Malayalam script

Not to be confused with the Jawi alphabet used for the Malay language.

Malayalam script
Type	abugida
Languages	Malayalam Sanskrit
Time period	C. 830 – present
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brahmi script Grantha alphabet Malayalam script
Sister systems	Tamil script Sinhala alphabet Tigalari script
Direction	Left-to-right
ISO 15924	Mlym, 347
Unicode alias	Malayalam
Unicode range	U+0D00–U+0D7F

A bilingual sign in Malayalam and Latin script (English) in Kasaragod

The Malayalam script ([Malayāḷalipi] ; IPA: [mələjaːɭə lɪpɪ]), also known as Kairali script is a Brahmic script used commonly to write Malayalam, which is the principal language of Kerala, India, spoken by 35 million people in the world. Malayalam script is also widely used for writing Sanskrit texts in Kerala. Like many other Indic scripts, it is an alphasyllabary (abugida), a writing system that is partially “alphabetic” and partially syllable-based. The modern Malayalam alphabet has 15 vowel letters, 41 consonant letters, and a few other symbols. The Malayalam script is a Vatteluttu alphabet extended with symbols from the Grantha alphabet to represent Indo-Aryan loanwords. The script is also used to write several minority languages such as Paniya, Betta Kurumba, and Ravula. The Malayalam language itself was historically written in several different scripts.

Overview

Characteristics

The basic characters can be classified as follows:

• Vowels (സ്വരം, svaram)
  1. Independent vowel letters
  2. Dependent vowel signs
• Consonant letters (വ്യഞ്ജനം, vyañjanam)

An independent vowel letter is used as the first letter of a word that begins with a vowel. A consonant letter, despite its name, does not represent a pure consonant, but represents a consonant + a short vowel /a/ by default. For example, ക is the first consonant letter of the Malayalam alphabet, which represents /ka/, not a simple /k/. A vowel sign is a diacritic attached to a consonant letter to indicate that the consonant is followed by a vowel other than /a/. If the following vowel is /a/, no vowel sign is needed. The phoneme /a/ that follows a consonant by default is called an inherent vowel. In Malayalam, its phonetic value is unrounded [ɐ], or [ə] as an allophone. To denote a pure consonant sound not followed by a vowel, a special diacritic virama is used to cancel the inherent vowel. The following are examples where a consonant letter is used with or without a diacritic.

• കി ki = ക ka + ി vowel sign i
• കു ku = ക ka + ു vowel sign u
• കൈ kai = ക ka + ൈ vowel sign ai
• ക് k = ക ka + ് virama
• ക ka = consonant letter ക ka itself, with no vowel sign

Malayalam alphabet is unicase, or does not have a case distinction. It is written from left to right, but certain vowel signs are attached to the left (the opposite direction) of a consonant letter that it logically follows. In the word കേരളം (Kēraḷam), the vowel sign േ (ē) visually appears in the leftmost position, though the vowel ē logically follows the consonant k.

History

Malayalam was first written in the Vatteluttu alphabet, an ancient script of Tamil. However, the modern Malayalam script evolved from the Grantha alphabet, which was originally used to write Sanskrit. Both Vatteluttu and Grantha evolved from the Brahmi script, but independently.

Vatteluttu alphabet

Vatteluttu (Malayalam: വട്ടെഴുത്ത്, Vaṭṭeḻuttŭ ^?, “round writing”) is a script that had evolved from Tamil-Brahmi and was once used extensively in the southern part of present-day Tamil Nadu and in Kerala.

Malayalam was first written in Vatteluttu. The Vazhappally inscription issued by Rajashekhara Varman is the earliest example, dating from about 830 CE. In the Tamil country, the modern Tamil script had supplanted Vatteluttu by the 15th century, but in the Malabar region, Vatteluttu remained in general use up to the 17th century, or the 18th century. A variant form of this script, Kolezhuthu, was used until about the 19th century mainly in the Kochi area and in the Malabar area. Another variant form, Malayanma, was used in the south of Thiruvananthapuram.

Grantha

Grantha, Tigalari and Malayalam scripts

According to Arthur Coke Burnell, one form of the Grantha alphabet, originally used in the Chola dynasty, was imported into the southwest coast of India in the 8th or 9th century, which was then modified in course of time in this secluded area, where communication with the east coast was very limited. It later evolved into Tigalari-Malayalam script was used by the Malayali, Havyaka Brahmins and Tulu Brahmin people, but was originally only applied to write Sanskrit. This script split into two scripts: Tigalari and Malayalam. While Malayalam script was extended and modified to write vernacular language Malayalam, the Tigalari was written for Sanskrit only. In Malabar, this writing system was termed Arya-eluttu (ആര്യ എഴുത്ത്, Ārya eḻuttŭ), meaning “Arya writing” (Sanskrit is Indo-Aryan language while Malayalam is a Dravidian language).

Vatteluttu was in general use, but was not suitable for literature where many Sanskrit words were used. Like Tamil-Brahmi, it was originally used to write Tamil, and as such, did not have letters for voiced or aspirated consonants used in Sanskrit but not used in Tamil. For this reason, Vatteluttu and the Grantha alphabet were sometimes mixed, as in the Manipravalam. One of the oldest examples of the Manipravalam literature, Vaishikatantram (വൈശികതന്ത്രം, Vaiśikatantram), dates back to the 12th century, where the earliest form of the Malayalam script was used, which seems to have been systematized to some extent by the first half of the 13th century.

Tuncattu Eluttacchan, a poet from around the 17th century, used Arya-eluttu to write his Malayalam poems based on Classical Sanskrit literature. For a few letters missing in Arya-eluttu (ḷa, ḻa, ṟa), he used Vatteluttu. His works became unprecedentedly popular to the point that the Malayali people eventually started to call him the father of the Malayalam language, which also popularized Arya-eluttu as a script to write Malayalam. However, Grantha did not have distinctions between e and ē, and between o and ō, as it was as an alphabet to write a Sanskrit language. The Malayalam script as it is today was modified in the middle of the 19th century when Hermann Gundert invented the new vowel signs to distinguish them.

By the 19th century, old scripts like Kolezhuthu had been supplanted by Arya-eluttu – that is the current Malayalam script. Nowadays, it is widely used in the press of the Malayali population in Kerala.

Malayalam and Tigalari are sister scripts are descended from Grantha alphabet. Both share similar glyphic and orthographic characteristics.

Orthography reform

In 1969–1971 and in 1981, the Government of Kerala reformed the orthography of Malayalam. In the traditional orthography, certain consonants followed by u, ū, or r̥ are represented by special glyphs (consonant-vowel ligatures), where the corresponding basic consonant letter is transformed irregularly. For example:

• ക ka → ku
• ന na → nu
• ശ śa → śu

This kind of irregular glyph was simplified in the new orthography, where a vowel sign is always a separate symbol, never fused with the preceding letter:

• ക ka → കു ku
• ന na → നു nu
• ശ śa → ശു śu

Also, most of traditional consonant-consonant ligatures, especially less common ones only used to write words of Sanskrit origin, were split into non-ligated forms. For example:

• ഗ് g + ദ da = ഗ്‌ദ gda (Traditional: )
• ല്‌ l + ത ta = ല്‌ത lta (Traditional: )

The new orthography, puthiya lipi (Malayalam: പുതിയ ലിപി, putiya lipi ^?), is now used commonly, but has not completely replaced the traditional system, palaya lipi (പഴയ ലിപി, paḻaya lipi).

Malayalam letters

Malayalam letters

Vowels

Vowel letters and vowel signs

The following tables show the independent vowel letters and the corresponding dependent vowel signs (diacritics) of the Malayalam script, with romanizations in ISO 15919, transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Monophthongs

	Short			Long
	Independent	Dependent		Indep.	Dependent
		Vowel sign	Example		Vowel sign	Example
a	അ a /a/	(none)	പ pa /pa/	ആ ā /aː/	ാ	പാ pā /paː/
i	ഇ i /i/	ി	പി pi /pi/	ഈ ī /iː/	ീ	പീ pī /piː/
u	ഉ u /u/	ു	പു pu /pu/	ഊ ū /uː/	ൂ	പൂ pū /puː/
r̥	ഋ r̥ /rɨ/	ൃ	പൃ pr̥ /prɨ/	ൠ r̥̄ /rɨː/	ൄ	പൄ pr̥̄ /prɨː/
l̥	ഌ l̥ /lɨ/	ൢ	പൢ pl̥ /plɨ/	ൡ l̥̄ /lɨː/	ൣ	പൣ pl̥̄ /plɨː/
e	എ e /e/	െ	പെ pe /pe/	ഏ ē /eː/	േ	പേ pē /peː/
o	ഒ o /o/	ൊ	പൊ po /po/	ഓ ō /oː/	ോ	പോ pō /poː/

A school sign. Notice the word-initial a അ in akkādami, and the vowel sign ē േ in Kēraḷa.

r̥, r̥̄, l̥, l̥̄ , used to write Sanskrit words, are treated as vowels. They are phonetically not vowels in Malayalam or in Classical Sanskrit, but originally they were (see Proto-Indo-European language and Vedic Sanskrit). The letters and signs for r̥̄, l̥, l̥̄ are very rare, and are not considered as part of the modern orthography.

The vowel signs ā, i, ī are placed to the right of a consonant letter to which it is attached. The vowel signs e, ē, ai are placed to the left of a consonant letter. The vowel signs o and ō consist of two parts: the first part goes to the left of a consonant letter and the second part goes to the right of it. In the reformed orthography, the vowel signs u, ū, r̥ are simply placed to the right of the consonant letter, while they often make consonant-vowel ligatures in the traditional orthography.

Diphthongs

	Independent	Dependent
		Vowel sign	Example
ai	ഐ ai /ai̯/	ൈ	പൈ pai /pai̯/
au	ഔ au /au̯/	ൌ (archaic)	പൌ pau /pau̯/
		ൗ (modern)	പൗ pau /pau̯/

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

Anusvaram

Anusvaram

aṁ	അം aṁ /am/	ം ṁ /m/	പം paṁ /pam/

An anusvaram (അനുസ്വാരം anusvāram), or an anusvara, originally denoted the nasalization where the preceding vowel was changed into a nasalized vowel, and hence is traditionally treated as a kind of vowel sign. In Malayalam, however, it simply represents a consonant /m/ after a vowel, though this /m/ may be assimilated to another nasal consonant. It is a special consonant letter, different from a "normal" consonant letter, in that it is never followed by an inherent vowel or another vowel. In general, an anusvara at the end of a word in an Indian language is transliterated as ṁ in ISO 15919, but a Malayalam anusvara at the end of a word is transliterated as m without a dot.

Visargam

Visargam

aḥ	അഃ aḥ /ah/	ഃ ḥ /h/	പഃ paḥ /pah/

A visargam (വിസർഗം, visargam), or visarga, represents a consonant /h/ after a vowel, and is transliterated as ḥ. Like the anusvara, it is a special symbol, and is never followed by an inherent vowel or another vowel.

Consonants

Basic consonant letters

The following tables show the basic consonant letters of the Malayalam script, with romanizations in ISO 15919, transcriptions in IPA, and Unicode CHARACTER NAMES. The character names used in the report of the Government of Kerala committee (2001) are shown in lowercase italics when different from Unicode character names. Those alternative names are based on the traditional romanization used by the Malayali people. For example, tha in “Thiruvananthapuram” is neither ISO tha nor Unicode THA, but tha in this sense (ത). The ISCII (IS 13194:1991) character names are given in parentheses when different from the above.

Varga consonants

	Voiceless		Voiced
	Unaspirated	Aspirated	Unaspirated	Aspirated	Nasal
Velar	ക ka /ka/ KA	ഖ kha /kʰa/ KHA	ഗ ga /ɡa/ GA	ഘ gha /ɡʱa/ GHA	ങ ṅa /ŋa/ NGA
Palatal or Postalveolar	ച ca /t͡ʃa/ CA cha	ഛ cha /t͡ʃʰa/ CHA chha	ജ ja /ɟa/ JA	ഝ jha /ɟʱa/ JHA	ഞ ña /ɲa/ NYA nha (nja)
Retroflex	ട ṭa /ʈa/ TTA ta (hard ta)	ഠ ṭha /ʈʰa/ TTHA tta (hard tha)	ഡ ḍa /ɖa/ DDA hard da	ഢ ḍha /ɖʱa/ DDHA hard dda (hard dha)	ണ ṇa /ɳa/ NNA hard na
Dental	ത ta /t̪a/ TA tha (soft ta)	ഥ tha /t̪ʰa/ THA ttha (soft tha)	ദ da /d̪a/ DA soft da	ധ dha /d̪ʱa/ DHA soft dda (soft dha)	ന na /n̪a, na/ NA soft na
Labial	പ pa /pa/ PA	ഫ pha /pʰa/ PHA	ബ ba /ba/ BA	ഭ bha /bʱa/ BHA	മ ma /ma/ MA

The consonants /ʈ, ɖ, ɳ/ are retroflex. In Malayalam, they are produced by touching the underside of the tip of the tongue to the front part of the hard palate (apico-palatal).

Other consonants

യ ya /ja/ YA

ര ra /ɾa/ RA

ല la /la/ LA

വ va /ʋa/ VA

ശ śa /ʃa/ SHA soft sha (sha)

ഷ ṣa /ʂa/ SSA sha (hard sha)

സ sa /sa/ SA

ഹ ha /ɦa/ HA

ള ḷa /ɭa/ LLA hard la

ഴ ḻa /ɻa/ LLLA/ṛ /ɽ/ zha(retroflexed ra)

റ ṟa, ṯa /ra, ta/ RRA (hard ra)

ഩ ṉa /na/ NNNA

ഺ ṯa /ta/ TTTA

• ^A Dental nasal or alveolar nasal, depending on the word.
• ^B Alveolar tap.
• ^C The tip of the tongue almost touches the teeth ([l̪]), forward than the English l.
• ^D [ʋʷ].
• ^E [ʃʷ].
• ^F Voiceless apico-palatal approximant [ʂ̺̠˕].
• ^G Dental sibilant fricative [s̪].
• ^H Apico-palatal [ɭ̺̠].
• ^I This glyph is a ligature (KA + VIRAMA + SSA), but is sometimes listed as a basic unit. Often pronounced /ʈ͡ʂa/.
• ^J Voiced apico-palatal approximant [ʐ̺̠˕]. This consonant is usually described as /ɻ/, but also can be approximated by /ɹ/.
• ^K (1) Repetition of this letter (റ + റ) often represents a geminated voiceless alveolar plosive, /tːa/; (2) chillu-n + this letter (ൻ + റ) often represents /nda/; (3) otherwise alveolar trill (apical) /ra/. Optionally, (1) may be transliterated as ṯṯa instead of ṟṟa, (2) as nṯa (not nḏa) instead of nṟa.
• ^L Corresponds to Tamil ṉa ன. Used rarely in scholarly texts to represent the alveolar nasal, as opposed to the dental nasal. In ordinary texts both are represented by na ന.
• ^M Used rarely in scholarly texts to represent the voiceless alveolar plosive, as opposed to the voiceless dental plosive represented by ta ത. In ordinary texts this sound is represented by ṟa റ.

Chillus

See also: § Chillus in Unicode

A chillu, or a chillaksharam (ചില്ലക്ഷരം, cillakṣaram), is a special consonant letter that represents a pure consonant independently, without help of a virama. Unlike a consonant represented by an ordinary consonant letter, this consonant is never followed by an inherent vowel. Anusvara and visarga fit this definition but are not usually included. ISCII and Unicode 5.0 treat a chillu as a glyph variant of a normal (“base”) consonant letter. In Unicode 5.1 and later, however, chillu letters are treated as independent characters, encoded atomically.

There are at least six known chillu letters. Chillu-k is rare. The other five are quite common.

Chillu letters

Letter	Unicode name	Base	Remarks
ൺ	CHILLU NN	ṇa ണ
ൻ	CHILLU N	na ന
ർ	CHILLU RR	ra ര	Historically from ra, not from ṟa (RRA) റ.
ൽ	CHILLU L	la ല	Historically from ta ത.
ൾ	CHILLU LL	ḷa ള	Historically from ṭa ട
ൿ	CHILLU K	ka ക

Chandrakkala

As virama

Chandrakkala  ് (ചന്ദ്രക്കല, candrakkala) is a diacritic attached to a consonant letter to show that the consonant is not followed by an inherent vowel or any other vowel (for example, ക ka → ക് k). This kind of diacritic is common in Indic scripts, generically called virama in Sanskrit, or halant in Hindi.

Half-u

At the end of a word, the same symbol sometimes represents a very short vowel, known as “half-u”, or samvruthokaram (സംവൃതോകാരം, saṁvr̥tōkāram), or kuṯṯiyal ukaram (കുറ്റിയൽ ഉകരം). The exact pronunciation of this vowel varies from dialect to dialect, but it is approximately [ə] or [ɨ], and transliterated as ŭ (for example, ന na → ന് nŭ). Optionally, a vowel sign u is inserted, as in നു് (= ന +  ു +  ്). According to one author, this alternative form is historically more correct, though the simplified form without a vowel sign u is common nowadays. This means that the same spelling ന് may represent either n or nŭ depending on the context. Generally, it is nŭ at the end of a word, and n elsewhere; നു് always represents nŭ.

Ligatures

Consonant ligatures

Like in other Indic scripts, a virama is used in the Malayalam script to cancel—or “kill”—the inherent vowel of a consonant letter and represent a consonant without a vowel, so-called a “dead” consonant. For example,

1. ന is a consonant letter na,
2. ് is a virama; therefore,
3. ന്‌ (na + virama) represents a dead consonant n.

If this n ന്‌ is further followed by another consonant letter, for example, ma മ, the result may look like ന്‌മ, which represents nma as na + virama + ma. In this case, two elements n ന്‌ and ma മ are simply placed one by one, side by side. Alternatively, nma can be also written as a ligature ന്മ.

Generally, when a dead consonant letter C₁ and another consonant letter C₂ are conjoined, the result may be either:

1. A fully conjoined ligature of C₁+C₂;
2. Half-conjoined—
   • C₁-conjoining: a modified form (half form) of C₁ attached to the original form (full form) of C₂
   • C₂-conjoining: a modified form of C₂ attached to the full form of C₁; or
3. Non-ligated: full forms of C₁ and C₂ with a visible virama.

If the result is fully or half-conjoined, the (conceptual) virama which made C₁ dead becomes invisible, only logically existing in a character encoding scheme such as Unicode. If the result is non-ligated, a virama is visible, attached to C₁. The glyphs for nma has a visible virama if not ligated (ന്‌മ), but if ligated, the virama disappears (ന്മ). Usually the difference between those forms is superficial and both are semantically identical, just like the meaning of the English word palaeography does not change even if it is spelled palæography, with the ligature æ.

Common consonant ligatures

Several consonant-consonant ligatures are used commonly even in the new orthography.

Common ligatures

	kka	ṅka	ṅṅa	cca	ñca	ñña	ṭṭa	ṇṭa	ṇṇa	tta	nta	nna	ppa	mpa	mma
Non-ligated	ക്‌ക	ങ്‌ക	ങ്‌ങ	ച്‌ച	ഞ്‌ച	ഞ്‌ഞ	ട്‌ട	ണ്‌ട	ണ്‌ണ	ത്‌ത	ന്‌ത	ന്‌ന	പ്‌പ	മ്‌പ	മ്‌മ
Ligated	ക്ക	ങ്ക	ങ്ങ	ച്ച	ഞ്ച	ഞ്ഞ	ട്ട	ണ്ട	ണ്ണ	ത്ത	ന്ത	ന്ന	പ്പ	മ്പ	മ്മ

The ligature mpa മ്പ was historically derived from npa ന്‌പ. The ligatures cca, bba, yya, and vva are special in that a doubled consonant is denoted by a triangle sign below a consonant letter.

	cca	bba	yya	vva
Non-ligated	ച്‌ച	ബ്‌ബ	യ്‌യ	വ്‌വ
Ligated	ച്ച	ബ്ബ	യ്യ	വ്വ

Consonant + ya, va, la, ra

(1) The consonant letter ya is generally C₂-conjoining after a consonant in both orthographies. For example,

• k ക് + ya യ = kya ക്യ
• p പ് + ya യ = pya പ്യ

In kya ക്യ, a variant form of ya () is placed after the full form of ka ക, just like ki കി is written ka ക followed by the vowel sign i ി. In other words, the variant form of ya () used after a consonant letter can be considered as a diacritic. Since it is placed after the base character, it is sometimes referred to as a post-base form. An exception is yya യ്യ (see above).

(2) Similarly, va after a consonant takes a post-base form:

• k ക് + va വ = kva ക്വ
• p പ് + va വ = pva പ്വ

An exception is vva വ്വ (see above).

(3) The consonant letter la after a consonant traditionally takes a below-base form. These forms are used also in the new orthography, though some fonts do not support them.

• k ക് + la ല = kla ക്ല
• p പ് + la ല = pla പ്ല
• l ല് + la ല = lla ല്ല (Not )

(4) A consonant letter ra after a consonant usually takes a pre-base form in the reformed orthography, while this combination makes a fully conjoined ligature in the traditional orthography.

• k ക് + ra ര = kra ക്ര (Traditional: )
• p പ് + ra ര = pra പ്ര (Traditional: )

nṯa and ṯṯa

The ligature nṯa is written as n ന്‌ + ṟa റ and pronounced /nda/. The ligature ṯṯa is written as ṟ റ് + ṟa റ.

	nṯa	ṯṯa
Non-ligated	ന്‌റ	റ്‌റ
Ligated		റ്റ
Digraph	ൻറ	ററ

In those two ligatures, a small ṟa ‌റ is written below the first letter (chillu-n if it is a dead n). Alternatively, the letter ṟa is sometimes written to the right of the first letter, making a digraph (just like ωι used instead of ῳ in Greek). The spelling ൻറ is therefore read either nṟa (two separate letters) or nṯa (digraph) depending on the word. Similarly, ‌റ‌റ is read either ṟaṟa or ṯṯa.

Dot reph

In the traditional orthography, a dead consonant r before a consonant sometimes takes an above-base form, known as a dot reph, which looks like a short vertical line or a dot. Generally, a chillu-r is used instead of a dot reph in the reformed orthography.

• r ര് + ga ഗ = rga (Reformed: ർഗ)
• r ര് + ja ജ = rja (Reformed: ർജ)

Other symbols

Praslesham	ഽ	Corresponds to Devanagari avagraha, used when a Sanskrit phrase containing an avagraha is written in Malayalam script. The symbol indicates the elision of the word-initial vowel a after a word that ends in ā, ē, or ō, and is transliterated as an apostrophe (’), or sometimes as a colon + an apostrophe (:’). (Malayalam: പ്രശ്ലേഷം, praślēṣam ?)
Malayalam date mark	൹	Used in an abbreviation of a date.
Danda	।	Archaic punctuation marks used as full stops or for delimiting verses.
Double danda	॥

Malayalam numbers and fractions are written as follows. These are archaic and no more commonly used.

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	100	1000	¼	½	¾
൦	൧	൨	൩	൪	൫	൬	൭	൮	൯	൰	൱	൲	൳	൴	൵

Unicode

Malayalam script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.

Block

Main article: Malayalam (Unicode block)

The Unicode block for Malayalam is U+0D00–U+0D7F:

Malayalam Official Unicode Consortium code 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

ഩ

പ

ഫ

ബ

ഭ

മ

യ

U+0D3x

ര

റ

ല

ള

ഴ

വ

ശ

ഷ

സ

ഹ

ഺ

ഽ

ാ

ി

U+0D4x

ീ

ു

ൂ

ൃ

ൄ

െ

േ

ൈ

ൊ

ോ

ൌ

്

ൎ

U+0D5x

ൗ

ൟ

U+0D6x

ൠ

ൡ

ൢ

ൣ

൦

൧

൨

൩

൪

൫

൬

൭

൮

൯

U+0D7x

൰

൱

൲

൳

൴

൵

൹

ൺ

ൻ

ർ

ൽ

ൾ

ൿ

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 8.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Chillus in Unicode

For example, avan അവൻ (“he”) is written as a അ + va വ + chillu-n ൻ, where chillu-n represents the n sound without a vowel. In other Indic scripts, the same word would be possibly written as a + va + na + virama. However, in Malayalam script, that sequence represents a different word, avanŭ അവന്‌ (“to him”), and is not interchangeable with avan. This is because in modern Malayalam script, the sign for a virama also works as the sign for a vowel ŭ at the end of a word, and is not able to cleanly “kill” the inherent vowel in this case.

To differentiate a pure consonant (chillu) and a consonant with ŭ, zero-width joiner (ZWJ) and zero-width non-joiner (ZWNJ) were used before Unicode 5.1. However, this system was problematic. Among other things, glyph variants specified by ZWJ or ZWNJ are supposed to be non-semantic, whereas a chillu (expressed as letter + virama + ZWJ) and the same consonant followed by a ŭ (expressed as letter + virama + ZWNJ) are often semantically different. After a long debate, six chillus now have their own code points starting from Unicode 5.1, though applications should also be prepared to handle data in the representation specified in Unicode 5.0. This means, fonts should display chillus in both sequences; while an input method should output standard chillus.

The ligature nṯa is very common and supported by most Malayalam fonts in one way or another, but exactly how it should be encoded was not clear in Unicode 5.0 and earlier, and two incompatible implementations are currently in use. In Unicode 5.1 (2008), the sequence to represent it was explicitly redefined as chillu-n + virama + ṟa (ൻ്റ), but is not supported yet (as of 2011), by any popular operating systems, fonts or input methods.

See also

• Malayalam Braille
• Arabi Malayalam
• Suriyani Malayalam
• Coorgi–Cox alphabet
• Mulabhadra

References

• Burnell, Arthur Coke (1874). Elements of South-Indian Palæography from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. Trübner & Co.

External links

• Website including resources for learning Malayalam script
• Unicode Code Chart for Malayalam (PDF)
• A page about Malayalam script
• Video series - Learn Malayalam in 7 Days
• Website to help you read and write Malayalam alphabets