[[Malayalam]]The ismalayalam thoughtlanguage tooriginated from proto tamil malayalam the ancester languguage of both tamil and malayalam .Old malayalam(പഴയ മലയാളം pazhaya malayalam or മലയാഴ്മ malyazhma) have diverged from [[Middleproto Tamil]]tamil approximatelymalayalam at the 6thsame centurytime intheperiod regionthat coincidingold withtamil splited from it modern[[Kerala]]. The split of malaylam and tamil from the proto language was approximately 2500 years ago.The development of Malayalam as a separateseperate language rather than a origin from tamil was characterizedproved by the edakkal cave inscriptions (ഇടക്കൽ ശിലാലിഖിതങ്ങൾ) Which was discoverd on 2013 in the edakkal caves in ambukkuthi mala in the wayanad district of northern kerala the stone inscription dates back to 200 to 300 AD but the discovery of pulimankombill inscriptions found in the border of kerala and tamil nadu in the theni district of tamil nadu proved the existence of malayalam language as a moderateindipendent language thus eliminating the tamil origin theory the antiquity of these inscriptions are dated back to 100 to 200 BCE .It was this discovery that made the central government declare malayalam as a classical language these discoverd inscriptions were not royal nor literary but they were written by common man .Although old malayalam didnt had any literarature or literary works due to the influence of the old tamil language language used by the tamil chera kings who ruled present day parts of kerala .during the tamil chera rule period old tamil was used by the tamil kings as administrative language and at that period the local language malayalam was strictly a spoken language it was from Sanskrit,the bothend of tamil chera rule in lexiconthe 6th century AD that the devolepment of old malayalam as a literary and grammar,royal whichlanguage culminatedwas started the begining of kulashegara perumal dynasty(കുലശേഖര പെരുമാൾ വംശം) that the first examples of malayalam being used as a royal and administrative language can be seen the tharispally copper plates (തരിശാപ്പള്ളി ശാസനം) and the vazhapilly copper plates (വാഴപ്പിള്ളി ശാസനം) are examples of the royal degrees issued by the kulashekhara kings . Between 7th and 12th centuries sanskrit started to influence malayalam mainly in the written language this caused the adoption of many sanskrit loan words on to malaylam which accelerated the devolepment of literary malayalam at the same time spoken malayalam was not affected.The golden age of malayalam literature begins from the composition of [[Adhyathmaramayanam|''Aadhyaathma Ramayanam'']], a version of the Ramayana by [[Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan]] which marked the beginning of modern Malayalam. Ezhuthachan's works also cemented the use of the [[Malayalam script]], an alphabet blending the Tamil [[Vatteluttu alphabet]] with elements of the [[Grantha alphabet|Grantha script]] resulting in a large number of letters capable of representing both Indo-Aryan and Dravidian sounds.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aiyar |first=Swaminatha |title=Dravidian theories |year=1987 |isbn=978-81-208-0331-2 |page=286 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D-dIbnuJCjUC&q=malayalam |access-date=22 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Malayalam |url=http://www.alsintl.com/resources/languages/Malayalam/ |publisher=ALS International |access-date=22 January 2014}}</ref> Today, it is considered one of the 22 [[Languages with official status in India|scheduled languages of India]] and was declared a [[Languages of India#Classical languages of India|classical language]] by the Government of India in 2013.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/classical-status-for-malayalam/article4744630.ece |title='Classical' status for Malayalam |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=24 May 2013 |location=Thiruvananthapuram, India}}</ref>
