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Malayalees

Malayalee
മലയാളി
Total population
c. 38 million
Regions with significant populations
 India 33,066,392
 United Arab Emirates 914,000
 United States 87,698 (2015)
 Saudi Arabia 595,000
 Kuwait 127,782
 Oman 195,300
 United Kingdom 104,737
 Qatar 148,427
 Bahrain 101,556
 Israel 46,600
 Australia 25,111
 Canada 22,125
 Malaysia 14,236
 Singapore 8,800
 Pakistan 6,000
 Germany 5,867
 Uruguay 32
Languages
Malayalam (മലയാളം)
Religion
Predominantly: Minorities:
Related ethnic groups

The Malayali or Malayalee (Malayalam: മലയാളി) are an ethno-linguistic group native to the South Indian state of Kerala and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and have the Malayalam language as their mother tongue. The Malayali community in India has a history of immigrants to the region from various parts of the world, as well as a unique sub-culture owing to the tropical environment of the state.

According to the Indian census of 2011, there are approximately 33 million Malayalis in Kerala, making up 96.7% of the total population of the state. Hence the word Keralite is often used synonymously with Malayali.Malayala Nadu, Mala Nadu are literary terms, that means Kerala. As well as according to A. R. Raja Raja Varma, Malayalam was the name of the place, before it became the name of the language spoken by people of that place.

Malayalam, the native language of Malayalis, has its origin from the words mala meaning mountain and alam meaning land or locality. Hence the term Malayali refers to the people from the mountains who lived beyond the Western Ghats, and Malayalam the language that was spoken there.

According to the Indian census of 2001, there were 30,803,747 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 96.7% of the total population of the state. There were a further 701,673 (2.1% of the total number) in Karnataka, 557,705 (1.7%) 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. In all, Malayalis made up 3.22% of the total Indian population in 2001. 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. 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.


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