Lingua Malabar Tamul or simply Malabar Tamil is a variant of the Tamil language promoted by European Missionaries in southern parts of Kerala state like Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts before they started promoting Malayalam language among newly converted Christians. Malabar Tamil differs significantly from standard Tamil in its selection of vocabulary. Initially Malabar Tamil was printed using Roman script. Later on, printing using Tamil script became widespread.
Etymology The word Malabar is derived from the words "mala-bar". in Tamil means "hill". in Persian/Arabic means "country" or "nation".C. A. Innes and F. B. Evans, Malabar and Anjengo, volume 1, Madras District Gazetteers (Madras: Government Press, 1915), p. 2.M. T. Narayanan, Agrarian Relations in Late Medieval Malabar (New Delhi: Northern Book Centre, 2003), xvi-xvii.
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See also Thambiran Vanakkam Printing in Tamil language Henrique Henriques
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