Years ago I studied Malayalam while living in India (Malayalam is the language of Kerala state on the southernmost tip of the country). When I learned the grammar I was surprised to see that it had nominative, dative and accusative cases just like German, which was convenient since I'd studied German in high school. Turns out the grammar had actually been sort of imposed on Malayalam centuries ago by a wandering German monk.

[–] lemmington_steele@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

couldn't stop laughing. could I have a source please?

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Hermann Gundert. I was a bit off: he was a missionary rather than a monk, and it was a century and a half ago rather than "centuries ago". His book on Malayalam grammar was called Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam. My Malayalam tutor at the time told me that Gundert learned the language in one week, which seems a bit unlikely.