Arabi Malayalam (also called Mappila Malayalam[1][2] and Moplah Malayalam) is the traditional Dravidian language[3] of the Mappila Muslim community. It is spoken by several thousand people, predominantly in the Malabar Coast of Kerala state, southern India. The form can be classified as a regional dialect in northern Kerala, or as a class or occupational dialect of the Mappila community. It can also be called a vernacular in general, or as a provincial patois, with the latter label being increasingly applicable in Colonial times. All the forms of the Malayalam language, including Mappila, are mutually intelligible.[4][5]
The Mappila form shows some lexical admixture from Arabic and Persian.[5][6]
^Subramoniam, V. I. (1997). Dravidian Encyclopaedia. Vol. 3, Language and literature. Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): International School of Dravidian Linguistics. pp. 508-09. [1]
^Krishna Chaitanya. Kerala. India, the Land and the People. New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 1994. [2]
^Upadhyaya, U. Padmanabha. Coastal Karnataka: Studies in Folkloristic and Linguistic Traditions of Dakshina Kannada Region of the Western Coast of India. Udupi: Rashtrakavi Govind Pai Samshodhana Kendra, 1996. pp. 63-83.