Malayalam alphabet
Origin
Malayalam first appeared in writing in the vazhappalli inscription which
dates from about 830 AD. In the early thirteenth century the Malayalam
script began to develop from a script known as vattezhuthu (round
writing), a descendant of the Brahmi script.
As a result of the difficulties of printing Malayalam, a simplified
or reformed version of the script was introduced during the 1970s and
1980s. The main change involved writing consonants and diacritics separately
rather than as complex characters. These changes are not applied
consistently applied so the modern script is often mixture of traditional
and simplified characteres
Malayalam is also regularly written with a version of the Arabic script
by Muslims in Singapore and Malaysia, and occasionally by Muslims in
Kerala.
Notable features
- This is a syllabic alphabet in which all consonants have an inherent
vowel. Diacritics, which can appear above, below, before or after
the consonant they belong to, are used to change the inherent vowel. - When they appear the the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written
as independent letters. - When certain consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols
are used which combine the essential parts of each letter.
Used to write:
Malayalam, a Dravidian language with about 35 million
speakers. It is spoken mainly in the south west of India, particularly in
Kerala, the Laccadive Islands and neighboring states, and also in Bahrain,
Fiji, Israel, Malaysia, Qatar, Singapore, UAE and the UK.
Malayalam alphabet
Vowels (svaram)
Vowel diacritics with ka
Note
When combined with vowel diacritics some consonants change shape.
This doesn’t happen in the simplified version of the script (in blue)
Consonants (vyanjanam)
A selection of conjunct consonants
Numerals
The simplified versions are shown in blue.
Sample text
Transliteration
Manuṣyarellāvarum
tulyāvakāśan̄n̄aḷōṭum antassōṭum
svātantryattōtumkūṭi janiccavarāṇ. Anyōnyam
bhrātrubāvattoṭe perumāṛuvānāṇa manuṣyannu
vivēkabuddhiyum manaṣṣākṣiyum siddhamāyirikkunnat.
A recording of this text by Vijay Prabhu
Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Tower of Babel in Malayalam |
Useful phrases in Malayalam
Links
Information Malayalam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/vipin/www/mal.html
http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org
Online Malayalam lessons
http://www.learn-malayalam.com
http://websitefor.info/learn/malayalam/
http://www.entemalayalam.org
http://www.kpmalayalam.com
http://malayalamteacher.com
Online Malayalam dictionaries
http://www.prokerala.com/general/dictionary/
http://www.mashithantu.com/malayalam-dictionary/nighantu.html
Free Malayalam fonts
http://www.keralax.com/font/font.htm
http://varamozhi.sourceforge.net
http://www.clickeralam.org/product.html
The Bible in Malayalam (Unicode)
http://216.156.35.218/Default.asp
Online Malayalam newspapers
http://www.mathrubhumi.com
http://www.malayalamanorama.com
Online Malayalam transliterator
http://www.writeka.com