1. European contributions
    Dutch  English 

2. Middle East contributions
    Aramaic or East Syriac  Arabic  Hebrew  Persian  

3. See also

4. References

Loan words in Malayalam, excluding the huge number of words from Sanskrit and Tamil, originated mostly due to the centuries long interactions between the native population of Kerala and the trading (predominantly, spice trading) powers of the world. This included trading contacts with Arabia, Persia, Israel and China spanning millennia, and with European Colonial powers for several centuries.

European contributions

===Portuguese===

Most of the loan words from Portuguese language are for items which the native population lacked when the encounter with Portuguese empire happened from around the final years of the 15th century.

Portuguese was the lingua franca in Africa, Brazil, South Asia and parts of South East Asia during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The Portuguese Empire was the major ruling colonial power in South India during this period, they were first modern European power to encounter India on a large scale, and thus their language had a strong influence on Malayalam (similar to many other Indian languages).^[1]

The Portuguese language had also taken some words from Malayalam, and they should not be confused vice versa.

Some examples are jaca for Jack Fruit (from Chakka / ചക്ക in Malayalam), manga for mango (from Mangaa / മാങ്ങ) in Malayalam.

Dutch

English

Middle East contributions

Aramaic or East Syriac

Arabic

The Arabic language contributes a large number of words into a dialect form of Malayalam that is spoken by the Muslim Mappila community of North Kerala.

There are also some common words which are used throughout Kerala.

There are more than 900 words taken from Arabic and commonly used in Malayalam.

Hebrew

The Hebrew language contributes a large number of words into a dialect form of Judeo-Malayalam that is spoken by the Cochin Jewish community of Kerala.

Persian

There are a few words of Persian origin in Malayalam, though it is possible many of them could have been indirectly loaned from Urdu.

See also

• Hindustani etymology
• List of loanwords in Sri Lankan Tamil
• Sri Lankan Portuguese creole
• Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil
• List of loanwords in Konkani
• List of loanwords in Gujarati
• Tamil loanwords in other languages
• List of loanwords in Indonesian
• Portuguese vocabulary
• List of English words of Dravidian origin
• List of English words of Indian origin
• List of English words of Arabic origin

References

• Borrowed words and pronunciation, Rajeev, Rediff
• A sacred language is vanishing from State, The Hindu
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=MZqqyxVkufQC&lpg=PA144&ots=j17KzHCzNC&dq=german%20influence%20on%20malayalam&hl=de&pg=PA144#v=onepage&q=german%20influence%20on%20malayalam&f=false Western Influence on Malayalam Language and Literature, Dr.K.M.George]

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