Thiruvananthapuram. By the 19th century, old scripts like Kolezhuthu had been supplanted by Arya-eluttu – that is the current Malayalam script. Nowadays, it is widely used in the press of the Malayali population in Kerala.

Grantha
According to Arthur Coke Burnell, one form of the Grantha alphabet, originally used in the Chola dynasty, was imported into the southwest coast of India in the 8th or 9th century, which was then modified in course of time in this secluded area, where communication with the east coast was very limited. It later evolved into Tigalari-Malayalam script was used by the Malayali, Havyaka Brahmins and Tulu Brahmin people, but was originally only applied to write Sanskrit. This script split into two scripts: Tigalari and Malayalam. While Malayalam script was extended and modified to write vernacular language Malayalam, the Tigalari was written for Sanskrit only. In Malabar, this writing system was termed Arya-eluttu (ആര്യ എഴുത്ത്, Ārya eḻuttŭ), meaning "Arya writing" (Sanskrit is Indo-Aryan language while Malayalam is a Dravidian language).

Karshoni
Suriyani Malayalam (സുറിയാനി മലയാളം, ܣܘܪܝܢܝ ܡܠܝܠܡ), also known as Karshoni, Syro-Malabarica or Syriac Malayalam, is a version of Malayalam written in a variant form of the Syriac alphabet which was popular among the Saint Thomas Christians (also known as Syrian Christians or Nasranis) of Kerala in India. It uses Malayalam grammar, the Maḏnḥāyā or "Eastern" Syriac script with special orthographic features, and vocabulary from Malayalam and East Syriac. This originated in the South Indian region of the Malabar Coast (modern-day Kerala). Until the 20th century, the script was widely used by Syrian Christians in Kerala.

Ponnani script
The Arabi Malayalam script, otherwise known as the Ponnani script,  is a writing system – a variant form of the Arabic script with special orthographic features – which was developed during the early medieval period and used to write Arabi Malayalam until the early 20th century CE. Though the script originated and developed in Kerala, today it is predominantly used in Malaysia and Singapore by the migrant Muslim community.

Literature
The Sangam literature can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam. According to Iravatham Mahadevan, the earliest Malayalam inscription discovered until now is the Edakal-5 inscription (ca. late 4th century – early 5th century) reading ( 'this is old'). Although this has been disputed by many scholars who regard it as a regional dialect of Old Tamil. The use of the pronoun and the lack of the literary Tamil  ending are archaisms from Proto-Dravidian rather than unique innovations of Malayalam.

The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition: Malayalam Nada, Tamil Nada and Sanskrit Nada. Malayalam literature has been profoundly influenced by poets Cherusseri Namboothiri, Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan, and Poonthanam Nambudiri, in the 15th and the 16th centuries of Common Era. Unnayi Variyar, a probable 17th–18th century poet, and Kunchan Nambiar, a poet of 18th century, also greatly influenced Malayalam literature in its early form. The words used in many of the Arabi Malayalam works those date back to 16th–17th centuries of Common Era are also very closer to the modern Malayalam language. The prose literature, criticism, and Malayalam journalism began after the latter half of 18th century CE. Contemporary Malayalam literature deals with social, political, and economic life context. The tendency of the modern poetry is often towards political radicalism. Malayalam literature has been presented with six Jnanapith awards, the second-most for any Dravidian language and the third-highest for any Indian language.
 * Classical songs known as Nadan Pattu
 * Manipravalam of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam. Niranam poets Manipravalam Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar wrote Manipravalam poetry in the 14th century.
 * The folk song rich in native elements

Malayalam poetry to the late 20th century betrays varying degrees of the fusion of the three different strands. The oldest examples of Pattu and Manipravalam, respectively, are Ramacharitam and Vaishikatantram, both from the 12th century.

The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, Bhashakautalyam (12th century) on Chanakya's Arthashastra. Adhyatmaramayanam by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan (known as the father of modern Malayalam literature) who was born in Tirur, one of the most important works in Malayalam literature. Unnunili Sandesam written in the 14th century is amongst the oldest literary works in Malayalam language. Cherusseri Namboothiri of 15th century (Kannur-based poet), Poonthanam Nambudiri of 16th century (Perinthalmanna-based poet), Unnayi Variyar of 17th–18th centuries (Thrissur-based poet), and Kunchan Nambiar of 18th century (Palakkad-based poet), have played a major role in the development of Malayalam literature into current form. The words used in many of the Arabi Malayalam works, which dates back to 16th–17th centuries are also very closer to modern Malayalam language. The basin of the river Bharathappuzha, which is otherwise known as River Ponnani, and its tributaries, have played a major role in the development of modern Malayalam Literature.

By the end of the 18th century some of the Christian missionaries from Kerala started writing in Malayalam but mostly travelogues, dictionaries and religious books. Varthamanappusthakam (1778), written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar is considered to be the first travelogue in an Indian language. The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE.

Folk Songs
For the first 600 years of the Malayalam calendar, Malayalam literature remained in a preliminary stage. During this time, Malayalam literature consisted mainly of various genres of songs (Pattu). Folk songs are the oldest literary form in Malayalam. They were just oral songs. Many of them were related to agricultural activities, including Pulayar Pattu, Pulluvan Pattu, Njattu Pattu, Koythu Pattu, etc. Other Ballads of Folk Song period include the Vadakkan Pattukal (Northern songs) in North Malabar region and the Thekkan Pattukal (Southern songs) in Southern Travancore. Some of the earliest Mappila songs (Muslim songs) were also folk songs.

Old and Middle Malayalam
The earliest known poems in Malayalam, Ramacharitam and Thirunizhalmala, dated to the 12th to 14th century, were completed before the introduction of the Sanskrit alphabet. It was written by a poet with the pen name Cheeramakavi who, according to poet Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer, was Sree Veerarama Varman, a king of southern Kerala from AD 1195 to 1208. However the claim that it was written in Southern Kerala is expired on the basis of new discoveries. Other experts, like Chirakkal T Balakrishnan Nair, K.M. George, M. M. Purushothaman Nair, and P.V. Krishnan Nair, state that the origin of the book is in Kasaragod district in North Malabar region. They cite the use of certain words in the book and also the fact that the manuscript of the book was recovered from Nileshwaram in North Malabar. The influence of Ramacharitam is mostly seen in the contemporary literary works of Northern Kerala. The words used in Ramacharitam such as Nade (Mumbe), Innum (Iniyum), Ninna (Ninne), Chaaduka (Eriyuka) are special features of the dialect spoken in North Malabar (Kasaragod-Kannur region). Furthermore, the Thiruvananthapuram mentioned in Ramacharitham is not the Thiruvananthapuram in Southern Kerala. But it is Ananthapura Lake Temple of Kumbla in the northernmost Kasaragod district of Kerala. The word Thiru is used just by the meaning Honoured. Today it is widely accepted that Ramacharitham was written somewhere in North Malabar (most likely near Kasaragod).

But the period of the earliest available literary document cannot be the sole criterion used to determine the antiquity of a language. In its early literature, Malayalam has songs, Pattu, for various subjects and occasions, such as harvesting, love songs, heroes, gods, etc. A form of writing called Campu emerged from the 14th century onwards. It mixed poetry with prose and used a vocabulary strongly influenced by Sanskrit, with themes from epics and Puranas.

The works including Unniyachi Charitham, Unnichirudevi Charitham, and Unniyadi Charitham, are written in Middle Malayalam, those date back to 13th and 14th centuries of Common Era. The Sandesha Kavyas of 14th century CE written in Manipravalam language include Unnuneeli Sandesam The literary works written in Middle Malayalam were heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Prakrit, while comparing them with the modern Malayalam literature. The word Manipravalam literally means Diamond-Coral or Ruby-Coral. The 14th-century Lilatilakam text states Manipravalam to be a Bhashya (language) where "Malayalam and Sanskrit should combine together like ruby and coral, without the least trace of any discord". The Champu Kavyas written by Punam Nambudiri, one among the Pathinettara Kavikal (Eighteen and a half poets) in the court of the Zamorin of Calicut, also belong to Middle Malayalam.

Modern Malayalam
The poem Krishnagatha written by Cherusseri Namboothiri, who was the court poet of the king Udaya Varman Kolathiri (1446–1475) of Kolathunadu, is written in modern Malayalam. The language used in Krishnagatha is the modern spoken form of Malayalam. It appears to be the first literary work written in the present-day language of Malayalam. During the 16th century CE, Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan from the Kingdom of Tanur and Poonthanam Nambudiri from the Kingdom of Valluvanad followed the new trend initiated by Cherussery in their poems. The Adhyathmaramayanam Kilippattu and Mahabharatham Kilippattu written by Ezhuthachan and Jnanappana written by Poonthanam are also included in the earliest form of Modern Malayalam. The words used in most of the Arabi Malayalam works, which dates back to 16th–17th centuries, are also very closer to modern Malayalam language. P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval work Keralolpathi, which describes the Parashurama legend and the departure of the final Cheraman Perumal king to Mecca, to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.

Kunchan Nambiar, the founder of Thullal movement, was a prolific literary figure of the 18th century.

Impact of European scholars
The British printed Malabar English Dictionary by Graham Shaw in 1779 was still in the form of a Tamil-English Dictionary. Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar wrote the first Malayalam travelogue called Varthamanappusthakam in 1789.

Hermann Gundert, (1814–1893), a German missionary and scholar of exceptional linguistic talents, played a distinguishable role in the development of Malayalam literature. His major works are Keralolpathi (1843), Pazhancholmala (1845), Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1851), Paathamala (1860) the first Malayalam school text book, Kerala pazhama (1868), the first Malayalam dictionary (1872), Malayalarajyam (1879) – Geography of Kerala, Rajya Samacharam (1847 June) the first Malayalam news paper, Paschimodayam (1879) – Magazine. He lived in Thalassery for around 20 years. He learned the language from well established local teachers Ooracheri Gurukkanmar from Chokli, a village near Thalassery and consulted them in works. He also translated the Bible into Malayalam.

In 1821, the Church Mission Society (CMS) at Kottayam in association with the Syriac Orthodox Church started a seminary at Kottayam in 1819 and started printing books in Malayalam when Benjamin Bailey, an Anglican priest, made the first Malayalam types. In addition, he contributed to standardizing the prose. Hermann Gundert from Stuttgart, Germany, started the first Malayalam newspaper, Rajya Samacaram in 1847 at Talasseri. It was printed at Basel Mission. Malayalam and Sanskrit were increasingly studied by Christians of Kottayam and Pathanamthitta. The Marthomite movement in the mid-19th century called for replacement of Syriac by Malayalam for liturgical purposes. By the end of the 19th century Malayalam replaced Syriac as language of Liturgy in all Syrian Christian churches.

1850–1904
Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar, (1861–1914) from Thalassery was the author of first Malayalam short story, Vasanavikriti. After him innumerable world class literature works by was born in Malayalam.

O. Chandu Menon wrote his novels "Indulekha" and "Saradha" while he was the judge at Parappanangadi Munciff Court. Indulekha is also the first Major Novel written in Malayalam language.

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The third quarter of the 19th century CE bore witness to the rise of a new school of poets devoted to the observation of life around them and the use of pure Malayalam. The major poets of the Venmani School were Venmani Achhan Nambudiripad (1817–1891), Venmani Mahan Nambudiripad (1844–1893), Poonthottam Achhan Nambudiri (1821–1865), Poonthottam Mahan Nambudiri (1857–1896) and the members of the Kodungallur Kovilakam (Royal Family) such as Kodungallur Kunjikkuttan Thampuran. The style of these poets became quite popular for a while and influenced even others who were not members of the group like Velutheri Kesavan Vaidyar (1839–1897) and Perunlli Krishnan Vaidyan (1863–1894). The Venmani school pioneered a style of poetry that was associated with common day themes, and the use of pure Malayalam (Pachcha Malayalam) rather than Sanskrit.

Twentieth century
In the second half of the 20th century, Jnanpith winning poets and writers like G. Sankara Kurup, S. K. Pottekkatt, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, O. N. V. Kurup, Edasseri Govindan Nair and Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, had made valuable contributions to the modern Malayalam literature. Later, writers like O. V. Vijayan, Kamaladas, M. Mukundan, Arundhati Roy, and Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, have gained international recognition.

Prose
The travelogues written by S. K. Pottekkatt were turning point in the travelogue literature. The writers like Kavalam Narayana Panicker have contributed much to Malayalam drama.

Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai turned away from party politics and produced a moving romance in Chemmeen (Shrimps) in 1956. For S. K. Pottekkatt and Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, who had not dabbled in politics, the continuity is marked in the former's Vishakanyaka (Poison Maid, 1948) and the latter's Ntuppuppakkoranendarnnu (My Grandpa had an Elephant, 1951). The non-political social or domestic novel was championed by P. C. Kuttikrishnan (Uroob) with his Ummachu (1955) and Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum (Men and Women of Charm, 1958).

In 1957 Basheer's Pathummayude Aadu (Pathumma's Goat) brought in a new kind of prose tale, which perhaps only Basheer could handle with dexterity. The fifties thus mark the evolution of a new kind of fiction, which had its impact on the short stories as well. This was the auspicious moment for the entry of M. T. Vasudevan Nair and T. Padmanabhan upon the scene. Front runners in the post-modern trend include Kakkanadan, O. V. Vijayan, E. Harikumar, M. Mukundan and Anand.

Kerala has the highest media exposure in India with newspapers publishing in nine languages, mainly English and Malayalam.

Poetry
Contemporary Malayalam poetry deals with social, political, and economic life context. The tendency of the modern poetry is often towards political radicalism.

title: Malayalam


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