Malayalam is one of the four major Dravidian languages spoken principally in the southern part of India. It has a recorded history of eight centuries and is spoken by more than thirty million people on the Malabar coast of southern India
This is the first detailed description of Malayalam, providing an in-depth analysis of the linguistic richness of this language.
R.E. Asher was Vice-Principal of the University of Edinburgh, where he held the Chair of Linguistics. In 1983 Fellowship of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi was conferred on him for services to Malayalam language and literature.
T. C. Kumari was Professor and Head of the Department of English, Little Flower College, Guruvayoor, Kerala.