Malayalam is a Southern Dravidian language spoken mainly in the state of Kerala in southern India, and also in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In 2011 there were about 35.5 million speakers of Malayalam in India.

There are speakers of Malayalam in a number of other countries, including: UAE (1 million), Sri Lanka (732,000), Malaysia (344,000), Oman (212,000), USA (146,000), Qatar (71,600) and Australia (53,200).

Malayalam is also known as Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malean, Maliyad, Mallealle or Mopla. The name Malayalam means "mountain region", and comes from mala (mountain) and alam (region). Original the name referred to the land of the Chera dynasty (2nd century BC - 3rd century AD), which corresponds to modern Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and was later used to refer to the language.