Title of the Project

The project “The Linguistic Portrait of Kerala” is aimed to document Malayalam dialects to the achievements of the corpus linguistics. This wide coverage intends to record the speech corpus of Malayalam language. This Project comprehensively records the internal variation in spoken Malayalam.

The initial area selected for the survey is Malappuram District. The purpose is to document the variation in the spoken language in a geographical area and eventually to bring out a dialect atlas of Malayalam. This survey is done based on questionnaire containing the detailed word and sentence list developed by the department of Linguistics,

The project conceived has two parts the linguistic part which deals with the lexicographic details and the Computational part which deals with the database and search.

The implementation of the project is divided into three phases with well-defined deliverables for each phase.

The project involves 5 organizations- a consortium of IIITK, C-DAC and AUKBS Research Centre, Chennai, who work together in achieving the state of the art dictionary with all its functionalities.

It provides in a digital format, a fairly comprehensive database taking into consideration a carefully compiled inventory of phones currently employed in the Malayalam language. It is accessible online for every student or researcher actively involved in the areas of Phonetics, Phonology, Malayalam language teaching, speech synthesis, and several other aspects of language data processing.

The data provided comprises 1000 words with gloss, audio recordings (wave/MP3 format) and phonetic transcriptions (IPA).

The project was designed as to support the move of the state government to make the Malayalam learning compulsory in all schools including CBSE schools in state.

A language learning tool namely MalayalaPadam is designed in the form of word game that introduces all the syllables of Malayalam to the primary level learners. The android version of the game is available in Play Store. The concept of the game was developed by Ms. Aiswarya, the PhD scholar in the Department. The Chief Minister released the word game at a function held at the University campus on March

It is to map lexicographically how feminism is discoursed in Malayalam and Malayalam’s role as a knowledge transmission media.

How the dissent is expressed and communicated is the theme of the enquiry. The language of dissent can be adopted, adapted or modified through time. This study attempts to map the diverse culture of expression manifests dissent lexicographically. Collection and description of key terms in the field of agitation and protests to reflect the humanistic vigilance of the politically literate Kerala society. This emic character of Malayalam makes the language distinctive universally.