This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.
Malayalam
Type Abugida
Spoken languages Malayalam
Konkani
Time period c. 1100–present
Parent systems Proto-Canaanite alphabet
 → Phoenician alphabet
  → Aramaic alphabet
   → Brāhmī
    → Grantha
     → Malayalam
Sister systems Sinhala
Tamil
Unicode range U+0D00–U+0D7F
ISO 15924 Mlym
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Malayalam script is an abugida of the Brahmic family, used to write the Malayalam language. From the Brahmi script, the Grantha script emerged as one of the earliest Southern scripts. It further evolved into the Malayalam script. Early Malayalam was heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Tamil. Earliest records of the Malayalam writing system include inscriptions on rock and metallic plates from around 10th century CE [1]. Nowadays, written Malayalam is widely used in the press of the Malayali population in Kerala, India. [1]

During 1970-1980, a simplified script of Malayalam immerged where the diacritics were linearized so complex characters could be organized from left to right to aid the task of printing the script[2]. Further modifications also broke up consonant clusters into more atomic characters [2]. Though both these modifications adds aspects of the script to make it more alphabetic, the changes were not consistent with all of the characters making it not quite alphabetic[2].

Malayalam is traditionally written from left to right and each character represents a syllable though modifications in modern times have incorporated alphabetic elements into the script [2]. The characters are classified into two categories: swarams (or vowels) and vyanjanams (or consonants).

In the Malayalam Script, there are many ways to form words. In the most straightforward case, svaram and vyanjanam character can be strung together to form words. Often, it is more complicated because svaram characters are used only when a word begins with a vowel and vyanjanam characters are used to signify a consonant and a vowel[2].

Stop and fricative consonants do not occur in the final position of words. Certain nasal consonants do (m, n) and can end words depending on the dialect(ɳ, l, ɭ, ɾ, and y). Consonants all can occur in the initial position of a word except for ɳ, ŋ, ɭ, and z.[3]


Contents

Vowels

Letter Vowel sign Vowel with [p] Unicode name IPA Remarks
അ പ (pa) A a short 'a'
ആ ാ പാ (pā) AA aː long 'a'
ഇ ി പി (pi) I i short 'i'
ഈ ീ പീ (pī) II iː long 'i'
ഉ ു പു (pu) U u short 'u'
ഊ ൂ പൂ (pu) UU uː long 'u'
ഋ ൃ പൃ (pr) VOCALIC R ɹ̩
ൠ (pr) LONG VOCALIC R ɹ̩ː Obsolete/rarely used
ഌ VOCALIC L l̩ obsolete/rarely used
ൡ LONG VOCALIC L l̩ː obsolete/rarely used
എ െ പെ (pe) E e short 'e'
ഏ േ പേ (pē) E eː long 'e'
ഐ ൈ പൈ (pai) AI ai
ഒ ൊ പൊ (po) O o short 'o'
ഓ ോ പോ (pō) OO oː long 'o'
ഔ ൌ പൗ (pau) AU au
അം
അഃ

It is important to note the vowel duration as it is can be used to differentiate words that would otherwise be the same. For example, /kalam/ means "earthernware pot" while /kaalam/ means "time" or "season". [3]

Consonants

Picture showing the relation of Malayalam to Brahmi
Malayalam Unicode name Transliteration IPA
ക KA k k
ഖ KHA kh kh
ഗ GA g g
ഘ GHA gh gɦ
ങ NGA n or ng ŋ
ച CHA ch tʃ
ഛ CHHA chh tʃh
ജ JA j dʒ
ഝ JHA jh dʒɦ
ഞ NJA ñ or nj ɲ
ട TTA ṭ or tt ʈ
ഠ TTHA ṭh or tth ʈh
ഡ DDA ḍ or dd ɖ
ഢ DDHA ḍh or ddh ɖɦ
ണ NNA ṇ or nn ɳ
ത THA th t
ഥ THHA thh th
ദ DA d d
Malayalam Unicode name Transliteration IPA
ധ DHA d dɦ
ന NA n n
പ PA p p
ഫ PHA ph ph
ബ BA b b
ഭ BHA bh bɦ
മ MA m m
യ YA y j
ര RA r ɾ
ല LA l l
വ VA v ʋ
ശ SHA ṣ or s ɕ
ഷ SSA sś or sh ʃ
സ SA s s
ഹ HA h ɦ
ള LLA ḷ or ll ɭ
ഴ ZHA ḻ or zh ɻ
റ RRA ṟ or rr r

There is no distinction of case, i.e. no uppercase and lowercase letters. Diacritics, or vowel signs, are used to associate a vowel to a consonant though with some vowels such as "u" and "ū" are irregular with certain consonants. When no diacritic is used, the vowel sound 'a' is assumed. To denote the absence of a vowel specifically, a chandrakkala ് (also called virama) is used.


Other symbols

Symbol Name Function
് virama or chandrakkala denotes the absence of a vowel
ം anusvara nasalizes the preceding vowel
ഃ visarga adds voiceless breath after vowel (like h)

In addition to these symbols, there are many more symbols to indicate ligatures of the various consonants with each other.

Digits

Malayalam digits are written as follows:

Malayalam Hindu-Arabic
൦ 0
൧ 1
൨ 2
൩ 3
൪ 4
൫ 5
൬ 6
൭ 7
൮ 8
൯ 9


Unicode for Malayalam

The Unicode range for Malayalam is U+0D00–U+0D7F. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.

Malayalam
Unicode.org chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+0D0x     ം ഃ   അ ആ ഇ ഈ ഉ ഊ ഋ ഌ   എ ഏ
U+0D1x ഐ   ഒ ഓ ഔ ക ഖ ഗ ഘ ങ ച ഛ ജ ഝ ഞ ട
U+0D2x ഠ ഡ ഢ ണ ത ഥ ദ ധ ന   പ ഫ ബ ഭ മ യ
U+0D3x ര റ ല ള ഴ വ ശ ഷ സ ഹ         ാ ി
U+0D4x ീ ു ൂ ൃ     െ േ ൈ   ൊ ോ ൌ ്    
U+0D5x               ൗ                
U+0D6x ൠ ൡ         ൦ ൧ ൨ ൩ ൪ ൫ ൬ ൭ ൮ ൯
U+0D7x                                

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ a b Andronov, Mikhail Sergeevich. A Grammar of the Malayalam Language in Historical Treatment. Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1996.
  2. ^ a b c d e The World's Writing Systems. Ed. Daniels, Peter T.Bright, William,1928-2006. New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
  3. ^ a b Asher, R. E. Malayalam. Ed. T. C. Kumari 1934-. London ; New York : Routledge, 1997.
This article is currently or was the subject of an 2008 fall semester educational assignment. Further details are available here.
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