Malayalam script

All you want to know about Malayalam script

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.
Image:Example.of.complex.text.rendering.svg This article contains Indic text.
Without rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes or other symbols instead of Indic characters; or irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts.

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. The Malayalam script covers all the symbols of Sanskrit as well as special Dravidian letters. The alphabet is classified into two categories: swarams (or vowels) and vyanjanams (or consonants).

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 ൌ പൌ (pau) AU au
അ.
അ:

Consonants

Picture showing the relation of Malayalam to Brahmi
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. 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

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam_script"

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