Aranadan Language

ഏറനാടന്‍

• മലയാളത്തില്‍ വായിക്കാം

Aranadan (Eranadan) is a South-Dravidian language belonging to the Malayalam group of languages. It is spoken by the Aranadan tribe in the Malappuram District of Kerala. Even though Aranadan bears many similarities with the Malayalam language, there is Kannada influence in the language.

Aranadan has no writing system of its own. However, the Malayalam script and Ponnani script (Arabi-Malayalam) are used to write this language.

Comparison with Malayalam

Phonology

Vowels are nasalised in Aranadan. ñã (I) - ñāṉ in Malayalam.

The word ending -a in Malayalam corresponds to -e ending in Aranadan language. This is observed as an influence of Kannada. eg: āme - āma, talē - tala

Similar to the Northern varieties of Malayalam and other languages in the region, the corresponding ‘v’ in Malayalam is ‘b’ in Aranadan.
eg: cebi - cevi, bēṇō - vēṇō
The retroflex ḻa in Malayalam corresponds to ya or ja in Aranadan language. eg: kōyi - kōḻi, nāji/nāyi - nāḻi, puye/puje - puḻa
Alveolar ’t' in Malayalam is a palatal ‘c’ in Aranadan. eg: occa - oṯṯa, kayaccam - kayaṯṯam, necci - neṯṯi

Structure and Words

In Malayalam, both animate and inanimate nouns use the suffix ‘-kaḷ’ to form a plural. But in Aranadan, this suffix is only applicable to animate nouns. Thus maraṅṅaḷ in Malayalam is kuṟe maram in Aranadan language. The suffix -kaḷ is supplemented by using the adjective kuṟe (many).

For the formation of future tense, both Malayalam and Aranadan use the suffix ‘-um’. However, Aranadan utilises distinct suffixes for past and present tenses.

Reference

1. Tribal Languages of Kerala, Ravi Sankar S. Nair

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